ChainUp, a leading global blockchain solutions provider, has been awarded three internationally recognised security accreditations - ISO/IEC 27001, 27017 and 27018 certifications. Following their announcement of the SOC 2 Type 1 achievement last week, attaining these highly-acclaimed certifications underscores ChainUp's dedication to maintaining stringent global security standards.

As regulations tighten, the demand for secure and compliant infrastructure continues to grow in the blockchain and Web3 industry. With an unwavering pursuit of excellence, ChainUp has meticulously designed a sophisticated framework focusing on information security, cloud computing security and Personally Identifiable Information (PII) protection, thereby recognized for achieving the international standards in managing information security. These international standards are published jointly by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

The achievement of ISO/IEC 27001 signifies that ChainUp has put in place a system to manage risks related to the security of data owned or handled, and respects all the best practices and principles enshrined in this International Standard. Attaining ISO/IEC 27017 demonstrates that ChainUp is adhering to the most stringent cloud services security standards and has appropriate processes in place to manage any unforeseen challenges. ISO/IEC 27018 certification implies that ChainUp has met specific requirements, controls, guidelines, and code of practice to protect their customers' PII. These esteemed accreditations reinforces that ChainUp's cutting-edge blockchain solutions are ready for the customers' trust internationally.

Sailor Zhong, Founder and CEO of ChainUp, said, "We are delighted and proud to achieve ISO/IEC 27001, 27017 and 27018 certifications. This is a testament to our ongoing commitment to meet the evolving security needs of our clients. ChainUp is dedicated to upholding international security standards, providing compliant and assured solutions. We will continue to empower businesses around the world to thrive in a secure Web3 ecosystem, contributing to the advancement of the blockchain industry."

Organization appoints seasoned SaaS leader Pam Dodrill as Chief Customer Officer to enhance the Reputation customer experience for organization's growing customer base

Reputation Score inventor Brad Null returns as organization's Head of Artificial Intelligence to shape the vision and direction of Reputation's AI-driven initiatives

Reputation, the global leader in reputation experience management, today announces that it is staffing up with two leadership hires. Pam Dodrill has been named Chief Customer Officer, focused on championing the experience of Reputation's fast-growing customer base. Brad Null, a data scientist expert and UCLA artificial intelligence professor, will return as the first-ever Head of Artificial Intelligence, where he will foster innovation through future-forward solutions to enhance the Reputation platform.

"As a customer-obsessed organization, we knew we needed a leader who truly understands the customer success functions across an organization. We've found that person in Pam, who lives and breathes customer experience, and will deliver elevated experiences our customers have come to expect. We are so excited that Pam has joined our team and I look forward to collaborating with her in this next stage of growth," says Joe Fuca, CEO of Reputation.

A seasoned leader in the SaaS space, Dodrill joins Reputation with more than 25 years of experience focused on improving the customer journey. She has led high performing teams from startup to public entities at organizations such as Zapier, ServiceMax, Skilljar and Salesforce.

"I am thrilled to join Reputation as its new Chief Customer Officer. Overseeing the customer journey for an organization that exists to help other brands improve their customer experience is an incredible opportunity. I look forward to collaborating with the global team in creating a more customer-obsessed roadmap as Reputation continues to grow and innovate," says Dodrill.

Brad Null will return to Reputation to help shape the vision and direction of the AI-driven platform solutions. A prominent thought leader in the space, Null is the inventor and creator of Reputation Score, Reputation's proprietary metric that uses artificial intelligence to take a snapshot of everything people say about a brand's specific locations. He also holds more than 20 data and AI-related patents and patent applications, most of these on behalf of Reputation.

"I speak on behalf of our entire organization when I say that we are thrilled to welcome Brad back to turbo charge our AI initiatives. He has made remarkable contributions to the organization, and we are delighted to have him return for this next stage of innovation. We look forward to seeing more of his ideas come to life in the Reputation platform," says Jason Grier, Chief Operating Officer and Head of Product at Reputation.

"I am honored to play a role in shaping Reputation's future vision for artificial intelligence," says Null. "AI is not just a passing trend - it is already an integral part of our lives, and will continue to change the way we interact with the world around us, especially within the customer experience. I look forward to collaborating with some of the most customer-obsessed minds in the business to create solutions for brands that want to deliver better experiences."

INVNT.ATOM™, the digital and Web3 innovation division of [INVNT GROUP] THE GLOBAL BRANDSTORY PROJECT™ introduces BZAR™, the GROUP’s patent-pending, self-funded, content-led digital platform, built exclusively for brands and fans. The now available-to-demo platform enables next-gen collaboration, connection, and co-creation with communities in the virtual world. With BZAR, brands can create custom and immersive experiences tailored precisely to their needs utilizing curated photorealistic environments, proactive immersive commerce, and Web3 integrated features to engage with their consumers, build communities, and drive new commercial opportunities.

