In today's complex and IT-constrained environment, organizations need a complete, systematic approach for thwarting the massive volume of traditional threats, while handling the rise of newer, more sophisticated attacks. At RSA 2014, Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704) is announcing the latest enhancements to the Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Platform, building upon a set of unified threat defense capabilities that already enable customers to protect their organization against known threats, yet also detect and respond to new targeted attacks, immediately guarding against further intrusion.

"Businesses and governments are under attack, and signature-based approaches alone just won't cut it," said Eva Chen, CEO and co-founder, Trend Micro. "We've made a dramatic shift to lead the way in next-generation threat defense—continually innovating our Smart Protection Platform with new techniques that best protect against today's threats."

The most notable enhancement to the Smart Protection Platform is the all-new Trend Micro™ Smart Sensor solution, a context-aware endpoint monitoring solution that enables threat investigators to rapidly detect and assess the nature and extent of targeted attacks on endpoints and servers, speeding time to remediation. Working in conjunction with the Trend Micro™ Deep Discovery™ solution, which offers protection against targeted attacks, Smart Sensor collects unique intelligence to drive enterprise-wide threat investigation and response.

As opposed to focusing on only advanced threats, the Smart Protection Platform supports a complete cycle of protection across networks, endpoints and servers. With centralized visibility and control, correlated threat intelligence and flexible on-premise or cloud deployment options, it also delivers more cost-effective and manageable capabilities.

Gartner recently recommended a holistic strategy to guard against advanced attacks. Their report[1] notes that: "Capabilities must work together as system. The end result should not be 12 silos of disparate information security solutions. The end goal should be that these different capabilities integrate and share information to build a security protection system that is more adaptive and intelligent overall. For example, while the enterprise may not have had a 'signature' to prevent a breach initially, after the attack is discovered, the enterprise can use the knowledge gained by a forensic analysis of the attack to block further infections, in essence developing a 'custom defense' against the attack."

In alignment with this analysis, Trend Micro Smart Protection Platform enhancements include:

Trend Micro™ Smart Sensor

Offering continuous security monitoring at the endpoint, Smart Sensor enables threat investigators to rapidly discover and gain insight into the nature and extent of targeted attacks on endpoints and servers. It monitors detailed process-level and network communications activities of systems, empowering the analyst to easily perform multi-level "signature-less" investigations using rich IOC (indicators of compromise) parameters from Deep Discovery or any intelligence source.

With Smart Sensor, threat investigators are able to:

• Analyze the enterprise-wide chain of events involved in a targeted attack
• Monitor and investigate endpoints regardless of their location – on premise, remote or cloud-based
• Discover and verify system infiltration, malicious command and control (C&C) communications, and suspicious account activities
• Understand actual malware behavior including delivery method, execution, communications and system implications

Trend Micro™ Deep Discovery™ Email Inspector

This new solution protects companies from spear phishing emails that are the typical starting point for today's targeted attacks. It uses proven sandboxing and other advanced detection engines to identify malicious attachments or embedded URLs, allowing the customer to analyze the threats and to set automatic policies for email blocking or quarantine. Deep Discovery Email Inspector complements existing email security solutions, adding a layer of targeted attack protection at a company's most vulnerable point of entry.

Trend Micro™ Deep Discovery™ Inspector v3.6

To date, Trend Micro's Deep Discovery Inspector has been broadly deployed at hundreds of enterprise and government organizations around the world. The latest update further addresses the needs of large-scale organizations by enhancing and extending sandboxing analysis and threat investigation capabilities, enhancing SIEM integration and introducing a new 4 Gbps model. Customers can now create more custom sandbox images, concurrently analyze more files and more rapidly analyze attack details within Deep Discovery or their SIEM systems. In addition, the new 4Gbps model, Deep Discovery Inspector supports broader deployment options to better protect against targeted attacks.

A blog post with more details about the Trend Micro Smart Protection Platform can be viewed here.

Trend Micro has already helped the second largest distributor of premium wine and spirits in the U.S., Republic National Distributing Company, to proactively identify potential threats that their current security solutions had missed. Deep Discovery has prevented attacks on the company's infrastructure, positively impacting all aspects of operations. Now the company is eager to deploy this next generation of protection products and enhancements.

"The effectiveness of the Trend Micro Smart Protection Platform has been invaluable for our company, allowing us to concentrate on delivering the best service and customer response in our industry," said John Dickson, director, IT Infrastructure, Republic National Distributing Company. "We have been extremely pleased with its functionality and reliability to help us guard against network threats. To learn that the technology is being enhanced to provide even more comprehensive protection is truly exciting and will offer a welcome addition to our overall information security strategy as threats become more deceptive."

Trend Micro will be at the 2014 RSA Conference in San Francisco showcasing a variety of solutions at booth No. 2601, Moscone North Hall. Experts will also be presenting on topics including:

• "Critical Infrastructure Protection in the Cloud" (Cloud Security Alliance keynote)
  Presented by JD Sherry, Trend Micro, VP technology and solutions 
  Feb. 24, 11:05 a.m. - 11:35 a.m., Moscone Center West: Room 2014
• "New Ideas on CAA, CT and Public Key Pinning for a Safer Internet" (panel session)
  Moderated by Kirk Hall, Trend Micro, operations director for Trust Services 
  Feb. 25, 4 p.m. – 5 p.m., Moscone Center West: Room 2016
• "Project 2020: Preparing your Organization for Future Threats…Today" (track session) 
  Presented by Rik Ferguson, Trend Micro, VP security research 
  Feb. 26, 8:40 a.m. – 9 a.m., Moscone Center West: Room 3012
• "Bad Romance: 3 Reasons Hackers Love your Web Apps & How to Break Them Up" (sponsor track session) 
  Presented by JD Sherry, Trend Micro, VP technology and solutions
  Feb. 27, 9:20 a.m. – 10:20 a.m., Moscone Center North: Room 131

About Trend Micro

Trend Micro Incorporated a global leader in security software, rated number one in server security (IDC, 2013), strives to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Built on 25 years of experience, our solutions for consumers, businesses and governments provide layered data security to protect information on mobile devices, endpoints, gateways, servers and the cloud. Trend Micro enables the smart protection of information, with innovative security technology that is simple to deploy and manage, and fits an evolving ecosystem. All of our solutions are powered by cloud-based global threat intelligence, the Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Network™ infrastructure, and are supported by over 1,200 threat experts around the globe. For more information, visit TrendMicro.com.

[1] "Designing an Adaptive Security Architecture for Protection From Advanced Attacks" February 12, 2014