Recent incidents underscore need for a trusted conduit between financial services and third parties

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – Media OutReach – 31 March 2021 – FS-ISAC, the only global cyber intelligence sharing community solely focused on financial services, announced today the findings of its latest report, which found that wittingly or otherwise, nation-states and cybercriminals are leveraging each other’s tools and tactics, leading to an increase in cross-border attacks targeting financial services suppliers.

The pandemic has accelerated digitization, connectivity, and the sector’s interdependence, as demonstrated by recent supply chain incidents. Increasingly, the financial sector needs a trusted conduit of real-time cyber information between institutions and third parties.

“FS-ISAC was the logical host for us to brief the financial services sector to reach a critical mass of institutions around the world all at once,” said Jonathan Yaron, CEO of Accellion. “This way, we could ensure that the industry received critical and correct information via a trusted source, enabling it to act quickly to mitigate the impact of the incident.”

“Organizations properly practicing defense-in-depth with multi-layered controls are still vulnerable to large-scale and even systemic issues through third party suppliers,” said J.R. Manes, Global Head of Cyber Intelligence at HSBC. “The FS-ISAC community provides its members the visibility into emerging threats that could impact customers and business, even when they are not directly exposed. Ensuring and encouraging the sharing of cyber threat intelligence is a vital part of the defense of not only the financial sector, but the whole business ecosystem that runs on top of the Internet.”

FS-ISAC’s report outlines today’s top threats:

• Convergence of nation-states and cybercriminals: Nation-state actors are leveraging the skills and tools of cyber criminals, either knowingly or not, to enhance their own capabilities.
• Third-party risk on an upward trend: Suppliers to financial firms will continue to be lucrative targets for threat actors, as shown by three highly visible incidents in the last two quarters.
• Cross-border attacks will increase: Cyber criminals test their attack in one country before hitting multiple continents and sub-verticals, as shown by a DDoS extortion campaign targeting ~100 financial institutions in months.

“Trying to outpace evolving cyber threats diverts resources from a financial firm’s core business,” said Steve Silberstein, FS-ISAC CEO. “As the global fincyber utility, FS-ISAC enables industry-wide cross-border sharing to pool resources, expertise, and capabilities to manage cyber risks and incident response.”

More on the report’s methodology here.

About FS-ISAC

The Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) is the only global cyber intelligence sharing community solely focused on financial services. Serving financial institutions and in turn their customers, the organization leverages its intelligence platform, resiliency resources, and a trusted peer-to-peer network of experts to anticipate, mitigate and respond to cyber threats. Members represent over $35 trillion in assets under management in more than 70 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the organization has offices in the United Kingdom and Singapore. To learn more, visit www.fsisac.com.

Net Profit Surges by 53.5% to HK$129.3 Million; Remarkable 52.6% Revenue Growth in Web Sales Business

Business Review

Amidst the new normal in a “stay-at-home” economy, customers have been shifting to online and digital solutions as well as other contact-minimising channels to purchase goods. During the Reporting Year, the Group was able to capture such opportunities as its web sales business yielded a remarkable revenue increase of 52.6% to approximately HK$158.0 million (FY2019: HK$103.5 million). In particular, the Group recognized significant growth of approximately 397.2% in the total sales amount mainly derived from jigsaw puzzle products through www.createjigsawpuzzles.com for FY2020 compared with that of FY2019, resulting from the increased time spent on those products by people in the U.S. under different COVID-19-related social distancing policies that underpinned the rising demand.

At the beginning of 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak adversely affected the business operations of several of the Group’s OEM customers in the U.S. and Europe, which subsequently impacted the Group’s OEM sales. In view of such challenges, the Group maintained close communications with its customers and provided different solutions to accommodate their situation and overcome this crisis. As a result, export orders were successfully restored to normal levels in the second half of 2020. Overall, revenue derived from OEM sales dipped only slightly by 1.4% to approximately HK$1,074.6 million for FY2020 (FY2019: HK$1,090.1 million).

