Gemalto provides telecommunications, financial services, eGovernment identity and access management, plus IT security and mass transit systems for more than one billion people worldwide. In Singapore, the firm has some 1,000 employees, with 160 engineers engaged in research and development. MIS Asia editor Ross O. Storey, spoke to Ng Fook Seng, Gemalto’s Senior Vice-President, Security Business Asia, about the firm’s Asia plans.
What are the key reasons that Gemalto is expanding its Channel Partner Network to Asia?
As digital interactions continue to permeate our everyday lives, digital security plays a more important role than ever before around the world. Gemalto launched its Channel Partner Network to represent a community of partners that creates solutions and services based on secure platforms that make everyday digital interactions secure and easy. The network enables members to broaden their business opportunities through exchanging information and leveraging worldwide technical support from Gemalto for their local needs.
Since its successful implementation in Europe, the United States and Africa, there are currently more than 400 partners across the globe and growing.
Asia is a growing market with robust demand for wireless and digital security products and related applications. Therefore, by extending the success of Gemalto’s Channel Partner Network to Asia, we aim to provide our partners with adequate support, enabling them to develop solutions that effectively meet customers’ growing needs and demands.
How would you describe the current digital security environment in the Asia Pacific and has this been a factor in your decision to expand to Asia?
With the world’s dependency on digital technology and the greater convergence of technologies, there has been exponential growth in opportunities, particularly in Asia.
Digital security threats remain a key concern for businesses and individuals and Gemalto has continuously invested to develop secure and user-friendly solutions for our customers to help safeguard personal identities, online assets and protect transactions.
In the area of banking, as an result of the growth in online transaction in recent years, online fraud has become more significant than before. The banks are adopting digital technology to combat online fraud to increase consumers’ confidence in performing online transactions.
We can see that Government in Asia is actively driving implementation of the e-citizen services like e-identity card, e-driving license, e-passport and e-health card. We expect this to take place in counties like Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Australia.
Corporations in Asia are increasingly concerned about access entitlement and accountabilities. Solutions that address such needs combined with easier configuration for provisioning and de-provisioning rights will be in great demand. This is especially important when legislation on regulatory compliance tightens in the industries of government, finance and banking.
By expanding Gemalto’s Channel Partner Network to Asia, we hope to share our expertise to help our customers build business opportunities and leverage worldwide technical and business experience to cater to their specific needs.
What specific digital security challenges does Asia face compared to other regions? What are key areas of vulnerability here?
From phishing, identity-thefts to hacking, security threats are imminent as the frequency of digital transactions grows in our daily lives.
The level of digital security implementation in Asia varies from country to country. More advanced countries like Singapore, Japan, Korea and Australia would see the need and importance of implementing digital security in government, finance and banking and enterprise segment.
In general, the key challenge over here is common complacency about internet security. People’s perceptions, concerns and needs are directly influenced by cultural norms. As companies and consumers alike become more reliant on the digital world, they will need better security education to understand the severity of cyber fraud, and therefore take necessary steps to protect their data.
The global success rate of phishing attack is usually around three per cent. Taking Australia as an example, Australia has seven million online banking users, which means potentially 210,000 Australian bank accounts can be stolen. If each of them loses A$1,000 in the account, that will amount to a total of A$210 million.
With Gemalto’s products and solutions by their side, companies can leverage digital technology to its maximum potential and enhance end-consumer convenience.
How do you see the outlook for Gemalto’s business in SIM cards, smart cards, e-passports, in Asia in 2009 and which do you expect to be the highest growth areas?
I am definitely optimistic about the outlook for our business in these areas.
Asia is the hot region for phishing attacks. The probability that a website from a certain country has a phishing hit between 2004 and 2008 in some ASEAN members: Malaysia (1/78), Vietnam (1/81), Taiwan (1/95), Indonesia (1/99), Philippines (1/111).
With the market facing constant digital security threats, coupled with a fast growing adoption for online banking — more than 25 per cent of retail customers are banking online, and there is a +21 per cent annual average growth of active e-banking users — Gemalto is certainly ready to work hard and furious to combat security threats and help our customers stay ahead in the game.
IDC estimates the growth of the IAM (Identity and Access Management) Asia Pacific market, through 2012, is expected to reach 996 million, with an compound annual growth rate of 12.3 per cent. This is especially true as regulatory compliance demands such as SOX, PCI, HIPPA are increasing on a worldwide basis and to meet many of these criteria, companies must implement IAM architectures. The need for IAM protection will increase over the next several years as legislation tightens.
