Demand for increased protection where IT meets OT drives decision to
form new company

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HONG KONG, CHINA - Media Outreach- November 15, 2018 - Trend
Micro Incorporated  (TYO:
4704; TSE: 4704), a global leader in
cybersecurity solutions, and Moxa Inc., a leader in industrial communications
and networking, today announced they have executed a letter of intent relating
to the formation of a joint-venture corporation–TXOne Networks–which will focus
on the security needs present in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)
environments, including
smart manufacturing, smart city, smart energy and more.

 

Historically, within industrial environments Information Technology
(IT), and Operations Technology (OT), have operated within industrial
organizations as isolated and independent networks, with different teams,
objectives and requirements. Organizations are full of
machinery and devices that were not originally designed for the connectivity to
the corporate network, which means they often lack the ability to be easily
updated or patched for security measures. There is a critical need to secure
these devices, identify clear ongoing ownership and to provide a holistic view
across the broadening attack surface within enterprises.

 

Trend Micro, majority owner in TXOne Networks, identified the potential
challenges faced by IIoT stakeholders early on and has been working on several
fronts to secure the entire ecosystem, from data center to device. Moxa
Inc. brings more than 30 years experience of industrial networking and protocol
expertise. TXOne Networks combines these strengths and
responds to the growing security needs of the industrial industry, such as
smart factories that require a unified solution for delivering deeper
visibility into both devices and protocols. These complicated environments are made
up of multiple layers requiring protection that sits in and  between
IT and OT. The responsibility for the security of these
combined layers is traditionally unclear.

 

“I’m excited about this
venture and how Trend Micro continues to take diverse yet focused growth steps
that allow our teams to remain concentrated on our core strengths while giving
room to better serve our customers and advance into new markets,” said Eva
Chen, chief executive officer for Trend Micro. “Partnering with Moxa will
combine more than 60 years of expertise to accelerate our ability to view and
secure the extended enterprise including these important but often overlooked
OT environments.”

TXOne Networks will build security gateways, endpoint
agents and network segmentation to secure, control, and provide visibility of
operational technology and equipment. Unlike
some solutions focused solely on protecting assets closest to
the IT layer via detection, TXOne Networks has expertise closest to the OT layer and will provide proactive, timely
and easily implemented solutions to secure the Industrial Control Systems (ICS)
world.

 

In
addition to investing intellectual capital, funds and dedicated headcount, each
parent company lends complementary channel expertise. Trend Micro brings an IT
channel partner strength while Moxa brings an OT channel partner strength and
together these reinforce the business model and geographic territory targets.
TXOne Networks will be led by Dr. Terence Liu, Trend Micro Vice President and
former CEO of Broadweb. With experience building both products and teams, Dr. Liu will bring
nearly 20 years of security product expertise to this new team. 

“With this
joint venture, Moxa and Trend Micro will position TXOne Networks as a global
leader in the industry to create effective IIoT security solutions that help
ensure IIoT applications and critical infrastructures are secure,”
said Andy Cheng, Strategic Business Unit President for Moxa Inc. “We are
excited about the partnership, and industrial automation customers around the
globe will be able to reap the benefits of having a holistic OT/IT security
solution to protect assets and reduce operational risk.”

 

TXOne Networks solutions also will enable OT customers to
optimize network infrastructure for more IIoT opportunities by benefiting from
Moxa’s expertise in building reliable networks to bring more legacy and
disparate networks into one industry-grade Ethernet backbone and raising the
security level of the entire network’s communication to help customers drive nonstop
productivity and cost reduction. Professional services will also be provided including
security risk assessment, security breach response, and access to threat
intelligence from Trend Micro Research and its Zero Day Initiative (ZDI). 

“In a world where attacks
are getting more persistent and sophisticated, while organizations are
struggling with skills shortage and alert fatigue, these two groups are joining
forces to successfully secure enterprises around the globe,” said Liu. “I am
excited at the opportunities and challenges this team will tackle in the months
and years to come.”

 

For further information on securing IoT and
IIoT environments and Trend Micro’s large and growing portfolio of solutions,
please visit https://www.trendmicro.com/us/iot-security/Solutions/overview.

 

About Moxa

Moxa is a leading provider of edge
connectivity, industrial computing, and network infrastructure solutions for
enabling connectivity for the Industrial Internet of Things. With over 30 years
of industry experience, Moxa has connected more than 50 million devices
worldwide and has a distribution and service network that reaches customers in
more than 70 countries. Moxa delivers lasting business value by empowering
industry with reliable networks and sincere service for industrial
communications infrastructures. Information about Moxa’s solutions is available
at www.moxa.com.

 

About Trend Micro

Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions,
helps to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Our innovative
solutions for consumers, businesses, and governments provide layered security
for data centers, cloud workloads, networks, and endpoints. All our products
work together to seamlessly share threat intelligence and provide a connected
threat defense with centralized visibility and investigation, enabling better,
faster protection. With more than 6,000 employees in 50 countries and the
world’s most advanced global threat research and intelligence, Trend Micro
enables organizations to secure their connected world. For more
information, visit www.trendmicro.com.hk.

 

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product and company names herein may be trademarks of their registered owners.