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Trend Micro Announces Up to ¥10 Billion toward Cyber Resilience Initiative to Strengthen Security for Japanese Organizations in the AI Era

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Initiative supports nationwide modernization of security measures for individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises, with additional access to TrendAI Vision One™ AI security capabilities and expert technical support provided through partners.

TOKYO, Oct. 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Trend Micro Incorporated (TSE: 4704) today announced plans for the Japan Cyber Resilience Initiative, a major national effort to help Japanese organizations strengthen their cybersecurity, reduce critical exposures and modernize their defenses for the AI era. This initiative is designed to support not only organizations but also individuals.

Japan’s cybersecurity challenge is escalating rapidly. According to threat research from TrendAI™, the global AI security leader and enterprise business unit of Trend Micro, 607 publicly disclosed cybersecurity incidents were recorded during the first nine months of 2026, already exceeding the 594 reported throughout all of 2025*. Furthermore, the growing number of personal data breaches at organizations has exposed sensitive information on a large scale, creating cyber risks not only for enterprises but also for individuals and Japanese society as a whole.

*Cybersecurity incident figures are tallies as of October 9, 2026. Figures may change due to factors such as incidents that are later disclosed retroactively and additional cases being added.

Yet as attacks grow in volume and sophistication, many organizations remain unprepared for the next generation of threats. The growing threat extends beyond large enterprises and critical infrastructure to smaller businesses, suppliers and service providers that form the foundation of Japan’s economy.

The program is designed to serve organizations and individuals across Japan, with an initial emphasis on critical infrastructure, major enterprises and the smaller businesses essential to their supply chains. Support will be provided in phases, tailored to organizational needs, eligibility and available resources.

Trend Micro will work closely with its extensive network of channel partners, systems integrators and managed service providers across Japan to extend the initiative’s reach. Eligible organizations will receive up to 10 days of professional services free of charge*, delivered through partners to help them access the right cybersecurity expertise and support.

*For details, including requirements for use, please contact us.

Through its enterprise cybersecurity business, TrendAI™, the company proposes to make available up to ¥10 billion in TrendAI Flex licensing credits to help eligible organizations modernize their security environments with TrendAI Vision One™. The initiative also includes plans to mobilize forward-deployed engineers (FDEs) and provide access to managed detection and response (MDR) expertise.

A national challenge demands a national commitment

Japan’s senior political leaders have characterized the situation as a cybersecurity emergency.

As a global cybersecurity company headquartered in Japan, Trend Micro has spent decades protecting Japanese businesses while investing extensively in global threat research, vulnerability discovery, threat intelligence and incident response.

“Japan is our home. When the organizations and individuals that power our economy, our infrastructure and our communities face an escalating cybersecurity challenge, we have a responsibility to step forward.  No organization should have to face this challenge alone. We are bringing together our technology, our people and our global security expertise to help Japan strengthen its defenses today and prepare for a future in which cyber threats will move faster than ever.” said Eva Chen, Trend Micro CEO.

The Japan Cyber Resilience Initiative will provide the following six forms of support to organizations and individuals.

<For organizations>

1. Up to ¥10 billion to accelerate cybersecurity modernization

Trend Micro proposes an aggregate allocation of up to ¥10 billion in TrendAI Flex licensing credits to help eligible organizations adopt and expand protection through the TrendAI Vision One™ platform designed to help customers modernize their existing security environments, strengthen protection across critical systems. Through TrendAI Flex Unlimited, customers will also be able to access additional TrendAI Vision One™ capabilities, including AI security innovations.

The initiative will also help existing customers, working with their trusted channel partners where appropriate, build on their current security investments and transition toward modern, AI-era defenses without unnecessarily disrupting established protection.

The proposed allocation represents licensing credits, not a cash grant. The initiative will be introduced in phases, with detailed eligibility criteria, credit allocation and redemption terms, partner participation options, and service availability to be communicated as the program is rolled out.

2. Forward-deployed engineers to turn technology into stronger defenses

Recognizing that cybersecurity modernization requires more than technology alone, TrendAI™ plans to mobilize forward-deployed engineers (FDEs) and technical specialists to work directly with participating organizations.

