Tag Archives: IoT

PR Newswire

Canada’s national bill and tax payment infrastructure operated by Dye & Durham remains unaffected by today’s network outages

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  • Canadians can continue to pay their pre-authorized bills and online tax payments
  • Over a million Canadians use Dye & Durham’s national payment infrastructure daily

TORONTO, July 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Dye & Durham Limited (TSX: DND) (“Dye & Durham” or the “Company”), a leading provider of cloud-based efficient workflow software for legal and business professionals, announced today its online payment platform remains fully operational and unaffected by the wireless and internet service outages being reported across the country.

Dye & Durham’s national payment infrastructure platform plays a critical role in Canada’s financial system, supporting more than 1 million Canadians daily and processing more than $1.3 trillion in transactions annually. Canadians can confidently continue to make transactions such as pre-authorized payments for bills and taxes across all levels of government, in addition to a range of fund transfer services through their financial institutions.

“Our reliable national payment infrastructure remains fully operational, enabling consumers and businesses across the country to make timely and important transfers,” said Dye & Durham Chief Operating Officer Martha Vallance. “Dye & Durham’s technology plays a critical part in facilitating millions of daily transactions that drive Canada’s economy.”

About Dye & Durham 
Dye & Durham Limited is a leading provider of cloud–based software and technology solutions designed to improve efficiency and increase productivity for legal and business professionals. Dye & Durham provides critical information services and workflows, which clients use to manage their process, information and regulatory requirements. The Company has operations in Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia, and has a strong blue-chip customer base that includes law firms, financial service institutions, and government organizations.

Additional information can be found at www.dyedurham.com

Morgan McLellan, morgan@providentcomms.com, 647-802-4825

PR Newswire

BRV China-backed Service Robot Company Wissen Technology Completes US$10 Million Pre-A+ Series Financing

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BEIJING, July 5, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Wissen Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd (Wissen Technology), a leading service robot innovator, raised close to US$10 million in a Pre-A+ Series financing led by BlueRun Ventures China (“BRV China”). The funding will go towards reinforcing Wissen Technology’s technological edge in the development of collaborative robots (‘cobots’) and boosting its efforts across talent acquisition and commercialization of applications. Wissen Technology is the only cobot provider with a full-stack technology offering all-in-one smart robot solutions utilizing light, flexible robotic arms.

Founded in 2019, Wissen Technology has dedicated itself to redefine the industry of cobots by reaching new standards in flexibility, agility, elasticity and safety. The KT200 Dual-arm Field Operation Robot, equipped with a variety of end-execution tools, was awarded Contemporary Good Design Award 2021 by Red Dot Design Awards, one of the world’s largest design competitions, and is now fully functional across social and public services.

Cobots have grown rapidly in recent years. According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China, China is a core driving force within the world’s robotics industry having created more than RMB100 billion in total revenue over the past year. Further, industrial cobots have been put into use in nearly 200 industries and sectors in China and have proved their competence across education, healthcare and agriculture.

Despite rising demand, cobots face considerable barriers. It requires technological breakthroughs in every stage whether in hardware components such as the base, rotary joints and end-of-arm tools or in terms of software programming such as navigation, visual image analysis and movement control. Only when all elements are perfectly in place can cobots function properly. 

“The investment is meant to lift robotics innovation to a new level,” said Wei CAO, Partner of BRV China. “Currently, labor shortage due to an ageing population has led to skyrocketing demand for interactive operation robots in order to carry out unmanned operations across industries.”

“There is a need for comprehensive solutions in the form of collaborative robotic arms that are safe, agile and cost-effective. As such products get widely applied across public services, the utility sector, health and sanitation industries, intelligent parks and other areas. We look forward to Wissen’s efforts to drive the technology industry forward,” added Mr. Cao.

The founding team of Wissen Technology said: “We are determined to deliver a brand-new user experience and expand the utility of elastic robots. With the funding round, Wissen is keen to move towards the mass production of well-rounded collaborative service robots that can safeguard frontline workers and boost operational efficiency.”

About BRV China

BlueRun Ventures China (BRV China) is a leading early-stage venture firm in China with offices in Beijing and Shanghai. Having its heritage in Silicon Valley since 1998 and entered China in 2005, BRV China has managed over $2 billion through multiple USD and RMB funds, with over $1 billion cash distributions. BRV China focuses on investing in entrepreneurs who create a sustainable impact through technological innovations across enterprise services, transportation and smart machine, digital healthcare, and consumer technology sectors in China. The firm has invested in more than 150 portfolio companies, including Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI), QingCloud (688316.SH), WaterDrop (NYSE: WDH), Energy Monster (NASDAQ: EM), Mogujie/Meilishuo (NYSE: MOGU), Qudian (NYSE: QD), Ganji/58.com, PPTV, Guazi, Meishubao, Nanyan, Shanzhen, Gaussian Robotics, Yi Auto, Pinecone, etc. The firm has been recognized as the “No.1 Early-Stage Investment Firm” in China by Zero2IPO and ChinaVenture, and “Consistent Performing Venture Capital Fund Manager” by Preqin. For further information, please visit https://www.brv.com.cn/en/.

