Trend Micro's Latest Quarterly Threat Report Signals Rapid Incident Growth in Cloud and Mobile Sectors

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Aug 02, 2011, 08:00 ET

CUPERTINO, Calif., Aug. 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Trend Micro Inc. (TYO: 4704;TSE: 4704), a global cloud security leader, today announced the availability of its 2Q 2011 Threat Roundup report on the most dangerous threats and trends facing computing security today.

The most notable trends in the second quarter of 2011 are the proliferation of Android malware and cloud-computing-related data breaches at a magnitude never seen before. Also, social networking scams became even more sophisticated, and cybercriminals continued to instigate a myriad of malicious schemes.

"At the rate cybercriminals are launching attacks, targeted or not, there's just no telling how many more companies and users will succumb to the dangers these pose before the year ends," said Raimund Genes, CTO, Trend Micro.

Summary of Top Attacks, Breaches and Exploits and Scams

The Epsilon breach in April opened everyone's eyes to advanced persistent threats and the consequences of having their email accounts compromised, leading to information and identity theft.
Making headlines several times in 2Q, Trend Micro researchers proved how risky viewing Webmail accounts at work and downloading Trojanized apps are to users and businesses alike.
Microsoft was the number one vendor target for exploit attacks, with a total of 96. Google and Adobe held the second and third posts with 65 and 62 attacks respectively.
Apple, which led all vendor targets in Q1, was not in the Top 10 this time. The number of Mac and Apple mobile device exploits is growing steadily though.
Due to Android OS's increasing popularity, it faced at least three attacks in 2Q. Like previously discovered Android malware, all three posed as either fake apps or updates to trick users into executing them, albeit varying targets.
Facebook experienced several attacks in the form of spammed malicious links through various Facebook tools or as "copy-and-paste" scripts; all these led to data theft.

Notable Security Wins

While the threat landscape continues to change and becomes more sophisticated, Trend Micro and other global security teams made impressive takedowns in 2Q:

Trend Micro participated in the takedown of a CARBERP command-and-control (C&C) server, which had been stealing personal information from users worldwide for several months since early 2010.
Trend Micro was instrumental in blocking malicious URLs throughout 2Q, which put the company on Microsoft's leader board for the seventh straight month in a row.
We also witnessed the successful takedown of CoreFlood botnet by the U.S. DOJ and FBI. Meanwhile, the Japanese Parliament approved the revised Cybercriminal Law, which will start penalizing malware writers who create malicious wares without legitimate reasons and/or for the purpose of running these on others' systems without their consent.

Supporting Assets

The 16-page 2Q Threat Roundup provides more detail and analysis.
Trend Micro CEO whitepaper, "A Brave New (Security) World"
Learn how Trend Micro can secure your journey to the cloud.
Visit our cloud security blog and join the dialogue on how the cloud is changing the way we do business.

About Trend Micro

Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704;TSE: 4704), a global cloud security leader, creates a world safe for exchanging digital information with its Internet content security and threat management solutions for businesses and consumers. A pioneer in server security with over 20 years' experience, we deliver top-ranked client, server and cloud-based security that fits our customers' and partners' needs, stops new threats faster, and protects data in physical, virtualized and cloud environments. Powered by the industry-leading Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Network™ cloud computing security infrastructure, our products and services stop threats where they emerge – from the Internet. They are supported by 1,000+ threat intelligence experts around the globe.

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