In Asia, there is a lack of awareness on the importance of IT security as well as shortage of IT security personnel and related resources. Especially emerging countries such as China and India are still premature in developing IT security measures. Gemalto hopes that, through the channel partner program, more Value added Resellers / System Integrators (VARs/Sis) will be enabled with the skillsets to provide digital security solutions, not only to the bigger enterprises, but the small and medium businesses, too.
What country-specific (Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Philippines, India) digital security issues stand out currently? Is there any current research that you can provide?
According to the Unisys Security Index, Hong Kong residents cite security fears among one of the highest concerns — particularly the fear of becoming victims of bank card fraud.
Australia is also becoming an increasingly attractive target for phishers. The success rate of phishing (Ed: phishing is the criminal process of attempting to acquire usernames, passwords and credit card details by pretending to be a trustworthy entity in electronic communication) is usually around three percent. With more than seven million online bankers, there could potentially be 210,000 people affected.
What do you see as the major challenges in the year to come, relating to Gemato’s business and operations?
In the Asia Pacific, digital security is driven from a business perspective rather than via regulatory laws or standards set in the industry. Moreover, the benefit of implementing digital security is not apparent in the short run. Hence, one of our major challenges would be to get our customers educated on the severity of cyber fraud, and the need to combat these threats.
What benefits will members of the new Asia Channel Partner Network receive and who (which industry sectors) do you expect to become members?
The Channel Partner Network is an ecosystem of carefully selected channel partners. Members of the new Asia Channel Partner Network will be provided with infrastructure support, training and sales benefits — ability to resell a broad product portfolio of off-the-shelf security solutions. In addition, partners can participate in lead generation programmes and benefit from additional sales and joint-marketing opportunities.
All necessary resources, including sales and marketing support tools, in-depth product information, training programs and schedules, and latest news on Gemalto solutions will be exclusively available to channel partners.
More importantly, the Channel Partner Network will enable partners to broaden their business opportunities through exchanging information while leveraging on Gemalto’s worldwide technical support.
We are confident that our customers from different industry sectors will find it beneficial to be part of this global network.
What sort of success stories can you tell relating to the outcomes for the Channel Partner networks in Europe, the United States and Africa?
The US channel partner program has made great strides towards building a continent-wide network of value-added resellers and system integration partners. The program is currently driven by two specialty distributors focused on the security market serving over 50 VARs across the US and Canada, and a select group of channel partners from regional VARs focused on their niche market to large national VARs.
In Europe, the channel partner program has delivered 1 million electronic student cards that act as an identity credential in Polish universities. Gemalto provided the cards to OPTeam, a local Gemalto Value Added Reseller, who supplied the personalization solution for universities to issue cards directly to students.
This was a national rollout of the unique multi-application e-student card that:
– verifies students’ identity
– grants access to university premises including libraries, dormitories and sport facilities
– can be used as an e-ticket for public transportation in major Polish cities
– can be used as a means to pay for parking spaces in the city center
– entitles bearers of the card to student discounts
– and provides additional features like e-purse and digital signature, which are being implemented progressively
We want to replicate these success stories in Asia with our partners and ultimately, to bring increased freedom, convenience and security in people’s everyday life.
Can you further explain Gemalto’s involvement in ‘mass transit for more than one billion people worldwide’?
Gemalto’s activities range from the development of software applications through the design and production of secure personal devices such as smart cards, SIMs, e-passports and tokens, to the deployment of managed services for our customers.
Currently, more than a billion people worldwide use our products and services for telecommunications, financial services, e-government, identity and access management, multimedia content, digital rights management, IT security, mass transit and many other applications.
For how long has Gemalto’s Singapore facility been operating and what is the major focus of their work?
The Gemalto Singapore facility first established its presence 19 years back and has been an important base for Gemalto in Asia, offering employment to more than 1,000 staff in production, research and development, as well as sales and marketing functions.
Operating from a 21,500 sqm facility at Ayer Rajah Crescent, Gemalto produces a wide range of security products including microelectronics, chip cards and over-the-air servers. In addition, we also develop secure operating systems and applications for the telecommunications, banking & finance, transportation and government sectors around the world.
In 2007, our local facility produced about 750 million SIM modules and shipped more than 1.2 billion intelligent devices.