The Group’s gross profit increased by 19.5% to approximately HK$436.9 million in FY2020 (FY2019: HK$365.6 million), while gross profit margin rose to 35.4% from 30.6% in FY2019. This increment was mainly due to an increase in the proportion of web sales which have a relatively higher gross profit margin than OEM sales margin, reduced production costs of our factories in the PRC due to cost control measures imposed by the Group, and the reduction and exemption from several corporate social insurance premiums of enterprises in the PRC during the Reporting Year.

Under the continuing uncertainties in the global economy, the Group adopted a number of cost control measures during FY2020, notably the streamlining of work processes through the use of advanced technology and other possible approaches in production planning and control, and reducing operating costs via introduction of new suppliers and negotiations with service providers to achieve better prices. In addition, the Group continued to relocate to Vietnam part of the end-to-end production of products for the U.S. market by cooperating with a subcontractor. The Group has also been continuing to improve its operational efficiencies and actively pursue Industry 4.0 while staying focused on its long-term opportunities.

Prospects

The COVID-19 pandemic and the trade tensions between the PRC and the U.S. are expected to subsist for a foreseeable period of time. The increasing labour and material costs within the PRC will also pose major challenges to the Group in the coming years. The Group will continue closely assessing and monitoring developments relating to these risks and uncertainties and will take appropriate actions to mitigate their impacts.

In pursuit of its long-term business development strategies, the Group has been striving to continuously expand its web sales business and diversify its sales in different markets. The Group is pleased to have witnessed desirable outcomes including the encouraging performance of its web sales business and the increases in both volume and proportion of sales in the European markets in FY2020. The Group will continue employing additional staff and reinforcing resources in its web sales business segment to enhance its competitive advantages and further expand customer base.

Meanwhile, the Group intends to set up a production site in Vietnam and acquire machines for use there. In relation to this, the Group has entered into a non-legally binding memorandum of understanding (“MOU”) with a vendor in June 2020 in which it intends to acquire certain land, factories, machines and assets in Hai Duong Province, Vietnam. The Board believes that such an acquisition will enable the Group to set up its own production site to tackle the impacts arising from the PRC-U.S. trade tensions and to undertake end-to-end production of the Group’s principal products for its customers in the U.S. in addition to mitigating operational risks. All in all, the expansion of manufacturing capacities outside the PRC will remain the Group’s key strategy.

Mr. Cheng Wan Wai, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Q P Group concluded: “We are pleased to report that the Group’s financial performance remained strong in FY2020 as we captured opportunities to expand our ecommerce and online shopping business. We expect our web sales business to continue serving as our key growth driver in the future. Looking ahead, we remain confident that by building on our reputation, strong product portfolio and stable business relationships with customers, we are in an excellent position to deliver sustainable growth and returns to our shareholders in the long term.”

About Q P Group Holdings Limited (雋思集團控股有限公司; Stock code: 01412)

Established in Hong Kong in 1985, Q P Group is one of the leading paper-based tabletop games and paper-based greeting cards manufacturers in the PRC. It has established stable and long-term business relationships with major OEM customers including an international greeting cards publisher and multinational children educational products and toys brands. Its principal product categories include tabletop games, greeting cards, educational items and premium packaging, which are sold on an OEM basis or through its self-operated websites. It operates two key production sites in Dongguan and Heshan in the PRC.

The five major websites are: https://www.makeplayingcards.com

https://www.boardgamesmaker.com

https://www.createjigsawpuzzles.com

https://www.printerstudio.com

https://www.gifthing.com

For more information, please visit: https://www.qpp.com/

Successful Expansion into Pharmaceutical E-commerce

Driving Sales Growth of GeneTime®

Achived Significant Progress towards Pipeline Products and Boshutai® was Granted Approval for Marketing in China

HONG KONG SAR – EQS Newswire – 30 March 2021 – A fully integrated biopharmaceutical company – Uni-Bio Science Group Limited (“Uni-Bio Science”, together with its subsidiaries referred to as the “Group”, stock code: 0690.HK), is pleased to announce its annual results for the year ended 31 December 2020 (the “Year”), as well as its comparative figures for the year ended 31 December 2019 (“2019”).

