The Busiest Week of Sep 2012 - budget 2013, PIKOM leadership summit, underwater imagery, Secure Web Gateway Virtual Appliance, Nexus 7

1. Budget 2013

Full text from TheStar.

1.1) Symantec's Take (By Alex Ong (王和伟), Country Director, Symantec Malaysia)

Expanding the Reach and Growth of Entrepreneurs and SMEs - the grant for women entrepreneur to promote their business online, the New Entrepreneur Foundation (NEF)’s assistance in providing training and guidance programmes for the young ICT entrepreneur and the Bumiputera Financing Fund for Bumiputera SMEs.

Symantec welcomes the allocation of RM30 million to drive the implementation of the recently unveiled SME Masterplan, which sets high targets for Malaysian SMEs. The allocation which involves the implementation of the 32 initiatives, including six High Impact Programmes, will certainly accelerate the growth of SMEs through innovation and productivity with strategic investments. This allocation goes hand-in-hand with the significant RM 1 billion SME Development Scheme under the management of the SME Bank. These are timely initiatives to grow Malaysian SMEs and ensure that they are anchored and will stay resilient even in challenging economic times.

In addition, Symantec commends the government’s initiative for Perbadanan Nasional Berhad (PNS) to introduce the Business In Transformation programme to support efforts to modernize the operation of hawkers and small businesses to higher standards and competitiveness. Symantec believes that the guidance and advisory services in this programme which includes online business and mobile shops, together with the grant for women entrepreneur to promote their business online will greatly expand the reach of small businesses in Malaysia and spur them to go global through the Internet.

While the online business brings about great advantages such as low operating costs and increased market reach, the increasing cyber threats that businesses will face on the Internet should be taken seriously.

Symantec’s June 2012 Intelligence Report had shown that cybercriminals are indeed shifting their targets to smaller businesses as they tend to be more vulnerable due to a lack of resources.

Strengthening Human Development to Meet Industry Demand

The Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 is expected to drive the changes needed to transform Malaysia’s workforce by producing fresh and capable talent that can meet the challenges of a globalised and knowledge-based economy.

In line with that, Symantec also welcomes the allocation of RM440 million to the Skills Development Fund Corporation (PTPK) for training loans, the additional funding of RM366 million for upgrading and purchase of training equipment for Industrial Training Institutes and National Youth Skills Institute (IKBN), and the continuation of the 1Malaysia Training Scheme Programme until 2016.

No investment in Addressing Cybercrime

While the Government has introduced measures to reduce crime rate and has allocated a total of RM591 million for the year 2013 in four key areas, cybercrime has not been taken into consideration in the four key areas. With rising cybercrime globally at 81 percent increase in malicious cyber attacks in 2011, and the cost of consumer cybercrime at US$110 billion globally, this is a key area that needs to be looked into.

2.) PIKOM's NIM (National ICT Month) 2012 Conclusion

Industry leaders will be sharing insights and views on innovation and pertinent ICT related topics at a 2-day Leadership Summit 2012 which will be launched by the Honorable Deputy Minister of Science, Technology & Innovation. YB Datuk Haji Fadillah Bin Haji Yusof, on 27th September 2012 in Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur.

About 300 industry leaders from the ICT, finance, telecommunications and the Government sector are anticipated to be participating in the summit that is jointly organized by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) and PIKOM, the National ICT Association of Malaysia. This year’s Leadership Summit carries the theme “Innovation for Digital Opportunity - The Power of Mobile Social Commerce”.

The 2-day summit will feature several prominent speakers such as Datuk Badlisham Ghazali, CEO of Multimedia Development Corporation (MDEC) and Mr. Woon Tai Hai, PIKOM Chairman and Executive Director, KPMG Management and Risk Consulting Sdn Bhd. International speakers include Chris Whitney of HP and Jon Krause the Executive Partner of Gartner Executive Programs.

The launch of Strategic Review 2012 / 2013 - Left : En. Shaifubahrim Saleh, Pikom President, Datuk Badlisham Ghazali, CEO,MDeC, Dr Amiruddin Abdul Wahab, Undersecretary, DICT, MOSTI, YB Datuk Haji Fadilah Bin Haji Yusof, Deputy Minister of MOSTI, Woon Tai Hai, PIKOM Chairman.

During the two-day summit, the renowned speakers will share insightful trends and their experiences on the Power of Mobile Social Commerce. Our “not to be missed” flagship strategic research report on the ICT industry in Malaysia, the ICT Strategic Review 2012 / 2013 will also be the main highlight during the summit, whereby all participants will receive a complimentary copy of this report. This PIKOM annual strategic publication features rich contents such as “Disruptive Innovation the Way Forward for High Value Adding Economy”, “Embracing the Consumerisation of IT to Enable Workplace Transformation”, “Green IT, Smart Business” and others.

