Trend Micro lays emphasis on cyber resilience at GITEX 2018

Trend Micro, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions is stressing the importance of cybersecurity for digital transformation at GITEX 2018 taking place at the Dubai World Trade Center from 14 to 18 October, 2018.

Leveraging its Smart Protection Network™ (SPN), the company found that the MENA region
continued to be hit by malware and vulnerabilities. SPN is a global network of
threat intelligence sensors with continually updated email, web, and file
reputation databases in the cloud.

Globally, SPN has 250 million sensors, processing more than three trillion threat queries and blocking 65 billion threats on a yearly basis. SPN blocked 12% more threats in August than in July across the world.

Email Threats

In the MENA region, SPN blocked more than 591,000 malware attempts in August
alone. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) was hit the hardest, with 206,056
attempts detected, followed by Saudi Arabia (192,787). Email threats are
prevalent too, with almost 20 million blocked. Saudi Arabia (more than 8.5
million) and North Africa (more than 7.4 million) bore the brunt of it. The
region also suffered from 375,861 mobile threats. Egypt ranked number one with
87,151 mobile threats detected and blocked, followed by the UAE (79,532).

“At Trend Micro, we have one of the industry’s best research teams and intelligence
databases. As a result, our solutions and technologies are continuously updated
with the singular objective of protecting our customers better.”

Dr. Moataz Bin Ali, Vice President, Middle East and North Africa, Trend Micro.

Globally, Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative (ZDI), the world’s largest vendor-agnostic bug bounty program, discovered a total of 105 vulnerabilities in August, a significant drop from 273 in July. However, the vulnerabilities found in Microsoft software more than doubled in August, from 7 to 16.

Adobe vulnerabilities declined sharply from 68 in July to only four in August. Thirty-two SCADA vulnerabilities were found in August – a big jump from only one in July. Good news is no zero-day vulnerability was uncovered in the same
month.

Trend Micro’s ZDI employs more than 3,000 researchers worldwide, who are devoted to
discovering and responsibly disclosing zero-day vulnerabilities. Since its
inception in 2005, ZDI has found and published more than 4,500 vulnerabilities
and paid over $17 million to researchers. Vulnerability intelligence is shared
with Trend Micro’s network defense solutions, and as a result, our customers
are protected 72 days on average before an official patch becomes available in
the market.

Vulnerabilities in software and hardware can be attacked by exploit kits. In August, Trend
Micro blocked a total of 124 exploit kit attempts in MENA, 52 in North Africa
and 72 in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) excluding Qatar.

Globally, from January 2016 to August 2018, Trend Micro blocked more than 1.8 billion
ransomware attempts, with Asia and Middle East accounting for more than 44% of
all such attempts, followed by Americas (more than 32%), Europe (almost 15%),
Africa (more than 4%), and Oceania (more than 1%).

“At Trend Micro, we have one of the industry’s best research teams and intelligence
databases. As a result, our solutions and technologies are continuously updated
with the singular objective of protecting our customers better”, commented Dr.
Moataz Bin Ali, Vice President, Middle East and North Africa, Trend Micro.

As the region continues its massive digital transformation, businesses are
inevitably exposed to growing threats, vulnerabilities, and data breaches.

Digital transformation cannot be pursued at the expense of cybersecurity. “At
GITEX, we want to show the region how Trend Micro can help secure the digital
journey any business has embarked on, and provide the visibility needed in
managing an increasingly complex IT environment,” said Dr. Ali.