Key Accomplishments in 2020

During the Year, the Group achieved a spectrum of accomplishments, for both of its marketed products and innovative biologics. The key highlights include:

1. GeneTime® (EGF spray indicated for wound healing) generated remarkable results. Sales of GeneTime® reached HK$137.2 million, representing an increase of 9.5% YoY. The Group’s newly-developed digital marketing and pharmaceutical e-commerce platform will continue to be a strong sales driver of GeneTime®.

2. The Group’s Pinup® (Voriconazole Tablets) had been successfully approved by the National Medical Products Administration (“NMPA”) for Bioequivalence (“BE”) certification in December 2020, and had been included in the national procurement tender on 8 December 2020. The approval would facilitate Pinup®’s hospital tenders and listings, especially in national procurement, to achieve a larger market share in the anti-fungal infection drug market.

3. Durning the Year, the Group’s Uni-PTH (pre-filled injection pen) or 2nd Generation Uni-PTH was successfully approved by NMPA for clinical trial. The Group will begin conducting bridging clinical trial for 2nd Generation Uni-PTH. In May 2020, the Group started a partnership with Swiss self-care giant Ypsomed to co-develop 2nd Generation Uni-PTH alongside YpsoPen®, a state-of-the-art pen injector with unparalleled dosing accuracy which minimized injection pain.

4. The application for clinical trial of Recombinant GLP-1 Injection (“Uni-GLP”) has been approved by NMPA on 14 July 2020. Currently, the Group’s professional and technical teams are making great efforts in preparing for clinical trial-related work. Supported by recent data, Uni-GLP has proven its developmental potential in treatment of COVID-19 and other high value indications.

5. The Group’s Boshutai® (Acarbose Tablets) was granted approval for marketing in China by NMPA on 10 November 2020 and the Group also passed GMP manufacturing inspection and was approved to manufacture Boshutai® from 10 December 2020. To ensure Boshutai® would be manufactured at the most competitive cost, the Group formed a strategic partnership with Sinopharm Weiqida Pharmaceutical Company Limited and Suzhou Yingli Medical Technology Company Limited during the Year to lower the production cost, increase manufacturing efficiency and streamline the overall supply chain.

6. During the Year, the Group partnered with Chengdu Medlinker Technology Company Limited to co-develop digital marketing and pharmaceutical e-commerce platform for the Group’s products. Aiming at creating an integrated healthcare system, this corporation is expected to deliver much better service for patients and clinical practitioners, expanding its available marketing channels, and enhancing brand awareness. In addition, the Group is also proactively exploring partners such as Haodaifu (好大夫在線) and other respective platforms to address the unmet needs for online drug sales.

Annual Results

In 2020, the Group recorded a turnover of HK$208.8 million, representing a slight decrease of approximately 0.3% YoY (2019: HK$209.4 million). The decrease in turnover was mainly attribute to the significant sales drop in the first quarter of 2020 during the outbreak of COVID 19. The turnover in the second half exceeded expectation, and was able to offset most of the shortfall in the first half of 2020. Among all the products, GeneTime® was particularly favoured by the market, with an increase of 9.5% in turnover from approximately HK$125.3 million in 2019 to HK$137.2 million in 2020. The remarkable turnover growth was mainly attributable to the strong recovery from hospital sales due to efforts of the Group’s broad market team, as well as the additional turnover from the newly-developed digital marketing and pharmaceutical e-commerce platform since May 2020. During the Year, GeneSoft® recorded a decrease in turnover from approximately HK$33 million in 2019 to HK$31.6 million, representing a decrease of4.2%. The decrease was mainly attributable to the serious reduction in patients’ hospital visits since the outbreak of COVID-19, despite there was a gradual recovery in the second half of the Year. Market competition was keen as Pinup® did not received its BE Certification from the NMPA until December 2020. Pinup® recorded a decrease of 21.9% in turnover from approximately HK$48.0 million to approximately HK$37.5 million during the Year. The decrease was also attributed to the reduction in patients’ hospital visits due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Gross profit slightly decreased 0.2% from approximately HK$181.5 million in 2019 to HK$181.1 million in 2020, whereas gross profit margin remained stable at 86.7% (2019: 86.7%). Alongside the ongoing internal control and business optimization by digitalization, as well as the restructuring of the Group’s sales force and the building of its direct sales team, general and administrative expenses (“G&A Expenses”) decreased for three consecutive years. G&A Expenses decreased 39.7% yoy from HK$ 59.4 million in 2019 to HK$ 35.8 million in 2020, accounted for 17.2% of turnover as compared with 28.4% in 2019. The percentage of selling and distribution expense over turnover improved to around 70.0% in 2020 from 71.3% in 2019 because of the Group’s cautious salesforce optimization. R&D expenses slightly decreased by 4.6% to HK$ 40.7 million due to the completion of several clinical tests, of which the development expenses have been capitalized. Operating loss for the Year was HK$ 70.9 million due to an impairment of intangible assets from certain old technologies of previous version products (Uni-PTH and Uni-GLP) and an impairment of intangible assets from the unsatisfied BE result and the suspended BE process of Boshutai®. Excluding the impact of write-off intangible assets and impairment loss on deposit paid for the acquisition of intangible assets in 2020 together with one off gains from disposal of property and subsidiary in 2019, the normalised operating loss was significantly reduced from HK$62.7 million in 2019 to HK$ 34.8 million in 2020. For 2020, the Group recorded a loss of HK$ 71.3 million (2019: profit of HK$2.5 million), with a basic loss per share of HK 1.11 cents (2019 basic earnings per share: HK0.04 cents).

