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30 minute interview
“Mobile threats have increased”
Oscar Chang discusses the emerging threat from phishing
and how security is important even for USB drives
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Oscar Chang
Executive Vice-President
Global Security Response
Trend Micro
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Trend Micro recently announced anti-virus solutions for
protecting USB smart drives. What opportunity do you see in secure USB
drives ?
USB drives are convenient portable storage devices with flexibility to store
multiple applications. But USB drives also carry the risk of transmitting viruses.
Take the case of a cybercafe user who downloads a virus-ridden application and
then goes back to his workplace and plugs the drive into his system. The virus
can infect his system and the network. In order to prevent this from happening
we have announced anti-virus protection for USB drives. I feel that the use
of USB drives will increase steadily in the years to come due to the ease and
convenience they offer. Anti-virus protection will be necessary for them.
You announced integrated anti-virus and anti-spam for data-centric
wireless mobile devices. How grave is this threat?
Mobile threats have increased dramatically in recent years. Mobile viruses have
been instrumental in affecting the battery life of mobile handsets, and there
are viruses which have locked dialling systems in handsets, making it impossible
for users to place calls. Many such viruses have spread through Bluetooth-enabled
devices. We recently announced Trend Micro Mobile Security (which is freely
downloadable from the Net) for the Microsoft Windows platform and the Symbian
Operating System. In March 2005 alone we had more than 50,000 downloads. When
the product becomes popular we have plans to set a price for it.
Is phishing a serious threat?
Phishing mail can mislead a customer into giving confidential information to
a hacker through e-mail, which a hacker, in turn, uses to withdraw money from
the victim’s account. Phishing is a great menace, and thousands of people
and organisations the world over have been victimised by phishing mail which
have been instrumental in doing a lot of financial damage. The aim of financial
organisations should be to educate their customers and users about the growing
menace of phishing. Organisations should work towards ensuring that their respective
Web sites are uniquely identifiable by consumers to ensure maximum security.
As security threats grow increasingly complex and blended,
customers are saying that standalone anti-virus solutions are not good enough.
Do you agree that integrated security solutions are the future?
Yes, we felt that going for an integrated approach to deal with complex security
threats always helps. Security is of the utmost importance at the gateway-level
as it is through the gateway that most threats enter a network. I strongly agree
with you that going in for different functionalities separately increases the
management complexities of an organisation. Hence, an integrated approach helps.
We have seen this integrated functionality being used mainly at the gateway-level
by many enterprises. We are offering an Internet Security Suite which has anti-virus,
anti-spam, URL filtering, anti-spyware and firewall capabilities.
 Trend
Micro’s TrendLabs in the Philippines forecasts IT security threats
and provides specialised technical support for Trend Micro’s customers.
The TrendLab is one of the company’s largest; it has similar centres
in the US, Japan, Taiwan and Germany. The lab carries out intensive research
for identifying emerging viruses that could threaten global IT systems.
It is equipped with a virus response centre that does a round-the-clock
monitoring of virus threats. In case there is a threat, the problem is solved
as per its difficulty level.
Says Steve Chang, Chairman of Trend Micro, “The centre in the Philippines
is very significant for us as it aims to curb any new virus threat. Gone
are the days when viruses took months to spread. Today, a virus can create
havoc across the world within a few minutes. We are working closely with
Cisco to counter these threats. Our anti-virus technology goes along with
their routers. The lab has also embarked on a journey to create public awareness
about security.”
TrendLabs is currently on a hiring spree. Last year, the headcount in the
lab was 370, which has now gone up to 792. Around 99 percent of the employees
are engineers, and the company has tied up with the top 10 universities
in the Philippines. It runs internship programmes and organises technology
forums to scout for the best engineering talent available there. The technical
support centre has nearly 25 Trend Micro products for individuals as well
as corporates.
— Abhinav Singh / Manila, Philippines
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Trend Micro recently acquired InterMute. How does the acquisition
benefit your anti-spyware offerings?
InterMute’s anti-spyware products were highly successful in the US market,
and they were one of the specialists in the anti- spyware product domain. We
wanted to remain competitive in the market, and this acquisition helps us combine
our product expertise with InterMute’s in the anti- spyware domain. The
combined effort will result in an internet security suite which will be out
in the next two or three months. We expect this to help us expand our market
reach with a superior product.
— Abhinav Singh
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