Trend Micro Protects Consumers in the Age of the AI PC

Series of solutions and initiatives to be released throughout 2024

Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704) recently unveiled its plans for protecting consumers as they increasingly adopt generative AI applications alongside the expected growth in adoption of AI PCs. Designed to address the unique opportunities and risks posed by AI, Trend's strategy helps consumers embrace the use of generative AI applications safely to lower their risk of being harmed by the use and abuse of AI. In addition, Trend Micro has, and will continue, to innovate using AI in its own cybersecurity solutions and services for greater security effectiveness and efficiencies.

While AI presents great promises to consumers, it has also afforded cybercriminals the opportunity to more effectively perpetrate scams and fraud in the form of tactics such as harder to detect phishing emails or deepfake videos. In a recent study conducted by Trend, nearly 72% of respondents expressed excitement about AI's potential to enhance task quality and uncover new opportunities, but almost 65% said they worry about AI's role in spreading misinformation while 58% are concerned about AI's misuse of their images and likeness. Beyond these potential abuses of AI, there are other possible vulnerabilities to AI applications themselves that, without protection, may result in consumers unknowingly being misdirected or unintentionally exposing their private data.

Eva Chen, Co-Founder and CEO at Trend: "Generative AI represents an infrastructure shift that requires us to use our long history of understanding digital threats to develop innovative solutions and meet the moment. Our goal is to ensure every user, from individual consumers to the largest organizations in the world, can harness the full potential of AI and AI PCs securely and confidently."

The arrival of AI PCs also represents another shift in how consumers will use AI applications in the future, thanks to the neural processing units (NPUs) that power them. IDC predicts AI PCs will make up nearly 60% of all PC shipments worldwide by 2027, growing from 50 million units in 2024 to more than 167 million in 2027.* With an AI PC, consumers will now be able to use AI applications locally on their devices, promising better speed and privacy than having to access or send data to be processed in the cloud. This additional computing power also presents the opportunity for Trend to deliver some of its cloud AI capabilities on device and introduce new capabilities that take advantage of the efficiency and data privacy benefits that AI PCs offer.

Trend will be delivering solutions for consumers in the second half of 2024 that are designed to protect AI, protect users from AI abuses, and leverage AI in both existing and new products and services including:

AI Application Protection: Protection capabilities against tampering with AI applications, contaminating the AI application with malicious input, and preventing AI applications from inadvertently or maliciously accessing sensitive data.
Malicious AI Content Protection: Solutions that protect consumers from malicious AI-generated or AI-altered content.
NPU-powered Cybersecurity Capabilities: Solutions designed for AI PCs that leverage the additional compute power.

As a sign of the significance of AI threats, MITRE has introduced its ATLAS matrix which assesses the risks associated with AI assets. The MITRE Adversarial Threat Landscape for Artificial-Intelligence Systems https://atlas.mitre.org/matrices/ATLAS. Trend is mapping its capabilities to this matrix where applicable for consumer use cases.

* "IDC Forecasts Artificial Intelligence PCs to Account for Nearly 60% of All PC Shipments by 2027," IDC, February 7, 2024.