Prospects

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only driven the growth of the pharmaceutical industry, but also boosted the online healthcare sector, especially in China. Regulatory reforms have been introduced to support the digitalization of the healthcare industry. The Group believes that the favorable online market environment and government policies would benefit its business operation and promotebusiness growth in the future.

Focusing on the Sales of EGF Products

The Group’s signature products, GeneTime® and GeneSoft®, have been well-received by the market. The collaboration with Medlink to develop digital marketing channels has proved to be successful, as GeneTime® recorded a tremendous increase in turnover in the second half of 2020. The Group will continue to utilize the online resources to promote GeneTime®. To accommodate the increasing demand, the Group is planning to expand the production capacity for its EGF products. New technologies will also be integrated to this new plant to further increase efficiency and decrease production costs. The new site is expected to commence operations in 2023.

Awaiting for Results of Pinup® in National Drug Volume-based Procurement Which Will Help Secure Future Growth

The Group submitted the tender application of Pinup® for the National Drug Volume-based Procurement and has been waiting for the results announcement. Pinup® is a voriconazole tablet that is tailored to treat severe fungal infection, and the Group is one of the only two manufactures that has passed BE certification for the 50mg formulation of voriconazole at the end of 2020. The Group is confident that Pinup® will be included in the procurement and believes that the successful inclusion will help meeting the rising demand of anti-fungal medicine in the both public as well as private hospitals, and will deliver positive impact to the Group’s top and bottom line in the future.

Focusing on the Commercialization of Acarbose Tablet

In 2021, the Group will focus on the commercialization of Boshutai®, and expects immediate sales contribution from the product. Meanwhile, the Group will promote Boshutai® through third-party channels, including online platforms, retail pharmacies, as well as private hospitals, to further expand its distribution coverage at a competitive pricing.

Accelerating the Clinical Research Progress

The Group is optimistic about the potential of Uni-GLP in new therapeutic areas, and will continue to collaborate with several universities in China to conduct preclinical research of Uni-GLP in obesity, as well as to formulate a new innovative oral or 3rd generation Uni-GLP. In 2021, the Group will begin conducting bridging clinical trials for liquid form Uni-PTH, and wishes to submit the New Drug Application within 2021. If the process goes smoothly, it is expected that the powder form Uni-PTH will be launched in 2021 and liquid form Uni-PTH can be launched in as soon as 2022.

