Securemetric’s Security-as-a-Service due in 2020
In April last year, EITN introduced Securemetric, a PKI solutions provider that is based in Malaysia. Securemetric Technology Group is a ACE Market listed digital security technology driven company on that is well recognised as a pioneer player in South-East Asia with capabilities of producing security devices and solutions, in it’s own R&D centre and production facilities in Malaysia and China.
SecureMetric was set up with the vision of becoming a leading digital security provider in ASEAN with a clear focus in the area of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and Authentication and Cryptography.
According to Securemetric’s CEO, Edward Law, Public Key Infrastructure or PKI solutions, is the authentication and authorisation technology that works in the background to allow use of chip-based passports, debit and credit cards, as well as secure logging in of online payment services, among others.
Due to the pervasive need to authenticate and authorise persons in different scenarios like above, demand for PKI has also increased, he observed. “In most of our day-to-day living, there is use of PKI without us knowing it.” For example, the security mechanism of our payment cards, use PKI solutions.
In fact, a nationwide PKI infrastructure, is a crucial foundation to have before implementing e-government initiatives, or digitalising services for a country’s citizens.
And since April 2018, Securemetric has moved forward in their efforts to build PKI infrastructures for countries in this region.
Edward shared, “It has been a hectic time for us since last April. We successfully listed onto Bursa Malaysia ACE Market last November. Besides that, our workforce has increased to more than 130 members, and we have expanded significantly both our R&D and sales team.
“We are still very committed to the vision of securing digital economy transformation for today, tomorrow, and beyond. Of course, this is with lots of new initiatives in the pipeline.”
Needless to say, launching an IPO is an important milestone which aligns with Securemetric’s future plans. Edward shared, “With the stock market funding platform in place, we are able to invest further to strengthen our innovation and business portfolio.
“It is also our intention to leverage the fund we raised through IPO to diversify our business into the Security As A Service space,” he said adding that after officially launching the service as CENTGATE cloud in January 2020, there would be other exciting cloud services to follow.
The journey so far
Helping clients address gaps in their risk management has contributed to part of Securemetric’s activities the past year.
“We have been intensively helping them address gaps in implementation of Bank Negara’s Risk Management in Technology (RMIT), with key focus on areas of Securing Applications, Digital Identities, and Online Transactions. “
Research and development has also picked up, and this contributes to expanding Securemetric’s capabilities in addressing more PKI use cases. It isn’t just governments and financial institutions that seek Securemetric’s solutions, but use cases like Internet of Things and Industry Revolution 4.0, also require the solutions that Securemetric has to offer.
Edward shared, “In the area of Authentication, we are focused upon Fast Identity Online 2.0 (FIDO2) and completed our FIDO2 certification last month.
“We are so proud to be the first company from Southeast Asia to complete this certification.”
The future
Besides authentication, another area which could be said is Edward’s passion, is mobile technologies.
“Yes, the mobile is now, and mobile will be the future,” he said while also calling out that as businesses leverage more and more mobile technologies, hackers are taking advantage of our dependence upon the mobile device.
“To make the situation worse, we are expecting substantial attention from the industry when a new Android vulnerability called “Strandhogg” became public in early December.
“Such a weakness on the un-rooted Android OS can easily be used by hackers to bypass user permission and eventually launch all sorts of harmful malware without the user even noticing it.
Edward also opined that we need to carefully protect our mobile applications to ensure they can still execute safely in such an unsafe environment, such as our mobile phones which can be so easily compromised.
He said, “SecureMetric’s SecureMobileShieldX with its Runtime Application Self Protect is the answer to address such an issue.”
Collaborations
The PKI and authentication specialist realises that there has to be more awareness about the vulnerabilities that exist in the industry, and the solutions that can address them.
“We always work closely with CyberSecurity Malaysia as their CyberSecurity Malaysia Collaboration Partner, and recently we have started exploring potential collaborations on overseas opportunities, as well,” said Edward.
Besides this, Securemetric works with CyberSecurity Malaysia , in areas like being certified, as well as creating more market awareness for PKI and authentication technologies.
Edward concluded, “I firmly believe that with CyberSecurity Malaysia’s continuous support, Malaysia undoubtedly will be able to become the professional cybersecurity hub in this region.
“Let us work together to make this day happen.”