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PR Newswire

Cloocus recognized as the winner of the 2022 Microsoft Country Partner of the Year for the second consecutive year

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SEOUL, South Korea, June 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Cloocus, a leading cloud experts group specialized in Microsoft, today announced it has won the Country of the Year 2022 Microsoft Partner of the Year Award. The company was honored among a global field of top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology.

2022 Microsoft Country Partner of the Year _ Cloocus
2022 Microsoft Country Partner of the Year _ Cloocus

“The partner of the Year Award is awarded to the partner that has shown the highest performance in Microsoft business. Receiving this award for the second consecutive year, I feel great responsibility to strive more,” said Steve Hong, the CEO of Cloocus. “We will do our best to become a partner with the best technology to support 3 Cloud – Azure, Microsoft365, and Dynamics365 & Power Platform.”

The Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards recognize Microsoft partners that have developed and delivered outstanding Microsoft-based applications, services and devices during the past year. Awards were classified in various categories, with honorees chosen from a set of more than 3,900 submitted nominations from more than 100 countries worldwide. Cloocus was recognized for providing outstanding and services in Korea.

Despite being founded for only three years, Cloocus has grown in a rapid pace this year. Since its earlier stage, Cloocus has heavily invested in Microsoft’s cloud technology and acquired “Azure Expert MSP,” which is Microsoft’s top global technology grade. Among the Korean partners, it holds the most advanced specialization certifications, which is the highest grade of Azure technology per specific workloads, for Cloud Migration, Hybrid Cloud, Security, Application Modernization, Data & AI, and more. By utilizing the latest technologies of “Azure Digital Twin Platform,” “Azure Databricks,” and “Azure Machine Learning” for its recent project with Hyundai Motor Group, it has proven its exceptional expertise in Data and AI services.

An e-approval solution optimized for Korean work environments, “ClooWorks,” has also been launched based on Microsoft Teams. As the first Microsoft Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE) partner in Korea, it is recruiting partners to do its Microsoft business together and is striving to expand its Microsoft-based cloud ecosystem. With Microsoft Korea, Cloocus opened the “Global Tech Hub” in Busan to strengthen strategic cooperation in expanding its regional cloud business.

Furthermore, Cloocus is also actively engaged in Microsoft Enabler Program to implement an inclusive workplace for disabilities in the APAC region.

“I am honored to announce the winners of the 2022 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards,” said Nick Parker, corporate vice president of Global Partner Solutions at Microsoft. “These partners were outstanding among the exceptional pool of nominees and I‘m continuously impressed by their innovative use of Microsoft Cloud technologies and the impact for its customers.”

Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards are announced annually prior to the company’s global partner conference, Microsoft Inspire, which will take place on July 19-20 this year. Additional details on the 2022 awards are available on the Microsoft Partner Network blog: https://blogs.partner.microsoft.com/mpn/congratulations-to-the-2022-microsoft-partner-of-theyear-awards-winners-and-finalists/. The complete list of categories, winners and finalists can be found at https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/inspire/awards.

About Cloocus Co Ltd

Founded in 2019, Cloocus Co Ltd is recognized as a Microsoft Azure expert MSP (Managed Service Provider)(NASDAQ: MSFT) and currently houses the most Microsoft Azure experts in South Korea and is also recognized as Korea’s first Cloud Modernization, AMP, and Azure Advanced Specializations partner with over 500+ clients.

Cloocus has been working tirelessly to serve customers from Enterprise to SMBs and startups of various industries including Hyundai Motor Group, SK Group, Hanwha Solutions, CJ, Netmarble, NC, PearlAbyss, Krafton, and more.

In July 2021, Cloocus was named as the winner of “Microsoft Partner of the Year 2021 Korea”.

It has overseas offices in New York and Kuala Lumpur and will continue to expand its global business, mainly in Asia.

For further media inquiries please contact:

Jiyeon Ahn (E.jiyon@cloocus.com)
Dahyo Park (E.dhpark@cloocus.com)

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PR Newswire

Servian founder launches Video Intelligence Platform ‘VisualCortex’

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Technology entrepreneur, Tony Nicol, launches video analytics start-up VisualCortex, making video insights accessible, actionable and valuable for all video-rich industries and business functions

SYDNEY and NEW YORK, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — VisualCortex – the cloud-based Video Intelligence Platform, connecting computer vision’s potential to real-world business outcomes – has officially launched today worldwide. VisualCortex is headquartered in Sydney, Australia.