Mr. Kingsley Leung, Chairman of Uni-Bio Science, added, “In a longer term, we aim to establish a leading drug commercialization platform in expanding its business scale in both upstream and downstream markets. In terms of upstream operations, the Group is looking for collaborations with innovative research and technology companies that are equipped with pharmaceutical development capabilities. While the partner company focuses on developing novel drugs, the Group will conduct clinical research and be responsible for commercialization in China by leveraging its extensive distribution network. In March 2021, the Group has formed a partnership with DotBio Pte. Ltd. (“DotBio”), a highly innovative biopharmaceutical company in Singapore, to co-develop next generation, best-in-class therapeutics for patients with retinal diseases. Leveraging on DotBio’s unparalleled technology capability in the ophthalmology space, together with the Group’s extensive experience in fermentation, purification, quality assurance and quality control of E.coli-expressed proteins, the Group believes that the partnership is able to diversify the Group’s pipeline and capture the rising needs of the age-related macular degeneration treatment market.The Group will also expand its distribution channels by tapping into pharmaceutical e-commerce. The online platforms not only allow patients to access services including online healthcare consultation, e-prescription and drug purchase at any time anywhere, but also expand doctors’ coverage and exposure by solving their bottleneck of being in one hospital at a time. The pharmaceutical e-commerce arena would definitely provide doctors and patients with higher degree of convenience and cost-efficiency, and that would in turn, drive more direct sales of the Group’s drugs. With our strategies to accelerate its product pipeline, enhance its operational efficiency and strengthen its sales network. These would in turn, promote its rapid growth and generate fruitful returns for its shareholders.”

About Uni-Bio Science Group Limited

Uni-Bio Science Group Limited is principally engaged in the research and development, manufacture and distribution of pharmaceutical products. The research and development centre is fully equipped with a complete system for the development of genetically-engineered products with a pilot plant test base which is in line with NMPA requirements. The Group also has two GMP manufacturing bases in Beijing and Shenzhen. The Group is focused on the development of novel treatments and innovative drugs addressing the therapeutic areas of diabetes, ophthalmology and dermatology.

Uni-Bio Science Group Limited was listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on November 12, 2001. Stock code: 0690.

Net profits drop 46% to HK$612 million with final dividend HK$0.05/share

Adjust product mix actively; Strive for innovative breakthroughs

Results summary:

• Total revenue HK$4,261 million, representing a decrease of 8.1% y-o-y
• Net profits HK$612 million, representing a decrease of 46.1% y-o-y
• The Board resolved to pay final dividend of HK$0.05 /share

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 30 March 2021 – SSY Group Limited (“SSY” or the “Company”; Stock Code: 2005.HK) and its subsidiaries (together, the “Group”) presents the annual results of the Company for the year ended 31 December 2020 (“2020” or “the year”).

During the year, the Group achieved a revenue of HK$4,261 million, representing a decrease of 8.1% and the gross profit margin increased by 1.5 percentage point to 63.6%. The Group achieved net profits of HK$612 million, representing a decrease of 46.1% compared with last year. During the year, the operational activities of various size of hospitals and various types of clinics in the PRC were severely disrupted by the epidemic and thus the number of patients substantially decreased. Also, key product Moxifloxacin Hydrochloride & Sodium Chloride Injection was affected by national centralised procurement. Sales volume of intravenous infusion solutions, being the major products of the Group, dropped considerably. Sales volume of the intravenous infusion solutions was approximately 1,190 million bottles/bags, representing a decrease of approximately 23% compared to last year. Facing significant pressure from the market, the Group responded actively by further securing and stabilizing its market, and laid a solid market foundation for the rapid recovery of the intravenous infusion solution business after the epidemic. On the other hand, the Group took effective measures to actively adjust its product mix and facilitate the rapid growth of businesses in ampoules, bulk pharmaceuticals and oral preparations, so as to further achieve the diversification of the business.

The Board of directors resolved to pay a final dividend of HK$0.05 per share for year 2020, together with interim dividend HK$0.05 per share, total dividend for full year of 2020 will be HK$0.10 per share, representing a decrease of approximately 9% from last year.

During the year, revenue of ampoule products amounted to HK$863 million, representing a growth of 1.5 times compared to last year. During the year, the Group built a new production line designated for 10ml PP ampoule injections to further expand production capacity of specialised ampoule products. In respect of bulk pharmaceuticals business, through continuous optimization and enhancement of production processes, preliminary production cost advantage has revealed, a new landscape is gradually formed with major bulk pharmaceuticals and promising new products which are high value-added specialised bulk pharmaceuticals as coordinating development. Oral preparations business segment achieved preliminary results. After implementation of centralised procurement in the PRC, new products Cefdinir capsule and Prucalopride Succinate tablet were the first tender won by the Group. The PRC government has ordered the Group’s Abidol Hydrochloride capsule as a broad-spectrum antiviral drug through centralised procurement, which has played a positive role in this fight against the epidemic. The revenues of Abidol for the year amounted to RMB93.40 million, representing a significant increase of 13.5 times compared to last year. Export sales to foreign countries achieved a growth despite the general trend, with increases in export revenue of 40.7% and export revenue of infusion solution of 10.2% compared to last year.

