It was an interesting week. The FBI and the US DoJ continued their actions against rogue cryptocurrency operations. JumpCloud also launched a new partner programme with four tiers aimed at MSPs and VARS as the company looks to widen its customer base.
Together AI has launched a new platform to help enterprises boost their GenAI models. The Together Enterprise Platform manages the entire GenAI lifecycle and optimises it for model performance, GPU utilization, and cost.
Akamai
Akamai Technologies has achieved ISO 14001 attestation. The ISO standard focuses on environmental management systems. Akamai sees the award of ISO 14001 as demonstrating the sustainability capability of its Connected Cloud.
Mike Mattera, director, corporate sustainability and ESG officer, Akamai, said, “Achieving ISO 14001 environmental management system attestation is testament to Akamai’s unwavering commitment to environmental excellence.
“As a leader in the internet ecosystem, Akamai takes responsibility for reducing environmental impacts by pursuing our five 2030 goals across Akamai Connected Cloud. ISO 14001 offers a structured approach for us to address these pressing concerns.”
Europol
Europol has released a new report on how AI can strengthen law enforcement. The AI and policing report is 61 pages long and examines AI’s benefits and challenges. Importantly, it covers issues such as data bias and fairness, privacy and surveillance, transparency, and human rights. These are all hot-button topics for those concerned about risks from AI. They report should interest businesses in addition to law enforcement.
FBI
The FBI has charged the founder and former CEO of AI start-up SKAEL with securities fraud and wire fraud. Baba Nadimpalli, is accused of using misleading information about the company’s revenue, annual recurring revenue and other financial and sales data. The information allowed Nadimpalli to raise over $40 million from investors during funding rounds.
Benjamin Paley, 75, co-owner of GEN8 Services, Inc. is the last of three men charged with selling counterfeit keys for Brocade network switches and devices. His co-conspirators Wade Huber, 59, and David Rosenblatt, 68, have already pled guilty. He is due to appear in court on 10 October.
Gatewatcher
Gatewatcher and Xentra have signed a strategic partnership to fortify cyber defences in the UK. Xentra will use Gatewatcher’s NDR technology in new solutions it builds for customers.
Zack van Aarde, Account Manager UK & Ireland at Gatewatcher, commented, “We are excited about our partnership with Xentra and the opportunity to bring our advanced NDR solutions to the UK market.”
ManageEngine
ManageEngine has introduced a new feature for its analytics solution, Analytics Plus. Titled Spotlight, it is a contextual recommendations engine powered by AI. Its goal is to highlight key inefficiencies in IT operations and suggest solutions.
Another new feature is the Root Cause Analysis feature. It will identify the top factors contributing to a particular trend. This allows IT managers and CIOs to see the impact their changes are having.
National Cyber Security Centre
The UK and US have issued a further alert regarding malicious actors operating on Iran’s behalf. They have warned that there is a higher risk of targeted phishing and social engineering. Potential victims are those with a connection to Iran, either personally or through business dealings.
Paul Chichester, NCSC Director of Operations, said: “The spear-phishing attacks undertaken by actors working on behalf of the Iranian government pose a persistent threat to individuals with a connection to Iranian and Middle Eastern affairs.”
NOYB
noyb has filed a complaint against Mozilla over a privacy feature in Firefox. It claims that Privacy Preserving Attribution allows Firefox to track user behaviour on websites rather than hide it. Users who assumed this meant they wouldn’t be tracked by cookies are now tracked by the browser instead. The feature is turned on by default in the latest software update to the browser.
US Department of Justice
Two Russian nationals, Sergey Ivanov, aka Taleon, and Timur Shakhmametov, aka JokerStash or Vega, have been charged with operating a billion-dollar money laundering service. The two men ran three illicit cryptocurrency exchanges that have also been seized. It is alleged that the two men pocketed millions of dollars in fees and enabled cybercriminals involved in drug dealing, ransomware and other cyber crimes.
More than 37,500 transactions involving 62,586 bitcoin are associated with Cryptex. That amounts to $1.4 billion at the time the transactions were made. 31% of the bitcoin ($441) million are associated with criminal conduct, including $297 million in fraud and more than $115 million with ransomware payments. 28% of all bitcoin sent from Cryptex went to companies or darknet markets sanctioned by the United States.
U.S. Attorney Jessica D. Aber for the Eastern District of Virginia said, “Every step cybercriminals take in their pursuit of money leaves another track that leads us to their doorstep. And if you follow them on their path of greed, they will lead us to you. We will not stop, because while domains can always be seized, justice is unyielding.”
