India Next Only To China In Generating Web Threats

From the importance of developing a fresh approach to tackle Web threats to India’s ranking in the overall Web threat market - David Spenhoff, vice president, Global Enterprise Marketing, Trend Micro, discusses it all in a free wheeling chat with Biztech2.

Why is security rated low on the priority meter of Indian CIOs?

Indian enterprises are still continuing with the mind set that deploying an antivirus solution is more than sufficient to tackle all the security issues. The typical mindset of the top level management is acting as a stumbling block in the security related investment. CISOs or CIOs are struggling with the basic risk assessment as it is very unpredictable. There is always a low budget for the security solutions. However, its time the companies evaluated their security issues and the related damages.

Why is a fresh approach needed to tackle emerging Web threats?

The traditional approach to virus protection involves collecting samples of viruses, developing patterns and quickly distributing these patterns to users. This is insufficient to address Web threats as they aim to hide instead of explore and spread and hence are difficult to detect. Hence, there is a need for a new approach to address Web threats that complements existing techniques.

The key to effectively addressing Web threats is a multi-layered approach that includes innovative technologies deployed at the gateway, in the network and on the client that work seamlessly together to proactively respond to new and emerging Web threats. In addition, the evolving nature of threat necessitates some form of feedback, in which information gathered in one portion of the protection system is used to update information in other layers.

How effective is the Web Reputation Technology in fighting Web threats?

Web reputation technology protects against a variety of Web-based threats, including zero-day attacks. It assesses the trustworthiness of an URL based on an analysis of the domain. Web reputation technology helps to combat phishing and URL usurpation and guards against spyware attempts. It also complements traditional content inspection for optimum threat protection and does not impact PC performance or alter Web surfing experience.

What are your latest offerings in the Web threat segment and how have they been received by the CIO community?

Total Web Threat Protection is a key component within Trend Micro Secure Content and Threat Management security solutions portfolio. According to IDC, the Secure Content and Threat Management market reached $11.6 billion in 2005. This is an emerging market for us.

Trend Micro OfficeScan 8.0 (currently in beta) will be the first corporate solution to have the new Web Reputation Technology blended into its functionality. Apart from this, we will start shipping the new version of Office Scan Client Server Edition 2008 from mid-June, which has the Web Reputation tools, as well as content and source character scanning applications.

We are discussing this product with most of the enterprise CIOs. We are confident about the success of this product, as the earlier version was also well received. We are also conducting seminars across major cities in India in order to create product awareness.

How is India positioned in the overall Web threat market?

Web-based threats are growing dramatically and in the last year the growth was estimated at 54% as against traditional threats, which accounted only 15-20%, as per the Trend Labs situated in Philipines. According to IDC, up to 30% of companies with 500 or more staff have been infected as a result of Internet surfing, while only 20-25% of the same companies experienced viruses and worms from e-mails.

In the APAC region, India comes next to China with regards to the generation of Web threats. The Web threat scenario in India is continuously evolving and hence, there is a need to reinvent the existing defence strategies.

How important a market is India for Trend Micro and what are your strategies for the Indian companies?

India is considered to be an important market for Trend Micro. The overall APAC region contributes nearly 11% revenue to our total revenue. Security concerns including regulatory compliance risks posed by spyware threats and the effect of spyware on worker productivity are driving the growth for us in India.

We are focused on educating the existing as well as prospective customers in India about the new arising threats. We have leveraged our expertise in enterprise security to develop new hardware, software and services that fit appropriately into the evolving enterprise infrastructure. We are now interacting directly with the enterprise customers to discuss their security issues and guide them to select the appropriate solutions for their organisations. We are also providing free upgrading facilities to some of our enterprise customers.