Following along the lines of transformation, upgrade and innovation development, the Group continuously increased its efforts in technological innovation. The Group’s pilot-testing and industrialised support project for pharmaceutical research and development platform have been handed over for use in May 2020, which will facilitate the Group its industrial transformation and upgrade. Type I innovative drug NP-01, the Group’s first innovative drug, has received approval for clinical trial and its clinical testing research have already commenced. During year 2020, 6 products with 7 specifications, including Prucalopride Succinate tablet (1mg, 2mg), Cefdinir capsule (0.1mg), Rosuvastatin Calcium Tablet (10mg), Doxofylline Injection, Ropivacaine Hydrochloride Injection and Moxifloxacin Hydrochloride & Sodium Chloride Injection, passed the Consistency Evaluation of Quality and Efficacy of Generic Drugs in the PRC or were regarded as passing the consistency evaluation. During the year, 5 approvals for consistency evaluation of injections have been obtained. Ciprofloxacin Lactate Injection was the first one of such product passing the consistency evaluation in the PRC while Fluconazole and Sodium Chloride Injection and Bromhexine Hydrochloride Injection were the second ones of such products passing the consistency evaluation in the PRC. The 250ml: 0.25g specification and 100ml:0.5g specification of Metronidazole and Sodium Chloride Injection were the first and second one of such specifications passing the consistency evaluation in the PRC respectively.

Looking ahead in 2021, domestic and international economy will remain complex and dynamic. Affected by the normality under novel coronavirus epidemic, the pressure arising from external factors may persist and bring new challenges to the Group’s operation and sales. Facing numerous uncertainties, the Group will continue to keep its composure, uphold its development focus and do its best in maintaining the momentum in sustainable and stable development of the Group. The Group will promote development by innovation, and improve efficiency by management. The Group will maintain the leading position of our major products in intravenous infusion solution market. The Group will strive to achieve recovery growth of intravenous infusion solution segment, with an estimated sales volume of 1,600 million bottles/bags, representing an increase of approximately 34% from 2020. The Group will continue to maintain the fast growth of ampoule injection business so as to make ampoule business segment one of the principal businesses of the Company soon. On the other hand, the Group will actively utilize the production capacity of bulk pharmaceuticals and improve capacity utilization to lay a solid foundation for the listing in the PRC. Moreover, the Group will continue to make progress on implementation of innovative drug evaluations and consistency evaluations. We will adhere to the new product development idea of “combination of generic and innovative drugs” with development of as injections the basis. At the same time, we will take into consideration of research and development of new types of oral preparation, bulk pharmaceuticals and medical materials. Meanwhile, the Group strives to make new breakthroughs in the research and development of innovative drugs, push forward the phase I clinical trial of anti-tumor Type 1 innovative drug NP-01, and conduct preliminary research on anti-liver fibrosis Type 1 innovative drug AND-9, anti-epileptic compound QO-83 and anti-tumor Type 2 chemical innovative drug Miriplatin.

Mr. Qu Jiguang, Chairman and CEO of SSY Group Limited said, “Facing the risks and challenges persisting during the post-epidemic era, we are full of confidence on the future development of the Group. Leveraging on the competitive edges on our scale, quality, lean management and branding in the industry, we will firmly grasp development initiatives, keep the tenacity and vitality from innovation development, and push forward high-quality development of the Group. We will deliver more solid development results to bring satisfactory returns to our investors.”