These specialists will work alongside participating organizations and their existing partners, where appropriate, to assess critical exposures, identify security gaps, prioritize risk reduction and accelerate the deployment of modern security capabilities.

FDE engagements will initially prioritize organizations whose security is particularly important to national infrastructure, economic activity and interconnected supply chains. For smaller organizations, Trend Micro intends to work through appropriate delivery models and its partner ecosystem to help extend the initiative’s reach.

3. Expert-led detection, response and operational resilience

Through TrendAI™’s MDR capabilities and security expertise, eligible organizations will be able to explore additional support for continuous threat monitoring, incident investigation and response.

The initiative aims to help organizations move beyond isolated security controls toward a coordinated approach that connects exposure management, threat detection, incident response and proactive risk reduction.

Trend Micro also protects more than 10 million consumers across Japan through its TrendLife™ business unit. Through local partners and a network of managed service provider (MSP) partners serving over 230,000 small and medium-sized businesses, we also help protect close to 2 million business devices. Building on this foundation, we will continue to help strengthen security for consumers and small businesses alike.

<For smaller organizations>

4. 60-day free trial of Worry-Free Business Security Services provided (TBD)

Small and medium-sized businesses play a vital role in supply chains, and strengthening their security is increasingly urgent. For these customers, a 60-day free trial of Worry-Free Business Security Services will be provided. In addition, TrendLife™ is considering new support for the Worry-Free series together with its channel partners. Further details will be announced as they are finalized.

Note: The free trial is available only to new customers in Japan and must be started by December 31, 2026.

5. Exploring AI-Powered Scam Protection to Strengthen Digital Trust on LINE

As small businesses increasingly rely on LINE Official Accounts (LINE OA) to engage with customers, everyday interactions may also expose them to scams disguised as customer inquiries, suspicious links, or fraudulent requests.

TrendLife™ is advancing API integrations with providers of LINE-related services, enabling AI-powered scam detection capabilities to be seamlessly embedded into customer touchpoints and helping strengthen protection for both businesses and their customers. We are currently working with partners, including Crescendo Lab, one of Asia’s leading LINE CRM providers, and are in the final stages of preparation for commercial deployment by the end of the year.

<For consumers>

6. 90 days of Trend Micro ScamCheck provided free of charge

TrendLife™ will provide 90 days of complimentary access to Trend Micro ScamCheck, our mobile scam protection app. In the event that leaked personal information is misused in phone, email, or other scam attempts, Trend Micro ScamCheck helps protect users from potential scams.

The benefit will be provided through the following channels:

TrendLife Online Store: Customers who purchase through the site below will have their subscription extended by 90 days.
https://shop.trendlife.com/ja-jp/products/scam-buster.aspApp stores: Please follow the instructions on the page below.
https://trendlife.com/ja-jp/blog/news-tmsc-3-month-free-trial/

Note: In all cases, customers must start using the service by December 31, 2026.
This offer is available only to customers in Japan.

A lasting commitment to Japan’s cyber resilience

Trend Micro will work with customers and partners to translate this initiative into measurable improvements in cybersecurity, with plans to track participation, modernization progress and defensive outcomes.

Organizations and partners interested in participating can contact their Trend Micro representative or visit the to register their interest and receive updates as program details and participation opportunities become available. For individual customers, please contact us through TrendLife™ website.

About Trend Micro

Trend Micro Incorporated is a Japan-headquartered global cybersecurity company dedicated to protecting the digital world. Drawing on decades of security expertise, worldwide threat intelligence and cybersecurity innovation, the company helps organizations and individuals protect their digital environments and build resilience against evolving cyber threats.

For more information, visit trendmicro.com or TrendLife™ (Japanese).

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SOURCE Trend Micro Incorporated

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commercetools Named a Leader in 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Digital Commerce as AI Reshapes the Market

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commercetools is a Leader in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Digital Commerce for the seventh consecutive year.commercetools has been driving AI innovation on how enterprises build, operate and sell, including capabilities like Sphere, Commerce MCP and commercetools for Builders.commercetools is helping global enterprises modernize complex commerce operations and prepare for a future where both people and AI agents discover, shop and transact.

