Acer provides free cybersecurity self-assessment toolkit for MSMEs

Acer’s Chairman and CEO Jason Chen participated in the third APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) meeting in Cebu, Philippines held from July 27 to 30. During the event, Acer’s subsidiary, Acer Cyber Security Inc. (ACSI), introduced a cybersecurity self-assessment toolkit tailored for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in APEC member economies which aims to help them quickly identify potential cyber threats.

(From left) Sue Ong-Lim, General Manager, Acer Philippines; CY Huang, Technical Vice President Acer Cybersecurity Inc (ACSI); Jason Chen, Acer CEO and Chairman; Manuel Wong, Managing Director, Acer Philippines; and Diogenes Vasquez – General Manager, Highpoint Services Network (HSN) Philippines 

In an intimate media roundtable discussion, Chen emphasized the importance of MSMEs in the economic development and stability of countries, especially amid the digital transformation accelerated by the pandemic.

“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 efforts through ACSI’s cybersecurity self-assessment toolkit,” said Chen.

Acer Chairman and CEO Jason Chen 

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 (SOC) to enhance the resilience of enterprise operations.

CSI specializes in cybersecurity services and consultancy, providing prevention, monitoring, and response services through its Security Operation Center (SOC) to bolster the resilience of enterprise operations. The self-assessment toolkit was developed based on years of experience and can identify configuration errors, weak account credentials, security updates, suspicious behavior indicating intrusion, and malicious software.

Chen then highlighted the critical role of cybersecurity in maintaining a trusted business environment and ensuring uninterrupted business operations.

He revealed, “Our statistics show more than 50 percent – especially MSMEs – has been attacked in the past 12 months in APEC member countries. More than 60 percent of companies when they get attacked, will collapse. Very few of them already have defense, that’s why we feel it’s critical.”

“We feel passionate to provide what we have because we have been doing this already for more than 20 years. From Taiwan, we have expanded to Indonesia and Thailand for cybersecurity. Many focus on security operation, so this time the toolkit that we offer to MSMEs is for free download. We’re focusing on them because they are the least prepared. This will be their first-line defense,” he added.

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

The TravelMate Vero is a green PC that doesn’t sacrifice performance or features. Made from recycled materials for less harm and more earthy goodness, Acer uses 30 percent PCR plastic in its chassis and screen bezel and 50 percent on its keycaps and are pioneering a solution with full PCR integration into a laptop. 

Sustainability

Meanwhile, in the same discussion, Chen reiterated Acer’s commitment to sustainability for the planet, the business, and the people.

He mentioned, “At the heart of Acer’s efforts is a deep commitment to sustainability. By 2025, Acer aims to achieve 100 percent renewable energy as part of its Earth Mission (Earthion), encompassing sustainability in product design, packaging, production, logistics, recycling, and energy usage.”

Chen further explained that Acer’s statistics indicated they had already achieved approximately 44 percent of their energy consumption from green sources by the end of last year.

By adopting recycled plastic in the creation of Aspire Vero, Acer is demonstrating their commitment to reducing carbon emissions. 

“Our operation in more than 100 countries in the world, there are about 40 countries that are already 100 percent renewable energy and that includes the Philippines. So, the Philippines is leading the pack for Acer in using 100 percent renewable energy. We intend to push that further,” Chen enthused.

Committed to well-being

For Acer, sustainability extends beyond environmental protection and includes a focus on the overall well-being of people.

Chen addressed, “This year is the hottest temperature during the summer in human history. To prevent that from getting worse, we all have to take some actions. One of the major topics that was discussed in the ABAC is about sustainability, how we can control carbon emission. That’s what we are focusing on.”

“[When it comes to sustainability,] has the industry done enough? It’s not. It is a continuous effort. Yes we committed by 2035 to reach 100 percent renewable energy but that’s not all. We have another commitment that by 2050, we will achieve net-zero carbon emissions. That’s a much bigger commitment,” he continued.

“But how are we going to do that? We need to use recycled material or post-consumer recycled (PCR) to make our computer. We have to started to line up our products which are made of recycled materials. We are the first one, and we welcome other contenders in the industry to follow suit. We need to have more people use recycled materials than creating more plastic. It’s doable so why not?” he finally noted.