Watch the VisualCortex overview video here: visualcortex.com

Unlike camera-side or point solutions – which typically focus on one video analytics challenge per deployment – VisualCortex delivers a highly performant enterprise-grade platform to facilitate any real-time or historical video analytics use case. Built to work with both streaming and offline footage, the VisualCortex platform applies machine learning models to video content, enabling organizations to produce analyzable data streams about defined objects and actions. Insights from that data can then be embedded straight into customers’ traditional data infrastructure.

VisualCortex is backed by its Chairman and Co-Founder, Tony Nicol, who sold Australia’s largest data-focused cloud consultancy, Servian, to US-based professional services company, Cognizant, in January 2021. Nicol founded Servian in 2008, where he remained CEO of the 900-person-strong enterprise transformation business until June 2021.

Utilizing experiences building some of the largest and most complex enterprise data platforms, Nicol said that VisualCortex’s purpose was to enable any complex computer vision use case without compromising robustness and reliability.

“We built VisualCortex to overcome the limitations of single-use-case solutions, without sacrificing the stability, security, scalability, flexibility and governance that naturally occurs in homegrown point solutions,” said Nicol.

Commenting on VisualCortex’s launch, Nicol said the company’s mission was to enable any organization to become a vision aware enterprise, allowing them to solve commercially valuable challenges with video-based insights at scale.

“For the first time, we’re making video data truly actionable throughout the enterprise,” said Nicol. “Up until now, computer vision technology has struggled to make commercial sense and generate impactful business value. They’ve also been prohibitively hard-to-use and expensive in terms of cost and time-to-value, hampering the ability to be harnessed by anyone other than machine learning experts.

“VisualCortex’s Video Intelligence Platform removes those barriers and provides an enterprise-grade approach and control to computer vision initiatives,” said Nicol. “We’re enabling any business unit to quickly and easily build and implement a video analytics use case to facilitate future ways of working, today – no matter the nature of your business, hardware or video content.”

CEO and Co-Founder, Patrick Elliott, said that VisualCortex was enabling organizations – regardless of the industry or business function – to produce analyzable video-based data streams about any aspect of their operations.

“VisualCortex is making video intelligence accessible and valuable for all video-rich industries and business functions,” said Elliott. “Our Video Intelligence Platform provides the AI smarts, governance and stability. Clients just need to bring their standard infrastructure, commodity hardware and video – from any stream, camera or repository. With VisualCortex, you can run multiple machine learning models, for any number of video sources, across your existing cameras and video feeds.

“We’re enabling anyone to quickly connect machine learning models with a production-ready cloud-based environment, transforming video assets into analyzable and actionable streams of data at scale. VisualCortex empowers technical users, like software developers and data scientists, as well as business users – from marketing executives and business analysts, to operations teams for OHS, security, car parks and more.”

Elliott added that VisualCortex had already signed a number of commercial agreements and that specific partner and customer announcements would be made in the near future.

“We’ve encountered strong demand for VisualCortex’s approach to video analytics,” said Elliott. “We’re set to announce a number of partnerships in the short-term with software and hardware vendors, service providers and the public sector. In terms of customers, we’ve signed NDAs – and are in various stages of conducting pilots and working on long-term agreements – with organizations in transport, retail and commercial real estate. Stay tuned for further exciting announcements regarding customer success and our growing partner ecosystem.”

CTO and Co-Founder, Ben Evans, said that VisualCortex facilitated both real-time action and strategic analysis for any video analytics use case.

“We’re enabling organizations to easily define, detect, track and produce tangible analytics about the objects and incidents that matter to them – from vehicle and number plate recognition, to people counting and dwell analysis,” said Evans. “Customers can use those analytical insights operationally, triggering real-time alerts – and pushing the video-based data into operational systems – to prompt immediate action. Users can also analyze the data derived from their video assets with in-platform reports or pipe it into third-party databases. Combining video data streams with traditional data sources can unearth powerful integrated insights.”

Evans added that the VisualCortex Model Store would also play a significant role in helping more organizations realize faster, stronger returns on their video analytics initiatives.

“We know that building, training and maintaining reliable machine learning models is resource intensive,” said Evans. “The VisualCortex Model Store provides a secure digital marketplace for customers, partners and independent machine learning experts to share – and generate revenue from – quality controlled computer vision models.

“At its core, the Model Store provides models-as-a-service. Anyone with appropriate security access can upload video footage into the VisualCortex platform, then define events to track, leveraging models from the Model Store, and produce data for analysis.”

VisualCortex is committed to building, training and maintaining a growing set of machine learning models, available out-of-the-box with a VisualCortex subscription license.