BOSTON, Oct. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — commercetools, the digital commerce AI company, today announced it has been positioned as a Leader in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Digital Commerce. This marks the seventh consecutive year commercetools has been recognized as a Leader in the report.

As AI reshapes commerce, commercetools is expanding how it supports the enterprises who build and operate commerce experiences, and the shoppers who use them. Global enterprises including JD Sports, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Chemist Warehouse and Mirion Technologies are using commercetools to modernize complex digital commerce, accelerate growth and adopt new AI-powered ways of operating and selling.

“Commerce is moving from systems that simply respond to human instructions toward systems that can increasingly understand, decide and act,” said Doug McNary, Chief Executive Officer at commercetools. “We’re proud to be named a Leader for the seventh consecutive year. Enterprises shouldn’t have to choose between the flexibility they need today and the autonomy they’ll need tomorrow. Our focus is giving them the technology to support both.”

Over the past year, commercetools has introduced new products and capabilities designed to bring AI across the commerce lifecycle:

Sphere: Brings together commercetools’ AI-native infrastructure and agent governance through Commerce MCP into a unified platform for enterprises to build, operate and sell with AI.commercetools for Builders: Helps anyone build, extend and evolve enterprise commerce faster with AI.AgentSphere: Lets enterprises build and manage AI agents to run commerce operations and agentic shopping, with appropriate guardrails to do so safely and at scale.Modular commerce offerings: Gives enterprises the flexibility to start with the capabilities they need and expand over time, accelerating time to value without requiring a full commerce transformation upfront.Commerce Integration Layer: Centralizes integration logic behind customer-facing experiences. Storefronts, mobile apps and AI agents connect through a unified layer hosted and maintained by commercetools.Smart Data Modeler: Uses AI to accelerate product data modeling, helping teams build the right foundation faster and reduce time-to-launch.

commercetools’ customers include large enterprises across retail, manufacturing, life sciences, healthcare and telecommunications in markets around the world.

To learn more about commercetools’ position as a Leader, download your complimentary copy of the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant report today.

About the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce Platforms, Aditya Vasudevan, Penny Gillespie, Sandy Shen, Jason Daigler, Mike Lowndes, 19 October 2026

Gartner and Magic Quadrant are trademarks of Gartner, Inc., and/or its affiliates.

Gartner does not endorse any company, vendor, product or service depicted in its publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s business and technology insights organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this publication, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About commercetools

commercetools, the global digital commerce AI company, helps enterprises transform commerce for the AI era. Built API-native from the start and AI-first by design, our technology enables agentic shopping experiences, automates commerce operations and gives businesses the agility to modernize faster, innovate continuously and operate more intelligently.

More than 500 global brands, retailers and enterprise companies rely on commercetools to power their digital commerce. Together, they process more than $100 billion in annualized GMV, over 700 million orders and more than one billion customer records on our platform.

Media Contact: comms@commercetools.com 

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SOURCE commercetools

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Phylo’s Biomni Lab to expand the use of AI agents in scientific research at Bayer

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SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Oct. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Phylo, Inc. announced today a partnership with Bayer to deploy Biomni Lab, Phylo’s agentic AI platform to accelerate scientific research and evaluation. 

Under the agreement, Phylo will provide Bayer with full access to its agentic platform that helps Bayer scientists bring together scientific literature, biomedical data, and analytical methods in one environment, reducing the manual effort required to assemble and assess evidence. The platform’s inspectable workflows preserve the context behind each result, allowing researchers to review the underlying sources, methods, and execution and apply their own scientific judgment. Bayer scientists will gain access to Biomni Lab for workflows focused on assembling literature and omics evidence for drug discovery.

“This partnership reflects our belief that AI should expand scientific curiosity, not just speed up routine work. Giving our scientists an AI partner that brings rigor to every step lets them explore more ideas, ask bolder questions, and find the insights that move drug discovery forward, ultimately accelerating the pace at which we can bring new medicines to patients,” said Sai Jasti, Senior Vice President, Head of Data Science & Artificial Intelligence, Bayer Pharmaceuticals R&D.