About SSY Group Limited

SSY Group Limited is one of the leading pharmaceutical manufacturers in China with nearly 7 decades of operation history and a well-established brand name. The Group went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in December 2005 with stock code 2005. The group has become a component stock of Morgan Stanley Capital International Index (MSCI) China Index from June 2018. The Group is principally engaged in the research, development, manufacture and sale of a wide range of pharmaceutical products, including OTC drugs, bulk medicine and medical materials, mainly intravenous infusion solution to hospital and distributors. The manufacturing plants of the Group locates in Hebei Province and Jiangsu Province in China, its products take leading position in the high-end hospital market in China.

Trend Micro research reveals lack of IT-OT collaboration is holding back security projects

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 30 March 2021 – Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), the leader in cybersecurity, today revealed that most (61%) manufacturers have experienced cybersecurity incidents in their smart factories and are struggling to deploy the technology needed to effectively manage cyber risk.

Trend Micro commissioned independent research specialist Vanson Bourne to conduct an on-line survey with 500 IT and OT professionals in the United States, Germany and Japan and found that over three-fifths (61%) of manufacturers have experienced cyber incidents, with most (75%) of these suffering system outages as a result. More than two-fifths (43%) said outages lasted over four days.

These findings and more can be found in the report, “The State of Industrial Cybersecurity: Converging IT and OT with People, Process, and Technology.” A full copy of the report can be found at https://resources.trendmicro.com/Industrial-Cybersecurity-WP.html.

“Manufacturing organizations around the world are doubling down on digital transformation to drive smart factory improvements. The gap in IT and OT cybersecurity awareness creates the imbalance between people, process and technology, and it gives bad guys a chance to attack.” said Akihiko Omikawa, executive vice president of IoT security for Trend Micro. “That’s why Trend Micro has integrated IT and OT intelligence and provides a comprehensive solution from the shop floor to the office. We’re helping put visibility and continuous control back in the hands of smart factory owners.”

The results from all three countries showed that technology (78%) was seen as the biggest security challenge, although people (68%) and process (67%) were also cited as top challenges by many respondents. However, fewer than half of the participants said they’re implementing technical measures to improve cybersecurity.

Asset visualization (40%) and segmentation (39%) were the least likely of cybersecurity measures to be deployed, hinting that they are the most technically challenging for organizations to execute. Organizations with a high degree of IT-OT collaboration were more likely to implement technical security measures than those with less cohesion. There was a particularly big gulf between organizations with high IT-OT collaboration verses those with little to no IT-OT collaboration in the use of firewalls (66% verses 47%), IPS (62% verses 46%) and network segmentation (54% verses 37%).

Standards and guidelines were cited as the top driver for enhanced collaboration in the United States (64%), Germany (58%) and Japan (57%). The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Cyber Security Framework and ISO27001 (ISMS) were among the most popular guidelines.

The most common organizational change cited by manufacturers in all three countries was appointing a factory Chief Security Officer (CSO).

Trend Micro recommends a three-step technical approach to securing smart factories and keeping their operations running:

1) Prevention by reducing intrusion risks at data exchange points like the network and DMZ. These risks could include USB storage devices, laptops brought into a factory by third parties, and IoT gateways.

2) Detection by spotting anomalous network behavior like Command & Control (C&C) communication and multiple log-in failures. The earlier the detection, the sooner attacks can be stopped with minimal impact on the organization.

3) Persistence is crucial to protect smart factories from any threat that has evaded prevention and detection stages. Trend Micro TXOne Network’s industrial network and endpoint security solutions are purpose-built for OT environments. They work at a wide range of temperatures and are easy to use with minimal performance impact.

To find out more about Trend Micro’s security solutions for smart factories, please visit trendmicro.com/en_hk/business/solutions/iot/smart-factory.html.

About Trend Micro

Trend Micro, a global leader in cybersecurity, helps make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Leveraging over 30 years of security expertise, global threat research, and continuous innovation, Trend Micro enables resilience for businesses, governments, and consumers with connected solutions across cloud workloads, endpoints, email, IIoT, and networks. Our XGen™ security strategy powers our solutions with a cross-generational blend of threat-defense techniques that are optimized for key environments and leverage shared threat intelligence for better, faster protection. With over 6,700 employees in 65 countries, and the world’s most advanced global threat research and intelligence, Trend Micro enables organizations to secure their connected world. www.trendmicro.com.hk