AI and Ransomware dominate the news cycles – ESW #341
Nine out of the ten funding articles mention AI - they're either using it in their products, or protecting AI use cases (particularly GenAI and LLM use).
We discuss Broadcom's closing of the VMware acquisition, how they operate similarly to private equity firms, and how it's mostly bad news for VMware employees and customers.
Some weird legal cases this week: Binance's founder and CEO pleads guilty to money laundering charges, a cybersecurity company's COO pleads guilty to attacking hospitals to generate sales leads, and Hacking Team's founder is arrested for attempted murder!
We devote a chunk of time to discussing the huge rise in ransomware activity, and close out the show with a squirrel story on the tiny Pacific island nation of Tokelau, and how the .tk domain has destroyed its reputation, and nearly the nation itself.
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- 1. FUNDING: Edgio, Inc. Announces New Capital Infusion to Drive Growth Strategies
- 2. FUNDING: Cyble Raises $6.2M; Expands Series B To $30.2M
- 3. FUNDING: HarfangLab raises 25 million euros
- 4. FUNDING: Automated data governance and security startup ALTR raises $25M – SiliconANGLE
- 5. FUNDING: Radiant Security Secures $15 Million to Meet Growing Demand for AI-Enhanced Security
- 6. FUNDING: AppMap Raises $10M in Funding
- 7. FUNDING: Announcing Our $7.7M Funding Round to Protect Businesses from Cyber Threats
- 8. FUNDING: Lasso Security emerges from stealth and raises $6 million – Help Net Security
- 9. FUNDING: Paris-based Qevlar AI raises €4.5 million to help businesses outsmart the latest cyber threats
- 10. FUNDING: SGNL.ai Secures Strategic Investment from Cisco Investments and Others to Expand Its Continuous Access Management Capabilities
- 11. ACQUISITIONS: Broadcom Completes Acquisition of VMware
The original announcement was a year ago - deals this large take time to close.
- 12. ACQUISITIONS: BlueVoyant Acquires Conquest Cyber
- 13. ACQUISITIONS: SonicWall Acquires Managed Detection and Response Services Tailor-Made for MSPs/MSSPs
- 14. NEW COMPANIES: RootA
Not sure if these folks are actually new, but it's certainly the first I've heard of them, or this: "Open-Source Language for Collective Cyber Defense". Looks very interesting, but also a bit like that "now there are 15 standards" XKCD comic.
- 15. NEW PRODUCTS: Generative AI Powered Assistant – Amazon Q Pricing – AWS
Amazon is moving fast here, with Bedrock already widely in use, reportedly. This is a more tailored, specific AI-based offering.
- 16. NEW TOOLS: AWS Kill Switch
- 17. NEW TOOLS: Coming Soon: MDN Observatory 2.0
- 18. NEW TOOLS: PenTesting Report Generation and Collaboration Engine – FACTION
- 19. NEW FEATURES: Notion’s new Q&A feature lets you ask an AI about your notes
- 20. LEGAL: Binance chief Changpeng Zhao pleads guilty to money laundering charges
- 21. LEGAL: Ex-infosec COO pleads guilty to nightmarish sales strategy
An Atlanta tech company's former COO has pleaded guilty to a 2018 incident in which he deliberately launched online attacks on two hospitals, later citing the incidents in sales pitches.
- 22. LEGAL: Founder of spyware maker Hacking Team arrested for attempted murder: local media
- 23. ATTACKS: Commercial Flights Are Experiencing ‘Unthinkable’ GPS Attacks and Nobody Knows What to Do
- 24. BREACHES: General Electric, DARPA Hack Claims Raise National Security Concerns
- 25. RANSOMWARE: Ransomware on the Rise — Again
- 26. RANSOMWARE: Is ransomware-hit British Library too open …or not enough?
- 27. RANSOMWARE: Matt Johansen on Instagram: “Ransomware gang takes out major real estate financial company.
- 28. RANSOMWARE: Cyberattack on US hospital owner diverts ambulances from emergency rooms in multiple states
- 29. ESSAYS: CrowdStrike CEO: Point Product Vendors Are Being Left Behind
- 30. ESSAYS: The Cyber Why – The Next Era of Cyber Security Capabilities
- 31. REPORTS: Logs missing in 42% cyberattacks; small business most vulnerable: Report
- 32. SQUIRREL: How a tiny Pacific Island became the global capital of cybercrime
- 33. ESSAYS: Data Anonymization in AI: A Path Towards Ethical Machine Learning