Browse the VisualCortex Model Store here: visualcortex.com/model-store

The VisualCortex Video Intelligence Platform can be securely deployed in multiple ways to meet individual organization’s needs: As a fully-managed service in the cloud, on customers’ private cloud, via public cloud providers, on-premise, at the edge, or via a hybrid deployment model. VisualCortex is generally available to the market from Friday 24th June, 2022.

About VisualCortex

VisualCortex is making video data actionable in the enterprise. As the world’s best Video Intelligence Platform, VisualCortex provides the stability and scalability to productionize computer vision technology for the first time. Unlike camera-side or point solutions, VisualCortex can be used for any video analytics use case in any industry. VisualCortex’s production-ready cloud-based environment transforms video assets into analyzable streams of data at scale.

The VisualCortex platform delivers the artificial intelligence smarts, governance and usability, enabling organizations to connect any number of video streams, repositories and use existing commodity hardware. An intuitive user interface, out-of-the-box reporting, range of configurations and integrations empower non-technical people to produce, analyze and act on insights derived from computer vision throughout the enterprise. Organizations can easily combine these AI-generated video insights with other data sources and systems to facilitate both real-time operations and strategic analysis. The VisualCortex Model Store also provides a secure marketplace for customers, partners and independent machine learning experts to share quality controlled computer vision models.

For more information, visit www.visualcortex.com

For further media information, interviews or images, please contact:

Lachlan James, VisualCortex Chief Marketing Officer, on +61 (0)431 835 658 or lachlan.james@visualcortex.com 

For regular updates, follow VisualCortex on Twitter (@VisualCortexApp), LinkedIn (VisualCortex), YouTube (VisualCortex) and Facebook (@VisualCortexApp).

For regular industry news and analysis, subscribe to VisualCortex’s mailing list here: https://visualcortex.com/contact-us/

PR Newswire

RevBits Endpoint Security Wins the 2022 Fortress Cybersecurity Award for Endpoint Detection Solutions

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Cybersecurity solutions provider RevBits named as a winner for Endpoint Detection in the Product or Service Category for its Endpoint Security solution

MINEOLA, N.Y., June 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — RevBits, a unified cybersecurity company for enterprise endpoints, cloud and on-premises systems, today announced it has won the 2022 Fortress Cybersecurity Award for Endpoint Detection for its solution RevBits Endpoint Security in the Endpoint Detection – Product or Services Category. The Fortress Cybersecurity Award, administered through The Business Intelligence Group, seeks to identify and reward the world’s leading companies and products that are working to keep data and electronic assets safe from threats.

RevBits Endpoint Security was named a winner in the Product or Service Category for Endpoint Detection, and RevBits Privileged Access Management was recognized as a 2022 award finalist.
RevBits Endpoint Security was named a winner in the Product or Service Category for Endpoint Detection, and RevBits Privileged Access Management was recognized as a 2022 award finalist.

RevBits is pleased to be awarded in the following categories:

  • 2022 Fortress Cybersecurity Award – Product or Services / Endpoint Detection
    • RevBits Endpoint Security
  • 2022 Fortress Cybersecurity – Recognized as a Finalist
    • RevBits Privileged Access Management

“As a developer of cybersecurity software, our focus is providing customers with sophisticated and robust solutions that improve their security posture,” said David Schiffer, RevBits CEO. “To be awarded for our Endpoint Security solution and receive recognition from Fortress for our Privileged Access Management product is very rewarding. Through the efforts of our development teams and technology road map led by our CTO, Mucteba Celik, we will continue to enhance our solutions to deliver superior detection, blocking, mitigation response, and control for our customers.”

“Endpoint Security (EPS) is a key product in our suite of enterprise solutions,” said Mucteba Celik, RevBits CTO. “The EPS marketplace is competitive, and to have been recognized by Fortress is a great honor. “Our development efforts on EPS have been centered on building a 100% detection capability with a zero false positive reporting. We have made great strides in constructing the most capable endpoint security, detection and response solution available. For example, we developed anti-rootkit technology that protects against kernel-level malware attacks, which has been awarded a U.S. Patent.”

About RevBits

Established in 2018, RevBits is a comprehensive cybersecurity company that is dedicated to providing its customers with superior protection and service. By offering multiple advanced security products, that can be administered through a unified security platform, RevBits delivers protection against the most sophisticated cyber threats companies face. RevBits is headquartered in Mineola, NY, with offices in Princeton, NJ, Boston, MA, London (England), and Antwerp (Belgium). For more information on RevBits please visit www.revbits.com/aboutrevbits.

Media Contact: neal.hesterberg@revbits.com 


PR Newswire

Bridgetek Introduces New Sensors and Actuators to Simplify IoT Implementation for Businesses

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SINGAPORE, June 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Bridgetek Pte Ltd. are introducing a new range of sensors and actuator devices to improve productivity, consistency of quality and yield, staff utilization, and ensuring efficient use of resources. Applications include industrial controls, smart farming, marine aquaculture, smart offices, laboratory instrumentation, and car parks among others.

