Unpreparedness for Disasters Persists for SMBs in Malaysia

Business Disruptions Result in Loss of Revenue and Productivity

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – June 6, 2012 – Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced the Malaysia findings of its 2012 SMB Disaster Preparedness Survey. The survey found small and medium businesses (SMBs) in Malaysia are highly exposed to the threat of disasters, but are still unprepared to weather the negative impacts of the disasters on their business. The factors that hinder the preparedness of SMBs result in losses which impact revenue and productivity when business disruptions occur.

The 2012 SMB Disaster Preparedness Survey was designed to find out how SMBs were impacted by recent disasters, how well they are prepared for future disasters, and the limiting factors for improved disaster preparedness. It is based on SMB respondents from 2,053 organisations in 30 countries globally, including 100 respondents from Malaysia.

“Organisations in Malaysia have experienced several disasters in the past year that have caused business disruptions which are unpredictable and will continue to happen due to natural causes, human errors or IT systems failures. SMBs cannot afford to risk losing important business data such as customer records, credit card details or personnel files,” said Nigel Tan, Symantec’s principal consultant for Asia South Region.

“Findings from Symantec’s survey show persistent trends in unpreparedness for disaster recovery for Malaysian SMBs. We recommend that SMBs take simple steps in planning to protect their information in the event of a disaster, which in turn will help them ensure that revenue and reputation are not lost through these unforeseen circumstances.”

Koh Ee Laine, senior technical consultant, Symantec Malaysia, added, “SMBs in Malaysia are growing increasingly competitive in the domestic and global markets, ensuring disaster recovery and business continuity will be key factors for staying ahead. Having a disaster preparedness plan is an important first step which should be driven by SMB owners and passed on to their employees.”

High Disaster Exposure, Low Preparedness
The survey found that Malaysian SMBs have high exposure to the threat of natural disasters with floods being the highest threat impacting two-thirds of SMBs in the last 12 months. Besides floods, the most frequent disasters experienced over the past 12 months include power outages, storms, and tsunamis. The disasters caused an average of 12 computer systems outages with an average of five hours downtime for each outage.

In spite of the high exposure to disasters, almost three quarters (73 percent) of respondents from Malaysia said they are unprepared for future disasters. The lack of basic practices illustrate this shortfall – only 14 percent of SMBs have a disaster recovery plan, and a large number (74 percent) back up their data less frequently than once a week.

Hindrances to Preparedness
Survey respondents in Malaysia attributed the lack of disaster preparedness to several factors – inadequate budget and lack of resources were cited most often at 40 percent, followed by a lack of interest from company management at 30 percent. In addition, 20 percent cited the lack of skills, and that it has never occurred to them to have a disaster preparedness plan.

Costs of Outages
The lack of disaster preparedness leads to outages that result in serious costs for SMBs in Malaysia including loss of data and productivity, loss of revenue, and the additional labour costs incurred to recover from disasters.

Nearly half (47 percent) reported losing data as a result of a disaster and 46 percent experienced a loss of productivity. The real cost impact is the loss of revenue reported by more than one-third (38 percent) of respondents, and more than a fifth reported damage to their brand or reputation.

Recommendations for SMBs
The survey found that only 14 percent of SMBs have a disaster recovery plan, Symantec recommends taking the following actions:

Start planning now: Start mapping out a disaster preparedness plan today. The plan should identify the critical resources in the SMB organization so they could be prioritized for protection in the preparedness plan.

Get SMB owners and employees involved: It is important that SMB owners take the lead in ensuring a disaster recovery and business continuity plan is in place. Educate employees on the process of recovery in cases of business disruption.

Protect information completely: Backup and recovery is a critical component of complete
information protection to keep SMBs’ desktops, servers and applications running smoothly in case of disruptions – whether floods, power outages, a computer virus or a system failure. In addition, SMBs need to make sure important files are saved not only on an external hard drive and/or company network, but in a safe, off-site location.

Review and test disaster preparedness: Regular review and testing of the disaster recovery plan is critical. Test the plan each time changes occur in the environment. Review and testing should be completed at least once a quarter to ensure SMBs meet their backup and recovery standards.

Symantec’s 2012 SMB Disaster Preparedness Survey
Research firm ReRez fielded this survey by telephone in February and March of 2012. They spoke with decision-makers at 2,053 organisations worldwide, each with between 5 and 250 employees. There were 100 respondents from Malaysia. Of the survey respondents, two-thirds were C-level and senior management; the others were IT representatives.