MANILA, Philippines – Although cybercrime is growing in frequency and sophistication, the availability of sufficiently skilled industry professionals is falling behind. In fact, according to ISACA, a non-profit information security advocacy group, there will be a 2 million global shortage of cybersecurity experts by 2019.
In response, Trend Micro, Inc., the global leader in cybersecurity, brought to Manila renowned industry experts for the first DECODE Security Conference in Manila. The event aims to keep local information technology (IT) professionals abreast of the threat landscape, industry trends and new technologies
The conference, held in the Bonifacio Global City on November 29, featured industry keynotes from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); SRMS and Associates Pte. Ltd. and Amazon Web Services.
In the opening keynote, Trend Micro Asia Pacific & Middle East Regional Head Cherif Djerboua illustrated the extent of cyber threats globally.
In the first half of 2017, the biggest security threats involved malware infections due to insecure systems, particularly those with unpatched vulnerabilities.
The same timeframe also saw malicious and fake applications take advantage of popular titles to trick users; hacking toolkits used in various cyber criminal infection campaigns; and online banking malware targeting user credentials.
“Hackers are learning about us as individuals, our corporations and governments; and they are adopting and changing their tactics and leveraging different techniques,” Mr. Djerboua noted.
“We really need to consider a completely different approach. We need to have partnerships between governments and security companies, which is what we’re doing at Trend Micro, in terms of training and knowledge sharing.”
Working with industry experts for a safer digital world
FBI Cyber Assistant Legal Attaché Joshua Farlow cited the 16 critical infrastructure sectors identified in the National Infrastructure Protection Plan of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Cyber attacks against critical infrastructures, which includes dams, emergency services and transportation systems are expected to create a huge impact in the U.S. as well as other countries.
The Internet of Things (IoT) has opened a bigger ground for cybercrimes, with the number of internet-connected devices projected to increase to 20-50 billion by 2020 from last year’s 5 billion.
“Once IoT devices are compromised, criminals or nation-state actors can use those devices to facilitate attacks on other networks, steal personal information, and leverage compromised devices for DDOS attacks,” Mr. Farlow said.
To mitigate the risks, SRMS and Associates Managing Director Andreas Gehrmann noted that enterprises need to implement effective risk management and have a clear understanding of the general principles of protection of Personally Identifiable Information (PII).
Mr. Gehrmann presented, among others, the new European General Data Protection Regulation that sets a new benchmark for regional and national Personal Data Protection Acts effective May 2018.
Jon Austin, Principal Solutions Architect for Amazon Web Services, discussed how AWS Cloud infrastructure has been architected to be one of the most flexible and secure cloud computing environments available today. He explained how the collaboration between AWS and Trend Micro provides protection for the infrastructure, applications, and content that customers put in the cloud.
DECODE also featured technical briefings on artificial intelligence and machine learning as well as cloud and data center security.
Through presentations by renowned industry experts and hands-on trainings, the conference aims to “decode” to local technology professionals up-to-date information about the threat landscape, industry trends and new technologies.
“In turn, we want to empower the IT professionals to secure the digital infrastructures of their organizations, as well as to inspire them to embark on a continuous learning journey,” Trend Micro Director for Technology Marketing Myla Pilao said.
“As they face technological innovations, market forces and the constantly evolving threat landscape, IT and cybersecurity professionals must be equipped to transform the perceived weakest links in their organizations into their strongest co-defenders.”
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ABOUT TREND MICRO
Founded in 1988, Trend Micro initially developed antivirus software. Over the last three decades, the company has become a market leader in hybrid cloud security, network defense, small business security, and endpoint security.
Trend Micro has the most advanced threat intelligence network in the world – Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Network™, which is continually enhanced by big data analytics and machine learning, and bolstered by hundreds of Trend Micro security experts.
The company also offers products for homes and businesses. Trend Micro XGen™ security, in particular, provides a cross-generational blend of threat defense techniques against a full range of threats for data centers, cloud environments, networks, and endpoints.
XGen™ features high-fidelity machine learning to secure the gateway and endpoint data and applications, and protects physical, virtual, and cloud workloads. With capabilities like web/URL filtering, behavioral analysis, and custom sandboxing, the product protects against today’s purpose-built threats that bypass traditional controls, exploit known, unknown, or undisclosed vulnerabilities, and either steal or encrypt personally identifiable data.
Smart, optimized, and connected, XGen™ powers Trend Micro’s suite of security solutions: Hybrid Cloud Security, User Protection and Network Defense.