HONG KONG, CHINA - Media OutReach - 14 December 2018 - Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), a globalleader in cybersecurity solutions, today released its 2019 predictions report,warning that attackers will increase the effectiveness of proven attack methodsby adding more sophisticated elements to take advantage of the changingtechnology landscape. The report, Mappingthe Future: Dealing with Pervasive and Persistent Threats, highlights the growing threats faced by consumersand organizations that are exacerbated by the increasingly connected world.

"As wehead into 2019, organizations must understand the security implications ofgreater cloud adoption, converging IT and OT, and increasing remote working,"said Tony Lee, Head of Consulting of Trend Micro Hong Kong and Macau."Cybercriminals will continue to follow a winning formula -- exploiting existingflaws, social engineering and stolen credentials -- to drive profits. As boththe corporate attack surface and unknown cyber threats increase, it's moreimportant than ever for organizations to put more resources behind employeeeducation to help protect against these growing attacks."

The roleof social engineering in successful attacks against businesses and individualswill continue to increase throughout the year. Since 2015, the number ofphishing URLs blocked by Trend Micro has increased by nearly 3,800 percent.This offsets the lessening reliance on exploit kits, which has decreased by 98percent in the same time. Additionally, attackers will continue to rely onknown vulnerabilities that remain unpatched in corporate networks for 99.99percent of exploits, as this remains a successful tactic.

TrendMicro also predicts attackers will leverage these proven methods againstgrowing cloud adoption. More vulnerabilities will be found in cloudinfrastructure, such as containers, and weak cloud security measures will allowgreater exploitation of accounts for cryptocurrency mining. This will lead tomore damaging breaches due to misconfigured systems.

Attackerswill also implement emerging technologies like AI to better anticipate themovements of executives. This will lead to more convincing targeted phishingmessages, which can be critical to BEC attacks. Additionally, it is likely thatBEC attacks will target more employees who report to C-level executives,resulting in continued global losses.

SIMswapping and SIM-jacking will be a growing threat to take advantage of remoteemployees and everyday users. This attack method allows criminals to hijack acell phone without the user's knowledge, making it difficult for consumers toregain control of their devices. Additionally, the smart home will be anincreasingly attractive target for attacks that leverage home routers andconnected devices.

To find out more on these and many more 2019predictions, read the full report here.

About Trend Micro

Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in cybersecuritysolutions, helps to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Ourinnovative solutions for consumers, businesses, and governments provide layeredsecurity for data centers, cloud workloads, networks, and endpoints. All ourproducts work together to seamlessly share threat intelligence and provide aconnected threat defense with centralized visibility and investigation,enabling better, faster protection. With more than 6,000 employees in 50countries and the world's most advanced global threat research andintelligence, Trend Micro enables organizations to secure their connectedworld. For more information, visit www.trendmicro.com.hk.

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