Acer unveils cybersecurity toolkit for small businesses

IMPERATIVE Cybersecurity is also a concern for MSMEs. —ACSI website

CEBU CITY—Amid the rise in digital technology, a Taiwanese technology firm has urged micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to be wary of cyberattacks that will compromise their operations.

Jason Chen, chair and CEO of Acer, says the company has launched its own cybersecurity and self-assessment toolkit specifically designed for MSMEs. It was developed by subsidiary Acer Cyber Security Inc. (ACSI).

“MSMEs are cornerstones of the development and stability of economies and have demonstrated resilience while the urgency of digital transformation has skyrocketed during the pandemic,” he says.

“While the Acer Group is helping build strong, secure and reliable smart cities, we hope to help MSMEs in each economy to enhance their ESG (environment, social and governance) efforts through ACSI’s cybersecurity self-assessment toolkit,” he adds.

The toolkit, he explains, is a software that MSMEs can easily download online as a first line of defense. The toolkit can assess and detect errors in configurations, weak account credentials, major security updates, suspicious behavior indicating intrusion and malicious software.

“As MSMEs usually have limited resources, the self-assessment toolkit can easily generate a report to help companies understand their cybersecurity risks, and then seek help from reliable local vendors or take corrective action through detailed instructions provided in the report,” it says.

The cybersecurity self-assessment toolkit can be downloaded at sat.acercsi.com/.

Chen says Acer is not just about computers. Instead, he says the company is now a brand of “computer science,” which includes cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, diagnostics and consultancy.

The Acer CEO attended the third Apec Business Advisory Council meeting last July 27 to July 30 in Cebu City, where ACSI introduced its cybersecurity self-assessment toolkit designed for MSMEs in Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) economies to help them quickly identify potential cyberthreats.

ACSI is a cybersecurity company that focuses on related technical services and consultancy. It provides a full range of prevention, monitoring and response services through its Security Operation Center to enhance the resilience of enterprise operations.

Chen guarantees privacy on the data that may be gathered in the diagnostic processes.

Founded in 1976, Acer is one of the world’s biggest technology companies with presence in more than 160 countries.

As it evolves with the industry and changing lifestyles, Acer says it’s focused on enabling a world where hardware, software and services will fuse with one another, creating ecosystems and opening up new possibilities for consumers and businesses alike.