Trend Micro brings intuitive antivirus strategy

The "Eye on Security" campaign aims to encourage as many local companies as possible to access HouseCall™, Trend Micro's free online virus scanner, which helps diagnose computer infections and which also captures data about the scale of the virus outbreak

This data is analyzed at the Trend Micro World Virus Tracking Centre, so that interested parties throughout the region can see alerts around new and evolving viruses. Trend Micro plans to deploy email and SMS mobile phone alerts to warn participants of the most dangerous new strains of virus.

"We've seen that viruses are becoming faster and more cunning with the techniques they use to exploit computer vulnerabilities, so it's essential that responsible companies look for ways to capture data around new threats and share this information with the wider corporate community," said Justin Doo, managing director, Trend Micro Middle East and Africa.

The rapid decrease in time between the discovery of a vulnerability and its exploitation demonstrates the need for this approach. In 2000, there was a gap of 336 days before the Nimda worm virus emerged to exploit a recognized vulnerability. In 2003, the time difference between the flaw being detected, and the MSBlaster worm being unleashed was down to 26 days.

"Sasser, the worm that struck in May this year, took less than 17 days from vulnerability announcement to the exploit being seen," said Doo. "This demonstrates the need for rapid information spread upon knowledge of a new virus strain spreading - businesses in the Middle East are as vulnerable as any other region without the provision of timely data."

Through the work of its World Virus Tracking Centre, Trend Micro aims to disseminate information about new virus outbreaks as quickly as possible, to enable companies to defend themselves effectively. The global nature of the information collection strategy means that the company can also track local trends, analyzing which viruses are having the biggest impact on the Middle East.

Until recently, regional enterprises have had no way to automate, much less co-ordinate, a successful end-to-end antivirus strategy. Trend Micro's Enterprise Protection Strategy enables companies to reduce the cost of virus outbreaks by preventing the spread of viruses through the network, improving attack status, and delivering real-time reports on how enterprise operations are being affected by viruses.

"Our Enterprise Protection Strategy provides companies with the tools and data they need to radically affect the impact of computer viruses in the Middle East," said Doo. "It is a proactive approach which addresses the three critical areas of a virus outbreak - overall lifecycle management, attack prevention, and damage assessment and clean-up."