Trend Micro 2009 Annual Report Download - page 1

3
(Attachment)
(Translation)
Business Report
(From January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2009)
1. Business Review
(1) Process and Results of Business Operations of the Group
Despite economic trends in some major countries seemed to be still recovering from the
overall global recession caused by Lehman Shock partly, the world economy during this term
from January 1 to December 31, 2009, showed signs that it was finally emerging from a
disastrous economic standpoint. Positive signs include the fact that U.S. banks repaid public
funds and enterprises were returning to profitability; at the Federal Open Market Committee,
the FRB (Federal Reserve Board) stated that “the deterioration in the labor market is abating”;
and emerging countries such as China and India achieved economic progress.
Not everything was so affirmative though. The U.S. budget deficit is still at an all-time high.
Also G7 expressed concern about the excess volatility and disorderly movements in exchange
rates in October, then it linked to Dubai crisis which was caused a global rapid weak US dollar
in November. In addition, there have still no signs of improvement in the unemployment rate
and personal consumption. Because of this, it is still too early to confirm that the real economy
has improved.
The Japanese economy showed signs of recovery. Although Japan's GDP growth was in the
negative numbers even before Lehman’s fall, it moved into the positive numbers during April-
June period and through the end of this year. However, consumer price index for Japan in
December 2009 fell for the tenth consecutive month. The Japanese government formally
declared that the nation is in a period of deflation. Though it appeared that the recession had
bottomed out, it may be only temporary. The Japanese economy faced a long road to a strong
and autonomous fiscal recovery during 2009.
The network security industry is also changing as cyber criminals move away from mass
attacks to much targeted ones with a specific purpose for monetary gain and data-stealing. At
the same time, their target has shifted from the general public to specific targets. As a result,
virus infections have decreased. According to the virus infection damage incident report, Japan
reported 45,310 infections during this annual term of 2009, a 20.3 percent decrease from 2008,
which had 56,880 reports. On the whole, Web threats, which stem from the Internet and can be
deployed unknowingly by the user just by opening a Web page, has become a staple for network
attack techniques. It hits and change much sites into trigger damaged sites. Those damages
have been reported many infections related to defaced sites as typified by Gumblar which has
gotten a lot of media coverage in Japan, too. Also as we have been alerted, social engineering
techniques used by cyber criminals are also becoming more sophisticated. Malicious codes
which determinably aim to information stealing have always been tops the list. As the results
of trend in 2009, good technology isn’t enough because even the most secure systems can be
vulnerable. Users must also practice safe habits such as being on the alert for security
information, setting safe passwords, understanding their security infrastructure, administering
security patches when they are available, and making sure they have the most up-to-date
security products available.
Under such an environment, our group’s business conditions are as follows:
Although it was drastically affected by the weak world economy, Japan was the only country
that achieved an increase in sustainable growth. The Enterprise business unit hangs on flat
sales from the same period last year and the consumer business unit’s sales performed well,