“For agentic AI to matter in research, it has to earn the trust of the scientists doing the work. Bayer’s selection of Biomni Lab is a strong endorsement of the scientific rigor and AI capabilities we’ve built into the platform,” said Kexin Huang, Ph.D., Co-Founder and CEO of Phylo. “Our vision is an AI-native operating system for biopharma, where every scientist can direct a team of AI agents to pursue complex research questions. With Bayer, we aim to show what becomes possible when AI capabilities meet deep scientific expertise: more hypotheses explored, more discoveries made, and new possibilities for medicine.”

About Phylo

Phylo’s mission is to bring the best agentic intelligence to every biomedical scientist. Its enterprise-grade AI platform, Biomni Lab, is the first Integrated Biology Environment—a unified workspace where scientists collaborate with AI agents across literature research, experimental design, biological data analysis, and scientific decision-making.

Biomni Lab is now used by leading global biopharma, including Bayer, Chugai Pharmaceutical and Ono Pharmaceutical. Phylo is based in South San Francisco, backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Menlo Ventures.

For more information, visit phylo.bio. To learn more about Biomni Lab, visit biomni.phylo.bio.

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SOURCE Phylo, Inc.

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Sandler Partners Welcomes Bryan Rias as Director, Sales Engineer, West Region

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New Hire Announcement | Independent Technology Distributor Sandler Partners grows its Sales Engineering team, adding Bryan Rias as Director, Sales Engineer, West Region.

REDONDO BEACH, Calif., Oct. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Sandler Partners, the leading independent Technology Solutions Distributor, announces the addition of Bryan Rias as Director, Sales Engineer, West Region, further strengthening its dedicated sales engineering team and the technical support available to Partners in the West Region.

Bryan brings more than two decades of experience designing and delivering complex technology solutions, including enterprise and Cloud architecture roles at Lumen/Savvis and IBM focused on infrastructure modernization and customer success. His expertise spans automation, edge computing, disaster recovery, application performance monitoring (APM), and DevSecOps. In his role, Bryan will support Partners across the West Region, aligning early with them on strategy and leading thoughtful discovery to help them find the right fit for each client.

For Bryan, strong relationships and solid values guide his life and form the foundation of his professional success, a perspective that fits naturally within the Sandler Partners community. When he is not working, Bryan spends time with his family, including his wife, three sons, and a grandson, RVing, boating, and biking, along with pursuing his passion for freediving.

“Bryan brings the kind of hands-on experience our Partners value: he’s been in the room on complex deals and knows how to turn a customer’s needs into the right solution,” says Justin Marano, Chief Revenue Officer, Sandler Partners. “He came to Sandler for the freedom to work across best-of-breed Providers, and our Partners in the West will feel that right away. He’s collaborative, grounded, and focused on helping Partners win. I’m excited to have him on the team.”

“I’m excited to get to work alongside our Partners, helping them navigate complex opportunities and bring clarity to technical decisions,” says Bryan. “For me, it all comes back to relationships. When you build them on trust and shared values, the results follow for our Partners and their clients. That’s something that the Sandler community really embodies, and I look forward to getting to work with our Partners!”

About Sandler Partners
Sandler Partners helps empower its network of leading independent Sales Partners to deliver a comprehensive range of technology solutions to organizations worldwide, including Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Connectivity, Cloud, Colocation, Mobility, Internet of Things (IoT), and Continuity. Its community-focused approach enables Partners to identify the right solutions for customers quickly and objectively from a diverse portfolio of 220+ Providers. Partner sales agents, VARs, and MSPs gain access to an innovative suite of sales tools within the Sandler Portal—including SCOUT, Solutions Finder, Scout for Solutions, and the Marketing Center—several of which are AI-powered, all backed by a robust support network, dedicated Sales Engineering expertise, and rich marketing resources. Together, these tools and resources empower Partners to focus on what they do best: delivering quality, value, performance, innovative solutions, unmatched expertise, and exceptional service to their clients. Members of the Sandler Partners community also benefit from the industry’s strongest negotiated agreements and a dedicated team committed to ensuring commissions are accurately identified, tracked, and paid. For more information, visit www.sandlerpartners.com.

Sandler Partners – Media Contact
Tina S. Dyksterhouse
tina@sandlerpartners.com
310-861-2295

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sandler-partners-welcomes-bryan-rias-as-director-sales-engineer-west-region-302916413.html

SOURCE Sandler Partners

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