Trend Micro's annual cybersecurity conference made a return to face-to-face with the theme DECODE 2023: Resilience Rising. Over 700 attendees from various organizations and universities across the metro participated in the event held recently at EDSA Shangri-La Hotel.

Packed with multiple track sessions, panel discussions and hands-on activities, participants engaged with leading cybersecurity experts on the topics of threats, data privacy, skills; processes and new technologies.

Here are some key takeaways from the tech boot camp:

Hackers are progressively getting better

With the rapid innovation and evolution of technology, hackers are upgrading and evolving their strategies as well. One example is criminals taking advantage of the easy access to audio, video, and images made available on social media.

These are strategically timed for when the kids are at a daycare or school, and parents would receive video calls with their child's face and voice, pleading for them to pay the ransom.

Should they try to call them, the line would already be rerouted directly to the criminals utilizing AI-powered voice cloning tools to pose as their kidnapped child.

AI as friend or foe

AI can definitely be a helpful tool depending on how you utilize it, but that means that it can also be helpful for cybercriminals. Robert McArdle, director of Forward-Looking Threat Research at Trend Micro, said in his keynote how there are already numerous forums among criminals dedicated to learning AI.

With this, lower-level threat actors can easily move up to mid-level threat actors, and so on up the ladder until elite-level criminals eventually become finely-tuned criminal machines. So while cybercriminals are already exploring the capabilities of AI for their advantage, cybersecurity firms and professionals are also doing the same to ensure that AI-assisted threats are detected early and are immediately Addressed.

Our convenience is their convenience

While biometrics was initially believed to be a secure and innovative alternative to passwords, the internet has now become a platform for many to permanently leak their voices, faces, and fingerprints on a regular basis.

While time has proven that businesses can make their processes easier through biometrics and facial recognition, it also brings in multiple security risks for users.

Through stolen biometric data, many threat actors can easily access personal and private data of daily consumers, revealing sensitive information such as bank accounts, addresses, and more. In an age where data defines people, it is crucial to be discerning regarding what apps and services have credible and trustworthy protection, and whether or not lending images of your face or even hands is worth the potential risk of a criminal stealing your identity altogether.