Bridgetek Introduces New Sensors and Actuators to Simplify IoT Implementation for Businesses
Bridgetek Introduces New Sensors and Actuators to Simplify IoT Implementation for Businesses

The sensors and actuators are designed to work together on a shared network known as the Long-Distance Sensor Bus (LDSBus). This simplifies the cabling significantly by using standard interconnects and distributing power to the attached devices. It also removes the complexity of interconnecting different devices, protocols, networks, and software, allowing them to work together seamlessly. All sensor data and actuator commands on the LDSBus are relayed to and from the IoTPortal via the proprietary Bridgetek IoTPortal Gateways.

Key features of the Bridgetek LDSBus include:

  • Easy installation: One CAT5/5e LDSBus cable with RJ45 connectors carries data and power
  • Flexible: LDSBus connections are daisy-chained using HVT-junctions. Each HVT-junction has four RJ12 ports for sensor/actuator modules
  • Long distance: Each bus can extend for up to 200m in each direction from the gateway
  • Easy configuration: No programming experience needed to configure the system
  • User-friendly: All sensors and actuators can all be monitored and controlled from the same intuitive app and dashboard
  • Efficient: Alerts via email, SMS and push notification avoid the need to constantly monitor the data and free up staff for other tasks

Business owners and employees can connect to the system, both locally and remotely, via the smartphone app and browser-based dashboard, and receive alerts and notifications. The intuitive and user-friendly interface reduces the learning curve while providing easy system configuration with no code development required.

The adoption of Internet Of Things (IoT) continues to grow as more and more industries realize the advantages it brings. Alongside technological advances, IoT systems are also evolving with simpler installation, which is opening the door to many users who traditionally did not consider intelligent solutions and existing users.

For more information, visit www.brtchip.com. 

For any queries, email to marketing@brtchip.com

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PR Newswire

LG Energy Solution Sets Up Special Advisory Council of Global Artificial Intelligence Experts

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  • New council established to drive company’s digital innovation and promote manufacturing intelligence
  • Five global AI experts specializing in various crucial sectors assigned to spearhead key technological tasks

SEOUL, South Korea, June 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — LG Energy Solution (LGES; KRX: 373220) today announced the launch of its Advisory Council on Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Joining forces with leading scholars specializing in AI technology, the Advisory Council is expected to play a major role in LGES’s digital transformation and the establishment of a manufacturing intelligence platform.

The newly formed council will set visions and business directions to enhance the company’s digital transformation, as well as build the technological partnerships required to realize these ambitions. Accordingly, the council comprises five following divisions:

  • Big data / AI
  • AI systems
  • AI algorithms
  • Robot mechanics & Computer Vision
  • Advanced Process Control and Process Optimization

 The company has appointed five AI experts as its committee members: Sungroh Yoon (Ph.D, Electrical Engineering, Stanford University), Byung-Gon Chun (Ph.D, Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley), Jinwoo Shin (Ph.D, Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Frank Chongwoo Park (Ph.D, Applied Mathematics, Harvard University), and Jong Min Lee (Ph.D, Chemical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology).

Each advisory member will be assigned to a different division, and oversee the selection and execution of strategic assignments within their respective area of expertise. The members will also actively participate in determining key technological tasks utilizing AI, particularly in executing AI tasks for establishing smart factories, as well as fostering the next-generation AI professionals.

“LG Energy Solution is consistently executing several projects for digital innovation that maximizes both the efficiency and precision of its manufacturing processes,” said Youngsoo Kwon, CEO of LG Energy Solution. “With the Advisory Council, we will expedite the promotion of manufacturing intelligence, as well as the establishment of smart factories.”

Prior to establishing this forward-thinking council, LG Energy Solution has been working towards digital transformation based on improving the quality of its batteries and maximizing the efficiency of the supply chain.

As part of its efforts, LG Energy Solution welcomed Dr. Peter Kyungsuk Pyun, former Nvidia Corporation data scientist, as Chief Data Officer (CDO). Dr. Pyun is currently executing digital transformation projects across several areas including R&D, production, and marketing.

About LG Energy Solution

LG Energy Solution (KRX: 373220), a split-off from LG Chem, is a leading global manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobility, IT, and energy storage systems. With 30 years of experience in revolutionary battery technology and extensive research and development (R&D), the company is the top battery-related patent holder in the world with over 24,000 patents. Its robust global network, which spans North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, includes battery manufacturing facilities established through joint ventures with major automakers such as General Motors, Stellantis N.V. and Hyundai Motor Group. At the forefront of green business and sustainability, LG Energy Solution aims to achieve carbon neutral operations by 2050, while embodying the value of shared growth and promoting diverse and inclusive corporate culture. To learn more about LG Energy Solution’s ideas and innovations, visit https://www.lgensol.com.

