With the ongoing health crisis, businesses are abruptly shifting their setups by applying work-from-home (WFH) schemes and going digital with their processes. As corporations and enterprises around the country go online as a response to the lockdown measures, the line that separates work from private lives gets blurred.
Company and business-issued devices are used for personal affairs while work data and confidential information are transferred through home internet service providers. Together with this inevitable mix of work and home comes the arising danger of cybercrime.
However, not all businesses are ready for this digital transformation nor are they prepared for the cyber threats that may come their way.
“2020 was in a lot of ways a catalyst for changes, as much as it was a gamechanger. The ways that our normal had to change in 2020 was a combination of those that were totally unexpected, and those that we have foreseen but didn’t expect to have to deal with so soon,” said Joahnna Hipolito, Technical Communications Manager of Trend Micro Research.
Arising cyberthreats
According to cybersecurity global leader Trend Micro’s 2021 Security Predictions, threats will continue to persist in 2021 as telecommuting continues to be the norm. With this, organizations and users alike have to work together in coming up with measures to make WFH setups safe and secure.
“One of those is the need for employees to be fully and immediately prepared to be part of their company’s security strategy. Companies can’t afford to simply wait for a security-focused mindset change among employees, they need to be trained well and soon,” Hipolito added.
To help combat threats in the cyber sphere in the Philippines, Trend Micro aims to address this security gap in businesses and organizations through a series of training programs and an annual conference.
DECODE 2020: Elevate
Trend Micro kickstarted this advocacy with DECODE 2020 held November of last year carrying the theme ‘Elevate: Transform Rapidly, Seamlessly, Securely’.
Due to the quarantine restrictions, DECODE 2020 went virtual gathering about 3,000 IT professionals and experts nationwide. The three-day online conference gathered different sectors such as banking, finance, insurance, business and professional services, and the government.
Dubbed the country’s premier cybersecurity conference, DECODE featured renowned industry experts from different parts of the world to talk about threats in the digital sphere in over 40 sessions.
Included in the roster of industry leaders who shared knowledge on the cyber threat landscape were former White House cybersecurity adviser Melissa Hathaway, Philip Cassanova of SyCip Gorres Velayo & Co., Craig Jones of Interpol, and Martin Roesler, Myla Pilao, and Robert McArdle of Trend Micro.
This is the first time for the conference to be done virtually since its first run in 2017.
Better cyber skills in 2021
Come 2021, Trend Micro has planned out activities and learning sessions to advance cyber skills of Filipino IT professionals. This serves as the company’s response to the growing need for better IT infrastructure and security processes.
Trend Micro will also hold hands-on labs and certification training programs which are scheduled for release early in the year.
DECODE 2021
On top of the learning sessions plotted all year round, Trend Micro will also be staging DECODE 2021. IT enthusiasts should expect a bigger DECODE, according to Trend Micro.
Still with the pandemic restrictions in mind, the organizers are looking at having a hybrid event that features both virtual and physical setups. As in the previous years, DECODE 2021 will have industry leaders and IT experts from around the globe to give updates on recent technology and practices and share knowledge on various IT-related and cybersecurity topics.
DECODE is a free conference that is open to all on a pre-registration basis. To know more about this, visit www.decodeph.com.
