Alarming rise in cyber threats brings global cybersecurity conference to the Philippines

The Philippines has seen a 48% increase in cyberattacks in Q2 2016 over the previous quarter, according to global cloud security leader Trend Micro. Based on data provided by Trend Micro’s Smart Protection Network, which detects and blocks malware, spam emails, and malicious web addresses or URLs, this trend is consistent with the 18% growth in the APAC region.

Trend Micro also revealed that in the Philippines, banking and finance organizations are the most affected by these threats, followed by technology, manufacturing, and transportation.

Malware is the top threat affecting users and organizations in the country last quarter. “Malware infections affect all types of industry regardless of size, and are capable of gathering user names and passwords, such as online banking and File Transfer Protocol (FTP) credentials,” said Myla Pilao, Trend Micro Philippines marketing director.

Apart from information-stealing threats, Trend Micro revealed that organizations worldwide were experiencing a rise in business email compromise (BEC) and targeted attacks. BECs are sophisticated scams carried out through business emails, while targeted cyber-attacks are aimed specifically at a company, individual, or software.

“Local businesses are also still susceptible to old-school threats like file-infecting viruses and worms that spread through removable drives,” noted Pilao.

The increasing cybersecurity risks have prompted Trend Micro to host CLOUDSEC, the world’s leading internet security conference, in the Philippines for the first time on August 16. First held in 2011, CLOUDSEC gathers together industry leaders, government, NGOs, professional associations, technology vendors, and internet security professionals against threats and attacks to cybersecurity. CLOUDSEC Philippines will be the third stop for the conference as it moves through China, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Australia, United Kingdom, and Korea this year.

The theme for CLOUDSEC 2016 is TAKE CONTROL, urging organizations to empower their people to stand against these cyber-threats and attacks, and discover that the right defense strategy starts within. Trend Micro senior executives and other global security experts will share their perspectives and insights on how businesses can “take control” in safeguarding their systems and processes, as well as empower their people.

Among the keynote speakers at the conference are Trend Micro CTO Raimund Genes, who will examine organizational challenges of information security and risk management. Cognitio Corporation founding partner and former Central Intelligence Agency CTO Bob Flores will discuss how top management can prepare against cybersecurity risks. Manuel Joey Regala, President of the Information Security Officers Group (ISOG), an organization comprised of security leaders of the different financial institutions in the Philippines, will share insights on the state of cybersecurity in the banking industry.

CLOUDSEC will also feature presentations on critical topics such as virtualization of security innovations, forensics readiness, the enterprise cloud and its security implications, and data center management.

“It’s very timely that we bring this awareness to the growing IT industry in the Philippines as business growth is accompanied by growth of security risks,” said Ian Felipe, Trend Micro Philippines country director.

“To best mitigate the risks brought upon by these threats, organizations need protection across their environments. A layered security approach is recommended, protecting critical information stored on servers, wherever they may be. Network protection is also needed to detect and block threats hitting the data center and user environments. And finally, they need to protect user activities anywhere on any device,” Pilao added.

Trend Micro offers these layers of security protection through products like Deep Discovery, Deep Security, and Smart Protection Suites.