1. Telekom Malaysia: Keeping the Good
Data Inside with Safetica
Profile – Telekom Malaysia is the second largest telecommunications provider in South Asia
with an annual turnover of $5.5 billion.
Problem – Loose data handling processes resulted in stolen data, bribery, and manipulated
contracts.
Solution – Create a leak-proof office and data loss protection system supported by Safetica
software.
Benefits – Monitor and control access to sensitive documents without requiring costly hard-
ware.
Lost data costs money and reputation
Data loss was costly for Telekom Malaysia. The company, the second largest telecommunications
provider in South Asia with an annual turnover of $5.5 billion, discovered that its tender process
was undermined by stolen data.
An $85 million contract had been awarded to Alcatel-Lucent as the result of confidential information
from a bribed official. This was no one-off incident. The French IT company had admitted multiple
instances of this behavior and was fined $137 million by a United States court for its actions in
Malaysia and other countries.
The bribery incident led to substantial changes at Telekom Malaysia(TM). “Before the scandal hit,
they really had no data handling procedures,” points out Mitthiran Raman, founder of Safetica
distributor Iconic Innovations. “Their tender room was a long table with open files, laptops every-
where, no monitoring – even vendors could come in.”
Creating a leak-proof office
In response to government demands that TM improve data handling standards, the company re-
sponded with plans for the Telekom Malaysia Tender Evaluation Centre(TMTEC), a locked-down
office with the latest desktop and data security systems for processing confidential tenders.
The future location of TMTEC was a given: It would be sited on the 50th floor of the TM building in
Kuala Lumpur with a dedicated elevator, controlled access, and individually checked-in employees.

2. But the data control system was less clear. The tender called for a data loss prevention (DLP) solution
to be installed on nearly 90 employees’ computers, use of encrypted flash drives, and document
storage on a secure intranet.
Nimble approach to problem solving
TM invited its registered suppliers to compete in the tender and received bids from industry leaders
such as Symantec and IronKey. Safetica participated via its distributor Iconic Innovations and their
partner firm Privasia Technologies.
“We went through every clause and requirement in the RFP (Request For Proposal) and showed
them how Safetica really exceeded their requirements with its 360 degree DLP approach,” remem-
bers Mitthiran. “They didn’t know exactly what they wanted, so we thought ‘lets give them more
than just a secure thumbdrive’.”
Open communication between Safetica and Iconic Innovations during the bid preparation was criti-
cal, points out Jakub Mahdal, CEO of Safetica. “DLP systems are notoriously complex and we were
talking with Mitthiran at all hours. This allowed us to quickly answer questions before they could
become an issue.”
These fast response times and operational flexibility helped Iconic Innovations implement the project
despite delays due to changes in Project Timeline. “It was only after we were announced as the bid
winner that they finalized the network architecture and workflows,” adds Mitthiran. “It’s good to be
small and nimble.”
Safe data without expensive hardware
With Safetica, Iconic Innovations was able to beat back competitors offering expensive hardware
or a DLP add-on to an antivirus solution. The winning bid incorporated Safetica software with 86
flashdrives, one console in the TMTEC secretariat, and a management server and a database
server residing at an external TM data center 30 km away.

3. The new DLP solution has employees daily checking in at the TMTEC secretariat, with each receiv-
ing a computer and an encrypted flashdrive to use as their working space. At the close of the day,
the secretariat checks the hardware back in, uploads the documents to a secure server, and shreds
the data on the flashdrives ahead of the next day.
Safetica substantially lowered the cost of lost data for TMTEC. “It usually costs around $400 for
each secure thumbdrive, and with 86 of them – someone’s going to lose it. But with Safetica, any
ordinary USB flash drive can be encrypted. This was the real deal maker. Even in training, they lost
four of them,” remembers Mitthiran.
Moving up the learning curve
For both Iconic Innovations and Safetica Technologies, successfully implementing the DLP system
at the Telekom Malaysia Tender Evaluation Centre was proof that Safetica could compete against
established players.
“Telekom Malaysia knew they had a big need for data security before we even started,” says Mit-
thiran. “From our side, we learned to be bold in proposing new tender conditions to better meet
customer needs. We fell in love with the problem as we learned what could be done with Safetica
– and we did it.”
© Copyright 2012 Safetica Technologies s.r.o. All rights reserved. Safetica is a registered trademark of Safetica Technologies s.r.o. For more infor-
mation you can contact Safetica Technologies partners, whose list you can find on www.safetica.com.
Prague | Czech Republic | October 12, 2012