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PR Newswire

Cisco Unveils Innovations Driving New Security Cloud Strategy

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News Summary:

  • Cisco unveiled its new strategic vision of a unified platform for end-to-end security across hybrid multi-cloud environments
  • The company is designing the Cisco Security Cloud to be the most open security platform with no public cloud lock-in
  • Cisco is taking steps to realize its vision with innovations across the industry’s most complete portfolio, driving security resilience for its customers

SAN FRANCISCO, June 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — RSA Conference – Cisco, the leader in enterprise networking and security, unveiled its plan for a global, cloud-delivered, integrated platform that secures and connects organizations of any shape and size. The company is designing the Cisco Security Cloud to be the industry’s most open platform, protecting the integrity of the entire IT ecosystem – without public cloud lock-in.

At RSA Conference 2022, Cisco unveiled its strategic plan to provide security resilience for a hybrid multi-cloud future
At RSA Conference 2022, Cisco unveiled its strategic plan to provide security resilience for a hybrid multi-cloud future

“With the complexity of hybrid work, continued acceleration of cloud adoption, and the ever-advancing threat landscape, organizations are looking for a trusted partner to help them achieve security resilience. We believe Cisco is uniquely positioned due to its scale, breadth of solutions and cloud-neutral business model to meet their needs,” said Jeetu Patel, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Security and Collaboration at Cisco. “Cisco is already delivering upon key tenets of our cloud platform vision. We’re excited to increase our innovation velocity to truly deliver on the vision of the Cisco Security Cloud.”

The Security Cloud will provide an integrated experience for securely connecting people and devices everywhere to applications and data anywhere. With unified management, the open platform will provide threat prevention, detection, response, and remediation capabilities at scale. Cisco has been on the journey toward the Security Cloud for some time and is sharing additional progress with new innovations across its security portfolio.

Secure Access

Ushering in the next generation of zero trust, Cisco is building solutions that enable true continuous trusted access by constantly verifying user and device identity, device posture, vulnerabilities, and indicators of compromise. These intelligent checks take place in the background, leaving the user to work without security getting in the way. Cisco is introducing less intrusive methods for risk-based authentication, including the patent-pending Wi-Fi fingerprint as an effective location proxy without compromising user privacy.

To evaluate risk after a user logs in, Cisco is building session trust analysis using the open Shared Signals and Events standards to share information between vendors. Cisco unveiled the first integration of this technology with a demo of Cisco Secure Access by Duo and Box.

“The threat landscape today is evolving faster than ever before,” said Aaron Levie, CEO and Co-founder of Box. “We are excited to strengthen our relationship with Cisco and deliver customers with a powerful new tool that enables them to act on changes in risk dynamically and in near real-time. You can expect to see more innovation and execution from Box and Cisco that help businesses protect their content across any location, application, or device.”

Secure Edge

To radically simplify how organizations connect and protect users, things, and applications, anywhere, Cisco is excited to introduce Cisco+ Secure Connect Now, a unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solution. Cisco+ Secure Connect Now is a turnkey offer available in several countries that allows customers to quickly deploy SASE and ease day-to-day operations through a cloud-managed platform. The as-a-service subscription is optimized for value and managed through a unified dashboard.

Cisco offers unmatched breadth and depth in its networking and security capabilities, which is why Telefonica Tech will add Cisco’s SASE suite to its service portfolio.

“As businesses shift to support hybrid work and work from anywhere models, we are committed to helping them adapt to the increased demand for high performing and secure connectivity,” said Rames Sarwat, Director of Cyber Security & Cloud Products and Services at Telefonica Tech. “Together with Cisco, we will offer customers an innovative, managed service that will combine SD-Branch with Cisco SASE to address a complete set of next-generation connectivity and security use cases for the branch and the hybrid worker.” 

Secure Operations

Cisco added a new Talos Intel On-Demand service offering custom research on the threat landscape unique to each organization. To help accelerate incident detection and response, Cisco announced enhancements to Cisco Secure Cloud Analytics with its ability to automatically promote alerts into SecureX and map those alerts to MITRE ATT&CK. This follows the general availability of SecureX device insights to aggregate, correlate, and normalize data about the devices in their environment, and the integrations of Kenna and Secure Endpoint to better prioritize vulnerabilities. Cisco also introduced the Secure Firewall 3100 Series, designed for hybrid work with a new encrypted visibility engine that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to detect hidden threats.

Simplification

Cisco is introducing simplification across the portfolio with the new unified Secure Client. Streamlining how administrators and users manage endpoints, half of Cisco Secure agents, including AnyConnect, Secure Endpoint, and Umbrella, will be unified by mid-year 2022 with additional agents to be added over time. This follows the new cloud-delivered Secure Firewall Management Center, which is enabled through the Cisco Defense Orchestrator and unifies management of both cloud and on-premise firewalls.