The topics that will be featured during the 2-day summit include “Digital Malaysia – Transforming the ICT Industry”, “Broadband Is Changing the Way We Do Business”, “Embracing Mobility and Social Media to Power Your Business”. Other more eye-catching but highly relevant hot topics will be, how to monetize the mobile apps and some creative ways to go e-commerce swiftly that is low-cost and hassle-free in Malaysia. We at PIKOM certainly look forward to another productive summit for 2012.

The NIM 2012 was started off early of the month which PIKOM World Cyber Games (WCG) 2012 was held for 3 days.

3.) Blue Coat Introduces Secure Web Gateway Virtual Appliance for Small Branch Offices

Blue Coat Systems, Inc., a market leader in Web security and WAN optimization, introduced its Secure Web Gateway Virtual Appliance for small branch offices.

The new Virtual Appliance extends the same depth of protection and control delivered by the Blue Coat® ProxySG® appliances to small branch office locations with limited space and IT resources. The new Virtual Appliance complements Blue Coat’s existing ProxySG appliances and Cloud Service, providing customers with the flexibility to choose the deployment model that best meets their unique security requirements on a location-by-location basis.

Like Blue Coat’s ProxySG appliances and Cloud Service, the Secure Web Gateway Virtual Appliance is backed by the WebPulse™ Collaborative Defense. WebPulse unites 75 million users in a common defense against Web-based threats and other malicious activities. By tracking more than 500 malnets (malware networks), WebPulse provides the industry’s only Negative Day Defense to block attacks before they launch.

The Blue Coat Secure Web Gateway Virtual Appliance also delivers the same unmatched policy controls used by enterprises on the ProxySG appliances. The robust policy framework allows businesses to set advanced policies based on more than 100 different parameters to protect their users, data and networks. Additionally, the Blue Coat Secure Web Gateway Virtual Appliance provides the most comprehensive set of Web, Mobile and Mobile Web Application Controls that give businesses control over the applications and operations running on their networks.

It will be part of the Blue Coat Unified Security solution - Unified Security solution is the only one in the industry that uses the same policy and protection framework across all deployment models, ensuring seamless threat protection and control for all users, regardless of location.

The Blue Coat Secure Web Gateway Virtual Appliance will be available in November.

4.) First Underwater Imagery in Google Maps

In its quest to build the most comprehensive, accurate and usable map of the world, Google added the very first underwater panoramic images to Google Maps. With these vibrant and stunning snapshots of the underwater world you can “swim” among colorful coral reefs and get up close with its inhabitants. With this underwater imagery, you don’t have to be a scuba diver—or even know how to swim—to explore and experience six of the world’s most incredible underwater spots, including reefs in Australia, the Philippines, and Hawaii. Now, anyone can become the next digital Jacques Cousteau!

At the Great Barrier Reef, a UNESCO world heritage site, you can find a sea turtle swimming among a school of fish, follow a manta ray through the ocean and experience the reef at sunset. You can also find out much more about this reef via the World Wonders Project, a website that brings modern and ancient world heritage sites online.

At Apo Island, a volcanic island in the Philippines, you can swim through a marine reserve where you can see impressive hard coral structures. And halfway across the Pacific, in Hawaii, you can join snorkelers in Hanauma Bay and drift over the vast coral reef in the Molokini Crater.

The Catlin Seaview Survey, a major scientific study of the world’s reefs, used a specially designed underwater camera, the SVII, to capture this amazing imagery. We are partnering with The Catlin Seaview Survey to make this imagery available through the Street View feature of Google Maps. Together, we’re excited to make these underwater locations accessible to the millions of people that use already using Google Maps everyday.

Explore more imagery from around the world by visiting maps.google.com/streetview.

5.) Nexus 7 Tablet was launched in Malaysia - first in SEA

ASUS announced Google Nexus 7 in Malaysia, the first country to launch this Google's Nexus line of devices and the lead device for Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

Nexus 7 combines the premium hardware designed by ASUS with the latest version of Android and all of the entertaintment from Google Play.

"Nexus 7 is the world's first 7-inch quad-core tablet with Jelly Bean which delivers the best of the Google experience in a slim, portable package that fits perfectly in the hand." said George Su, Business Development Manager for ASUS.

The recommended retail price is RM 999 for 16 GB model.

Comments

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