Decode is Trend Micro's Way of Calling Filipino IT Professionals to Embark on Collaborative Cyber Threat Defense

It has been a while since we talked about cyber security on this blog and honestly with all the advancement in technology nowadays we truly need to have or much better to say to learn more about new threats in the world wide web.

Just recently I was able to be invited to one of the leading companies when it comes to cybersecurity solutions, Trend Micro. According to the recently released Midyear Security Roundup of 2018, Trend Micro, noted that cyber criminals are moving away from attention-grabbing ransomware attacks to more covert methods intended to steal money and valuable computing resources. These methods include cryptocurrency mining malware, as well as fileless, macro, and small file malware, just to name a few.

“Cybercriminals will constantly shift their tools, tactics and procedures (TTPs) to improve their infection rates,” said Alma Alvarez, Director for Training and Cyber Threat Hunting of Trend Micro. “The spray and pray ransomware attacks we’ve seen in the previous years had become the norm, so attackers changed their tactics to be more covert, using entry vectors not previously seen or used extensively.

“That said, tried and tested tactics still prove effective, as seen in the threats affecting the country and region. IT professionals must evaluate not just their organization’s defenses, but also their own cybersecurity skills and knowledge to ensure sufficient protection is in place to stop these threats.

“In addition, it’s more important than ever to have a complete, multilayered defense strategy that protects against these attack vectors. The latest attack types require sophisticated detection capabilities, but traditional protections are also required to stop often-overlooked methods of entry that may not be thought of as a risk”, she added.

Cybercrime and updates in the threat landscape are among the topics discussed in the recently held DECODE security conference hosted by Trend Micro last October 11 at the Makati Shangri-La hotel. Now on its second year, DECODE continues to let Filipino IT professionals in on the most-up-to-date technologies, tools available, and skills that they can use to better secure their organization’s digital infrastructure.

This year’s theme was “Connected Threat Intelligence” and it featured talks and track sessions, given by industry experts and Trend Micro’s own researchers, on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT) security, reverse engineering, and forensics. With the ever-increasing interconnectivity between devices and organizations in and around the world, the risk of hacking and other security threats likewise become a major concern.

Yet all is not lost as participants of DECODE collaborated on how to combat these very threats. And while we cannot get all these threats all in one go, DECODE is a good start and shows everyone that there is something that can be done to help keep our interconnected world safe from whatever threat is out there.

Aside from the information about threats and malwares, media present during the conference were given a glimpse of how hackers do their fileless attacks. A really covert way of getting information without injecting codes to harvest data and information.