The week after RSA, and most of the industry is taking a break from press announcements. Most of those made were reminders of what had been launched or announced at the annual tradeshow in San Francisco.
Logicalis has launched Intelligent Security. The company calls it “a blueprint approach to its global security portfolio designed to deliver proactive advanced security for customers worldwide.” It includes identifying security needs, choosing the right solutions, and securing the enterprise.
Logicalis CTO Toby Alcock said: “Many organisations focus on one area of the security fabric; we recognise in today’s cyber security landscape there are no silos; organisations must look across the entire footprint, from secure connectivity, securing the cloud, securing the hybrid worker and weaving secure operations across the entire organisation.”
Egress
Egress announced a strategic partnership with Cyber Vigilance. The deal sees Cyber Vigilance add Egress to the tools it offers to clients to protect their email. This deal comes less than a month after KnowBe4 acquired Egress. That acquisition saw both companies announce plans to merge their products to improve email protection.
What is not clear, is whether this partnership will be for just the existing Egress tools or if it will include the merged Egress and KnowBe4 product when it is available.
Dan Hoy, VP of Strategic Partnerships at Egress, said, “We’re thrilled to partner with Cyber Vigilance, a company that matches our dedication to the highest standards of cybersecurity. Together, we can provide the most advanced protection for customers at a time when email risks are increasing in sophistication.”
FBI
The FBI announced that a former diversity program manager at Facebook and Nike has been sentenced for stealing more than $5 million. Barbara Furlow-Smiles created an elaborate scheme involving fraudulent vendors, fictitious paperwork, and cash kickbacks.
Furlow-Smiles used friends, relatives and others to receive payments from false invoices. After taking a handling fee, they returned the money to her. She even went as far as to get them onboarded as suppliers to Facebook.
Keri Farley, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta, said, “As Lead Strategist at Facebook, Furlow-Smiles’ employer put an extreme amount of trust in her, only to have that trust completely violated.
“After she was fired, she carelessly continued her fraudulent schemes at Nike, thinking she was untouchable. As a result, she not only threw away a lucrative career, but will serve time behind bars for her excessive greed.”
Forescout
Forescout has partnered strategically with Microsoft to secure managed and unmanaged devices. This is not just about managing end-user devices and servers, but IoT, medical devices and OT environment.
Barry Mainz, CEO, Forescout, said, “Microsoft has a large-scale security business, which has some great synergies with our solutions. Forescout has already been working with Microsoft to support several existing customers including some of the largest organizations in the world. Cybersecurity delivery at this scale requires a new level of collaboration.
“Our strategic alignment with Microsoft will accelerate our mission to provide comprehensive security across both managed and unmanaged devices to help customers further strengthen the security of their modern enterprises.”
Jumpcloud
JumpCloud Go won a Cybersecurity Excellence Award for Best Passwordless Solution. The Cybersecurity Excellence Awards is an annual competition. It spotlights companies that show leadership, innovation, and excellence in information security.
Scott Reed, senior product manager, JumpCloud, said, “Organizations face an ever-increasing number of sophisticated cybersecurity attacks.
“It comes as no surprise that security continues to rank as a top priority for our customers. We introduced JumpCloud Go to improve user access and enhance organizations’ security posture. Winning this award reinforces why so many organizations have moved to JumpCloud.”
ManageEngine
ManageEngine launched its SaaS Managee Plus Solution to control SaaS sprawl across enterprises. It is aimed at IT admins and finance managers to help them identify budget cost-saving opportunities. It does this by making it easier to identify to see usage of SaaS applications and improve access control.
Rajesh Ganesan, president at ManageEngine, said, “While multi-Cloud and multi-SaaS strategies offer enormous benefits, inefficient use of cloud resources and spiraling costs could topple business operations. A disciplined FinOps approach could help, but most organizations struggle to align it well with their management practices across IT, Finance, Operations, etc.
“SaaS Manager Plus brings one of the key FinOps components to ManageEngine, which continues to evolve into a platform, thereby addressing this challenge for our customers. This launch is a testament to our commitment to solving technology management problems end-to-end for enterprises.”
National Cyber Security Centre
The NCSC has ramped up support for those at high risk of cyber attacks before the UK election. It is doing that through a new Personal Internet Protection (PIP) service that will add an extra layer of security to personal devices. The announcement was made at the CYBERUK 2024 conference.
Jonathon Ellison, NCSC Director for National Resilience and Future Technology, NCSC, said, “Individuals who play important roles in our democracy are an attractive target for cyber actors seeking to disrupt or otherwise undermine our open and free society.
“That’s why the NCSC has ramped up our support for people at higher risk of being targeted online to ensure they can better protect their accounts and devices from attacks.
“In this significant year of elections around the world, I urge individuals eligible for our services to sign up and to follow our guidance now to bolster their defences.”
US Department of Justice
Chinese men laundered money from cryptocurrency investment scams
Two Chinese nationals, Daren Li, 41, and Yicheng Zhang, 38, have been arrested in connection with laundering the proceeds from a cryptocurrency investment scam. To launder the money, the two men set up shell companies through which they laundered $73 million. They are alleged to be part of a wider syndicate involved in “pig butchering” scams.
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, said, “Cryptocurrency investment scams exploit the borderless nature of virtual currency and online communications to defraud victims. While fraud in the crypto markets takes on many forms and hides in many far-off places, its perpetrators aren’t beyond the law’s reach.
“Today, we announce the arrests of two foreign nationals charged for leading a scheme to launder funds to the tune of at least $73 million tied to an international crypto investment scam. These arrests — made possible through the assistance of our international and U.S. partners — reflect the Justice Department’s ongoing commitment to disrupting the entire cybercrime ecosystem and stopping fraud across all financial markets.”
Brothers arrested for $25 million cryptocurrency theft
Anton Peraire-Bueno, 24, of Boston, and James Pepaire-Bueno, 28, have been arrested for stealing $25 million. The two brothers spent months devising a scheme that allowed them to steal $25 million in Ethereum in just 12 seconds.
While the speed of the theft has surprised many, there is a much more serious issue here. The scheme is said to have exploited a flaw in the Ethereum blockchain. If true, it represents a critical issue for a lot of organisations.
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, said, “As alleged in today’s indictment, the Peraire-Bueno brothers stole $25 million in Ethereum cryptocurrency through a technologically sophisticated, cutting-edge scheme they plotted for months and executed in seconds.
“Unfortunately for the defendants, their alleged crimes were no match for Department of Justice prosecutors and IRS agents, who unraveled this first-of-its kind wire fraud and money laundering scheme. As cryptocurrency markets continue to evolve, the Department will continue to root out fraud, support victims, and restore confidence to these markets.”