To learn more, visit Cisco.com/go/security.

Additional Resources:

About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in technology that powers the Internet. Cisco inspires new possibilities by reimagining your applications, securing your data, transforming your infrastructure, and empowering your teams for a global and inclusive future. Discover more on The Newsroom and follow us on Twitter. Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco’s trademarks can be found at http://www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company.

Source: Cisco Systems, Inc.

PR Newswire

Help Organizations to Mitigate Risk in Microsoft 365 with ‘Vectra Protect’

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Vectra offers a free of charge security assessment for your cloud tenant

SINGAPORE, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Vectra AI, a leader in AI-driven threat detection and response for hybrid and multi-cloud enterprises, today announced the launch of Vectra Protect, a posture management tool designed to discover and mitigate security risks in Microsoft 365 (M365). Vectra Protect combines 50,000+ hours of expert research and development with automation to analyze an organization’s M365 security posture and provide customized implementation plans to remediate risk. To ensure all organizations, regardless of security staffing or resources, can have access to the solution, Vectra is extending a free sign-up for an Azure Active Directory scan until September 30, 2022. 

With the accelerated use of M365 collaboration tools, which now have over 270 million users, cyber attackers are actively targeting access management tools like Azure AD to enter other SaaS tools and enterprise network assets. They then establish a foothold to launch ransomware attacks, steal intellectual property and gain unauthorized access to sensitive user data.

David Sajoto, Vice President, Asia-Pacific, and Japan (APJ) at Vectra comments, “Events of the past two years have accelerated adoption of public clouds, because no company wanted to deal with the physical realm. This resulted in more emphasis on adopting SaaS applications and moving from on-prem Exchange servers to M365 became a ‘gold standard’. Essentially, businesses had their stationary defenses set up around their fortress, and then moved everything out of that fortress which created new risks.”

With its scanning engine, Vectra Protect combines insights from the M365 Graph API with PowerShell module data to provide a truly holistic view into the integrity of every identity in an organization’s M365 environment. As the only scan designed to uncover identity security issues in M365, Vectra Protect provides organizations with:

  • Quick, actionable remediation insights: With its multi-stage methodology, the scan provides organizations with actionable results within hours. Rather than hindering the security team with more alerts, the scan creates a comprehensive risk mitigation map that provides a path to implementation with clear guidance on risk and operational impact.
  • Tailored cloud support: Organizations can gain insight into the severity of vulnerabilities, material changes to their configuration state, the operational impact of the required solution, and the steps for remediation aligned to their applicable industry standards and regulatory requirements.
  • Configuration correction and compliance: Vectra Protect delves deep into the configuration complexities of M365, highlighting misconfigurations with clear context to guide companies to complete risk resolution and provide security teams with the proof they need to show their policies are effective and compliant.
  • Confidence in collaboration: By understanding areas where risks and configuration issues persist, organizations can fulfill the promises of cloud technology without creating unmanaged risk. Organizations can gain efficiencies in implementing and using SaaS tools like M365 by eliminating default settings and aligning operations, information technology, security, and audit teams on security priorities.

“Azure AD has become a large attack vector as cybercriminals look to exploit the lack of security controls and solutions currently available for the tool,” said Aaron Turner, CTO of SaaS Protect at Vectra AI. “Organizations must understand that Microsoft’s default security settings are not specifically tailored to their business operations or industry, which introduces waves of unnecessary risk. Combining this with the constant changes in M365, both internally and externally, leaves a host of potential vulnerabilities and configuration issues that organizations are responsible for correcting. Vectra Protect helps unravel this complexity to deliver the visibility and assurance organizations need to protect these essential business tools.”

The free Vectra Protect for Azure AD scan, a value up to $50,000, will be readily available to any M365 customer operating in any M365 environment*.  The scan focuses on a common foothold for unauthorized access and risk: access management in the active directory. Turner will be showcasing the technology and enumerating how to protect the M365 tenant and hunt for threats during RSAC 2022 in San Francisco, CA. You can register for his session here.

For more details about Vectra Protect for Azure AD and to request a free scan, please visit: https://www.vectra.ai/azure-ad-scan

*Exclusions apply.

About Vectra AI

Vectra® is a leader in cyber threat detection and response for hybrid and multi-cloud enterprises. The Vectra platform uses AI to detect threats at speed across public cloud, identity, SaaS applications, and data centers. Only Vectra optimizes AI to detect attacker methods—the TTPs at the heart of all attacks—rather than simplistically alerting on “different”. The resulting high-fidelity threat signal and clear context enables cybersecurity teams to respond to threats sooner and to stop attacks in progress faster. Organizations worldwide rely on Vectra for cybersecurity resilience in the face of dangerous cyber threats and to prevent ransomware, supply chain compromise, identity takeovers, and other cyberattacks from impacting their businesses. For more information, visit vectra.ai.  

