RSA secures win at Malaysia International Business Awards

The company won in the Cyber Security category for its RSA Academic Alliance Programme.

RSA snagged the award under the Cyber Security Solutions category at the inaugural Malaysia International Business Awards, presented by Singapore Business Review.

The awards event honours the most outstanding projects and innovative best practices amongst international companies in Malaysia, following the recent success in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Nonprofit Internet Society estimated a whopping US$45 billion in losses for businesses around the globe due to cyber incidents in 2018.

However, one of the main challenges in cyber security is that of manpower, with a Frost & Sullivan report stating that the global cyber security workforce will have more than 1.5 million unfilled positions by 2020.

Responding to the need of more experts in this area, RSA tied up with Singapore’s leading institutes in 2014 to address the cyber security skills gap, forming the RSA Academic Alliance Programme.

“You can buy the technology, you can develop the processes, but you can’t find the people to run it. There's a need for more students who are well trained with the right level of exposure that can be effective Day 1 when they move into the customer security operations centre,” said Edward Lim, Senior Director, Southeast Asia and Greater China Region at RSA.

First to partner with RSA is Singapore’s Temasek Polytechnic, creating a joint security operations centre (SOC) on campus, where students get hands-on experience in an operational environment equipped with advanced technologies in IT security and analytics.

Republic Polytechnic, Singapore Institute of Technology, Ngee Ann Polytechnic also embarked on the RSA Academic Alliance Programme with curriculums focusing on cybersecurity, network forensics, risk management.

Charles Lim, Senior Director, Southeast Asia at RSA, explained that the programme helps plug the skill set gaps that the industry is seeing. “It's not just purely theory. It's not just purely academic in nature,” he explained, adding that 95% of students get hired within six months.

Early this year, two more institutions in Malaysia joined the RSA Academic Alliance Programme to meet the significant talent shortage and are aligned with the country's Smart Cities initiative.
Sunway University set up a Security Operations Center Lab (SOC Lab) in collaboration with RSA, where students can learn how to use advanced platforms and tools, as well as the best practices to counter real incidents and scenarios of cybersecurity threats.

Inspired by other Singapore counterparts in the RSA Academic Alliance Programme, the Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT) inked a memorandum of understanding with RSA to establish Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and bolster the cybersecurity curriculum and lab facilities before the end of this year.

RSA said that plans are underway and the expected roll out of the course will be in 2020.

The Malaysia International Business Awards, presented by Singapore Business Review, was held on 3 December 2019 at the Shangri-La Hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

This year’s nominations were judged by an outstanding panel that includes Yee Wing Peng, Malaysia Managing Partner and SEA Chinese Services Group Leader at Deloitte; Esther Yap, Partner, Audit at Mazars; Dato’ Robert Teo, Chairman at RSM Malaysia; Dr T Y Teoh, Country Managing Partner at ShineWing TY Teoh; Chan Siew Mei, Partner and Head of Advisory at KPMG; and Andrew Heng, Group Managing Partner at Baker Tilly Malaysia.

If you would like to join the 2020 awards and be acclaimed for your company’s exceptional technology innovations, please email Jannie Beduya at [email protected]