BANGALORE, INDIA: Day-by-day, there is an increased dependency on the online world. With more and more people making use of the Internet, the cyber predators are becoming smarter and uglier - more so in these times of recession. Given this situation, SMBs and home users are more vulnerable to virus attacks while using the Internet, and it has become imperative to secure their PCs and mobile devices connecting the net.

In an interview with CIOL, Amit Nath, Country Head, Trend Micro, says that there is a need for educating the consumers, especially SMBs and SOHOs when it comes to security. “They need to rapidly understand that the old conventional approach to security is no longer valid since malware samples are increasing at a frantic pace. The pattern based approach will no longer work and they need to move to a cloud based architecture, which is a new paradigm shift. They need to imbibe  to this whole integrated approach.”  Excerpts:

CIOL: What is the awareness level on software security among SMBs and home users?

Amit Nath: Dependency on the digital world is increasing with each passing day. India is ranked as the fourth largest nation in terms of Internet usage. PC and mobile penetration using the Internet is bound to grow by leaps and bounds in the coming year. 

According to a report by AMI Partners, more and more SMBs feel the need for mobile workforce. While this is good news, the not so good news is that the underground cyber crime industry is said to be over $7 billion. 

Awareness level on software security amongst SMB and home and small office users is not high. Either they are ignorant or they feel their PC cannot be affected as they do no e-commerce. The users do not realize that any contact with the digital world can get their mobile device affected.

The user comes in contact with the digital world via the web, email or by receiving document files. It is imperative to have a software security that protects the user from all these three contacts at one time.

It is a lesser known fact but the truth is that cyber crime is finance motivated – let’s face it. Internet is where the money resides. An earlier study done by Trend Micro states that personal data from social networking sites were being sold for as less 89 pence. In 2009, we will see even greater increase in info-stealing malware, geared towards stealing login credentials, credit card information and more. 

CIOL: Tell us about Trend Micro's Enhanced Smart Protection Network? What are its unique features?

AN: With the introduction of the Trend Micro Smart Protection Network, a next-generation cloud-client content security infrastructure, Trend Micro can now stop threats before they reach users. Trend Micro’s in-the-cloud solutions are able to capture a wide range of threat intelligence from our worldwide customer base. Using our extensive global network of data centers (Japan, Taiwan, EMEA, US East Coast, US West Coast) and a combination of automated and manual systems, a real-time and continuous feedback loop is created that enhances security solutions for all customers. 

Trend Micro Smart Protection Network processes more than 50 million IP addresses and URLs daily, collects more than 250 million sample submissions, and handles more than five billion URL, email and file queries daily across our global network of five data centers to break 8 to 10 million infections everyday.

Through TrendLabs, our global network of threat research and product service and support centers, we offer round-the-clock coverage to Trend Micro customers around the world. 

CIOL: How can Trend Micro help Internet users not get scammed by viruses that disguise as credible sites?

AN: Cyber criminals inject malicious code into legitimate sites in order to capture more victims. The Trend Micro Smart Protection Network protects users in the following scenarios:

* If a link to a malicious site or a hacked legitimate site is sent by a cyber criminal to the user, the Email Reputation Technology will determine that the email is of malicious origin and will then block the offending email.

If a user accesses a malicious site or a hacked legitimate site by typing the URL in the address bar or via bookmark or via other sites, Web Reputation Technology will then block access to the malicious site. Trend Micro Web Reputation Service also provides the user with the URL rating Trend Micro gives on whether the said site is “good,” “bad,” or “not known to be bad.”  The rating “not known to be bad" does not mean that the site is actually good.

* Furthermore, File Reputation Technology protects users from the malicious files in case the offending URL is of indeterminate or unknown origin.

* TrendLabs analysis determines all related components of this attack, including dropped files, malicious IPs, downloaded files, etc., so that more users are proactively protected from any and all aspects of this attack.
 
Most security vendors today still see threats in terms of files. Smart Protection Network understands that attacks start long before a file is ever launched onto the system. In general, a majority of Web threats today arrive in any of these two ways: via a site pointing to another site  or via an email or instant message pointing to a site 

From the customer's point of view, what they will see is the URL rating we give. But what evidently works behind that simple solution is a host of complex stuff happening in-the-cloud. In Trend Micro, we have File, Email, and URL expertise and we correlate different information that links up every digital threat and not to miss out on anything.

CIOL: Reports suggest that there could be more phishing attacks and security breaches in 2009 due to recession? How can this be overcome?

AN: As I said earlier, 2009 will see an increase in various cyber crimes and more malicious threats. Cyber criminals will become much craftier in their social engineering skills to dupe gullible consumers. This will include more clever ploys landing consumer emails that solicits their ability to click on a link or open an attachment.

We also expect these to take the form of ploys that attempt to play on the consumer landscape of economically-themed saving coupons, bogus “work-at-home” schemes and other efforts to cash in on consumers desire to save money.

Trend Micro’s Smart Protection Network, which is a part of every Trend Micro product and service is truly astounding. Over 5 billion queries and 1.2 terabytes of data are processed every day. More than 1,000 Trend Micro threat experts keep watch over your enterprise, around the clock, from Data Centers in multiple locations around the globe. More than 1,000 Trend Micro threat experts keep watch over your enterprise, around the clock, from Data Centers in multiple locations around the globe.

CIOL: What is your business focus in 2009? 

AN: The last 20 years has seen us always re-defining the industry, right from the time when we launched our first server-based e-mail protection to the largest Web Reputation database and now the latest Smart Protection Network. We will continue to be strongly focused in understanding the secure content management landscape and the threats that impact our industry and customers and work towards solutions that will help towards moving to a world which is free to share/exchange digital information 

Trend Micro also continues to invest in pure partner ecosystems since we are a 100 percent channel focus company and all our steps In India will be in line with the same, we have a channel model where we evaluate partners on various parameters like competency, commitment, coverage, creditworthiness and credibility.

Trend Micro will continue to focus on recruiting more partners, working hand in hand to develop the same and will continue expansion in the top 32 cities in India during 2009.

On the product side, there will be a continuous push on new technology like Smart Protection Network for our customers and also concrete moves towards Data Leakages Solutions. We also continue to see adoption of software-as-a-service in various SMB organizations.

We will continue to focus heavily towards building a scalable and customer/partner friendly technical support model which looks after our rapidly expanding customer base.