PR Newswire

New Bite Investments Report Reveals High Expectations for Digital Growth in the Private Capital Industry

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New study finds that the pandemic encouraged large firms to enhance technological capacity and smaller firms to capitalize on a first-mover advantage

LONDON, May 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Bite Investments released a report in association with Mergermarket concluding that enhanced data access and operational efficiencies are the main drivers for digitalization among investment firms. The report, titled “The Tech’s Factor: The digitalization of private markets in 2022 and beyond,” reveals how digitalization is shaping the private capital industry and how fund managers are adopting to tech, for what purposes and how the size of a firm can be a determining factor in speed, success, and satisfaction.

The report surveyed US senior executives from middle market, boutique funds, and asset managers on the topic of digitalization of the private markets. The research revealed that it is crucial to be ahead of the game when it comes to digital adoption. 90% of firms with AUM of more than US$1bn agree that keeping ahead of the game in regard to technological capabilities at their organization is a top priority.

“Investors are arguably the most important part of the private capital ecosystem. Therefore, catering to their desires and demands is an absolute priority for alternative asset managers. Digital adoption is needed to help enhance this client onboarding,” said William Rudebeck, CEO, Bite Investments.

“There are great expectations for digital growth. We found that big firms are much further along in terms of digital adoption and how this will be applied to their value chains. This means that smaller firms can still capitalize on a first-mover advantage among peers,” said John West, Managing Editor EMEA at Mergermarket.

“The pandemic has been a catalyst for digital adoption in the private capital industry. But regardless of what happens with Covid-19, the realized benefits of this change are here to stay. We are not going back to the old ways of doing business,” Rudebeck added.

The report demonstrates what a digital future would look like for the private markets industry. Key findings include:

  • External digital investments are expected to increase. Over three-quarters (80%) of larger firms expect to make external digital investments (e.g., to advisors and services providers) north of US$1m, with 33% anticipating investments of between US$5m and US$10m. Smaller firms with AUM of less than $1bn expect to make commensurately smaller investments into external digital investments.
  • Portfolio/fund management and analysis, and investor profiles ranked first as firms’ top digital priorities. Larger firms also identified that digitalization investments will improve investor onboarding, relationship management and communication whereas smaller firms listed due diligence as a top business function to digitalise.
  • Cloud/Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) will have the largest impact on how private equity firms operate over the next ten years. For this reason, increased investment in cloud/SaaS solutions are deemed necessary to improve operations. A majority of firms are expecting to invest further into areas in which they have already made progress and investments. These include cloud/SaaS solutions (78%–80%) and social media, mobile and collaborative digital technologies (75%–83%). The primary benefit of using cloud/SaaS platforms is to streamline operations.
  • Third party service providers are used for a wide variety of services. The size of the company often dictates the services needed and prioritised. For instance, 81% of larger firms use a specialist third party software service provider for their due diligence. However, smaller firms are more likely than larger ones to say they currently use third parties for their portfolio/fund management, analysis, and investor profiles.
  • Operational efficiencies will be the single most important long-term effect of digitalization. Operational efficiencies at the portfolio company level are essential to a private capital firm’s value creation playbook. Other long-term benefits respondents most commonly expect from their digital investments include access to enhanced quality and quantities of data (78% of all respondents). Digitalization projects will not succeed without good, clean data.

“These insights reaffirm that as digitization accelerates, fund managers will have to adapt to continuous tech evolution. Our mission at Bite Investments opens possibilities in alternative investment markets with digitization, and a new forward-thinking approach, enabling firms to configure their own digital platform to improve the experience for existing and prospective investors and limited partners,” Rudebeck concluded.

Methodology:

In Q4 2021, Acuris Studios, on behalf of Bite Investments, surveyed 80 senior executives from middle market, boutique funds and asset managers based in the US on the topic of digitalization of the private markets. Forty respondents were from firms with Assets Under Management (AUM) of US$1 billion or more and 40 respondents were from firms with AUM of less than US$1 billion.

Download the report here: https://www.biteinvestments.com/newsroom/Insights/white-paper–the-techs-factor-the-digitalization-of-private-markets-in-2022-and-beyond

About Bite Investments: Bite Investments is a financial technology company created to expand access to alternative investments. The company’s enterprise solution helps fund managers utilize a digital platform to streamline their client’s diligence, compliance, distribution, client onboarding, and investor relations processes and workflows. Bite’s investment solutions bring alternative investments out of the institutional market, making them accessible to a larger audience. Bite Investments is a fintech company led by an international team with extensive experience in alternative investments, financial services, and technology. Bite has offices and customers in Asia, Europe, and North America. Learn more at https://www.biteinvestments.com.