With rise in China's Internet use, more security threats seen
Don't look now but the rise in Internet usage in China, the popularity of social networks and the proliferation of mobile phones may soon give rise to new Internet security threats the likes the world has never seen, according to Steve Chang, founder and former CEO of security firm Trend Micro Inc.
In a forum for top IT students at UP Diliman, Chang warned that the convergence of viruses, trojans and computer worms is changing the very future of Internet security. He said IT security firms including Trend Micro are going into "cloud computing" to better address security threats in the fastest time possible.
"Before, a virus was just a virus and spam was just spam. Now, viruses include trojans that send spam, install spyware and even keyloggers that get your password," he said.
He noted that most of the recent Web threats are originating from China, which now has the largest population of Web users in the world at 220 million.
Chang warned that the increasing use of social networks such as Facebook and Myspace could also lead to more security threats.
He also warned against emerging threats targeting mobile phones, which can then be passed on to the numbers in the phone's address book.
According to its Threat Roundup and Forecast for the first half of 2008, Trend Micro researchers discovered a new Symbian malware that attempts to spread via Bluetooth and MMS messages. Disguised as a picture or multimedia file, it uses file names such as “beauty.jpg,” “love.rm,” and “sex.mp3” to spread to other mobile phones.
Although the file extensions appear innocuous, in reality these are disguised .SIS installer files used in mobile technology. Once installed, the .SIS files create additional malicious files that it sent via MMS.
In March 2008, Trend Micro researchers also detected malware targeting the Windows Mobile PocketPC. Detected as WINCE_INFOJACK.A, the worm runs on a Windows CE environment and steals information like the serial number, OS version, model, platform and host’s name, then relays it to the malware author. The malware also changes affected phones’ security settings.
Trend Micro said the worm originates from an infected memory card on a mobile device or through SMS.
Rise of SaaS market
Chang said one trend that Trend Micro is looking at is the rise of the software-as-a-service (SaaS) market. He said the traditional model of selling software in installer CDs is fast becoming obsolete because of the need for frequent updates on existing software.
During the talk, Chang praised the Philippines for becoming one of the vanguards in securing Internet users all over the world.
Chang said the Filipino people's combination of tech savvy and English proficiency made the Philippines the top choice for Trend Micro's new global center that does 24-hour research service for Internet threat surveillance and attack prevention.
"When I came to the Philippines nine years ago, I wanted to involve people who have a global view, who wanted to do innovations and not just answer phones," he said.
Instead of hiring call center workers, Chang formed a team of world-class Filipino computer programmers who would form the core of operations in TrendLabs. With headquarters located in Libis, Quezon City, Chang said the success of its TrendLabs operations has reached as far as Europe where companies vie to recruit security experts from the Philippine base.
"We are all technical people. We are passionate about technology. Here in the Philippines, we are like saving the world one threat at a time. Everyone in the world who buys a Trend Micro product is saying that they trust the Philippines," he said.
Reproduced from an article published by ABS-CBN News Online
© ABS-CBN News Online
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