Law Chee Wan, Manager Technical Sales, Trend Micro Malaysia
Trend Micro Incorporated, is a global leader in security software of 26 years of experience providing smart protection for consumers, businesses and governments. On 16 December 2016, Mr. Law Chee Wan, Manager Technical Sales, Trend Micro Malaysia assisted by Jean Lim, Director of Channel Management and Marketing, Trend Micro Malaysia had given a talk on their prediction of potential future threats and how we can prevent it together.
Mr. Law Chee Wan giving a presentation to the media
2015 has been a rollercoaster ride for organizations and individuals alike in the world of security, there are cyber threats we face from time to time and any slip ups can lead us into grave situations. 2016 won’t be any different, in fact, cyber extortionists (hackers) have begun improvising a new tactic to con people online by using psychological methods.
Psychological attacks online are much scarier than the usual technical aspects that most of us know, by simply taking advantage of the human emotion of fear and security it can prove to be effective and dangerous. Reputation is everything, and it can ruin anyone’s image down to the ground while the hackers get away by extorting your money. Security vendors, law enforcements and would-be victims will need to work together hand in hand to counter these evolving threats.
Throughout the years, scams have taken many forms such as fake antivirus programs, police Trojans, forward chain emails, and even fake online users. Their objective remains the same:- “We have your data/You’re our lucky winner, we are denying access to it, give us money or else.” and so on. It is estimated that these cyber extortionists earn millions of dollars from those poor victims, because this is essentially a “risk-free” activity for many cybercrime groups. Take the case of Ashley Madison for example, who had face threats over an “alleged” membership in a dating site. This can happen to anyone.
Sometimes it’s not defacing websites and/or carrying out denial-of-service (DoS), or even the money they want, hacktivists would breach into corporate security line and expose their innermost secrets. One fine example is Sony on their huge email leaks about movie productions, which has led to many backfash on actors and actresses, and producers a few months ago. This kind of cyber attack is something new, just because it didn’t happen to us doesn’t mean it won’t. We must be fully prepared for any kind of threats, as more and more devices, items and services are being connected to the Internet.
That being said, shipments are expected to grow at 67% annually for the next 5 years. As these people are relying on devices as part of their daily lives, the need for better security is becoming apparent and problematic. Let's take PCs for example, where software vendors regularly release patches from time to time claiming threats are in the machines when there are none at all. Even baby monitors, cars, gasoline pumps are included now, these toxic combination of day-to-day importance and lack of security may cause injuries – or worse, fatalities – to users due to the failure of smart devices.
Trend Micro is committed to protect users from upcoming and evolving hacktivists that employ new tactics, however user awareness, partnerships, law enforcements and any organizations must work together as well to avoid such matter. Only then, successful results can happen in the form of swift legislation, takedowns, arrests, and convictions.
To find out more about these threats and their possible future implications in the full report “2016 Trend Micro Security Predictions: The Fine Line.”
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