Boosting the Security of Office 365 by Blocking 3.4 Million High-Risk Threats in 2017: Trend Micro

Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), a global leader in cybersecurity solutions released the Trend Micro Cloud App Security 2017 Report. According to the report, The Trend Micro Cloud App Security detected and blocked 3.4 million high-risk email threats in 2017. Cloud App Security managed to detect over 50,000 ransomware and 3,000 BEC threats in the last three quarters of 2017.

The Trend Micro Cloud App Security solution is an API-based service protecting the Microsoft Office 365 Exchange Online, OneDrive for Business, and SharePoint Online platforms. With its improved classification engine in Q2, Cloud App Security managed to detect over 65,000 known Trojans, worms, viruses, and backdoors for the whole of 2017.

More than 260,000 unknown email threats were also blocked by the pre-execution machine learning and sandbox engines. In the same period, 2.8 million known malicious links as well as over 190,000 phishing emails were blocked. In 2017, data from Trend Micro Smart Protection Network security infrastructure revealed that 94 percent of ransomware threats were found in email, while business email compromise (BEC) scams showed a 106 percent increase from the first half of the year to the second.

“Given that email is still the most common infection vector for malware threats, organizations need multiple layers of protection to combat email-borne threats that continue to evolve and spread. Email threats are advanced, pervasive, and costly, but with the combination of workforce, cybersecurity awareness and solutions like Trend Micro Cloud App Security, they can be stopped before causing havoc,” said Mr. Nilesh Jain, Vice President – South East Asia and India, Trend Micro.

He further added, “Using a multi-layered identification process for transferring funds can mitigate BEC scams. IT professionals and organization employees should be trained to look out for BEC indicators and practice proper email protocols such as inspecting inbound and outbound messages. Stopping email-borne ransomware from infecting endpoints and systems is also possible by adopting best practices against spam emails.”

The report also suggests few recovery steps that can be followed when cybercriminals have already successfully infiltrated the organization’s network. As the hackers use different kinds of social engineering tactics to coerce potential victims into downloading files or giving out sensitive information, it is important to educate employees on how to avoid phishing attacks. Simple steps, such as bookmarking trusted websites and never clicking on links accompanied by suspicious promises, go a long way. Network administrators should ensure that antispam filters, including policy management and threat detection level thresholds, are properly configured.

The Trend Micro Cloud App Security acts as a second layer of protection after email and files have passed through Office 365 scanning. It aims to counter the proliferation of email threats by using machine learning and sandbox malware analysis for ransomware, BEC, and other advanced threats. Cloud App Security can detect both known and unknown email threats that attempt to infiltrate cloud services.

Cloud App Security has a document exploit detection engine that discovers malware hidden in Microsoft Office files, and an artificial intelligence feature that checks email behaviour and intention to identify BEC scams. It detects incoming and internal phishing attacks by using extensive threat intelligence from Smart Protection Network to find and block links hidden in the message body and email attachments that lead to malware.

Cloud App Security scans internal email and file sharing services to detect attacks already in progress and discovers criminal attempts to infiltrate organizations from compromised accounts or devices. In addition, it discovers unknown malware using pattern-less technologies by utilizing behaviour analysis with sandbox technology and shares intelligence learned during analysis with other security layers.