“Built upon WebGL and WebGPU, our scalable platform features a comprehensive suite of tools that bring brand narratives to life in virtual worlds with features such as multiplayer interaction, real-time communication, and synchronized video streaming. With 29 unique patent claims, BZAR revolutionizes new and existing revenue streams for brands based on their specific strategic needs; while engaging their communities with always-on, custom-curated interactive experiences that amplify storytelling, deepen connections, boost loyalty, drive revenue and capture unparalleled engagement intelligence and data”, said Scott Cullather, President & CEO, [INVNT GROUP] and CEO, INVNT.ATOM.  “[INVNT GROUP] has always been at the forefront of creating compelling and impactful brandstories around the world and we see Web3 and our proprietary virtual platform, BZAR, as a critical component of any successful marketing strategy and the next great frontier of brandstory.”

Key features and Web3 integrations of the BZAR platform include:

1. Expansive Environments: Real-time rendering (generated by AI) of interactive environments to minimize loading time without sacrificing graphics quality.
2. Multiplayer Interactions: Communicate seamlessly in real-time with thousands of users to create a vibrant and continuous social atmosphere.
3. NFT Ticketing: Issuers can offer consumers a secure and transparent way of issuing and managing data collection for their events, whilst recipients can take advantage of unique experiences.
4. Cross-Platform: Accessible across desktop, tablet, mobile, VR, and mixed reality technologies for a seamless shopping experience across devices and platforms.
5. Synchronized Video Streaming: Real-time, synchronized video streams on any 3D surface for a fully immersive multimedia experience.
6. Avatar Creation and Customization: Users can personalize avatars to discover, play, and explore, as well as try on and shop digital products.
7. Social Integration: Integrating social feeds and community invitations to foster community engagement. Text and voice chat, social media feeds, video calls, and private rooms for friends.
8. Interactive Actions: Action buttons for users to trigger dynamic events within the 3D environment, enhancing exploration and discovery.
9. Audio Triggers: Incorporating audio triggers, BZAR elevates sensory immersion, creating a dynamic and engaging sonic landscape.

Marketplace: Connect your virtual commerce experience to your IRL footprint with a digital marketplace that also empowers your community to buy-and-sell.

Mini-games and Private Rooms for Friends: Fostering new communities to amplify engagement, brands can integrate mini-games and private rooms for their fans to collaborate amongst each other through custom interactions, leaderboard integration, and emotes.

“BZAR was built for brands to seize on the possibilities enabled by this wave of emerging technologies. BZAR is a canvas for creativity and consumer connection, integrating new technologies such as AI-adapted mechanisms that can generate unimagined virtual worlds and environments,” said Laura Roberts, Managing Director, [INVNT GROUP] APAC.

The Report Investigates the Growing Threat of AI-Enabled Email Attacks and the Need for Modern AI-Powered Email Security Solutions to Increase Security Efficacy

Perception Point, a leading provider of advanced threat prevention across digital communication channels, in collaboration with the renowned research firm, Osterman Research, today unveiled key insights from a recent research study titled "The Role of AI in Email Security." The study sheds light on the alarming rise in the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by cybercriminals in scaling and crafting sophisticated email threats like phishing and Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks and how modern email security systems leverage AI to defend against modern attacks.

The new study reveals a substantial shift in the perception of AI's role in email security. Cybercriminals have shown rapid adoption of AI tools to their favor with 91.1% of organizations reporting that they have already encountered email attacks that have been enhanced by Artificial Intelligence (AI), and 84.3% expecting that AI will continue to be utilized to circumvent existing security systems. Consequently, AI-enabled protections are more essential than ever.

The percentage of respondents ranking AI as "extremely important" to their email defenses has increased by more than 4x over the past 12 months. Virtually all organizations expect AI to be moderately or extremely important to their email defenses.

The growing perception of AI-enabled threats aligns with the increasing awareness of large language models (LLM) and generative AI services, such as ChatGPT, that have made headlines in the past year.

Additional takeaways include:

• Email is still top priority: Almost 4 out of 5 organizations rate addressing email security risks as a top three priority for their organization relative to all other security and risk initiatives.
• Traditional email security approaches have proven less effective over time: 96.9% of respondents implemented AI-enabled email security because their traditional defenses were ineffective against emergent threats.
• AI-powered security is not just for email: Buyers of AI-enabled email security want the ability to better protect other communication and collaboration apps, such as Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Zoom, and Slack, Salesforce, and more, with AI.
• AI-enabled detection without responsive mitigation is misguided: Strengthening capabilities for detecting threats in email via AI is an essential first step, but it can't end there. Organizations must train cybersecurity professionals and SOC teams to respond quickly and effectively to identified incidents, leveraging the best of what AI brings to the table.

"With the relentless surge in cyberattacks, especially GenAI-fueled phishing and BEC, the imperative for inventive preventative strategies intensifies," said Yoram Salinger, CEO at Perception Point. "As threat actors broaden their targets across messaging and communication channels, embracing emerging technologies and holistic security services that leverage AI is essential. We are committed to thwart and respond to the most sophisticated and modern attacks for our customers delivering a unique combination of an advanced threat prevention platform with AI-powered, multi-layered detection engines and a baked-in managed incident response service."

Perception Point recognizes the critical need for advanced security measures to combat the evolving email and collaboration threat landscape. The solution's AI-powered threat detection engines, include NLP, computer vision, content analysis and the newly unveiled GenAI Decoder™, which were designed to detect, prevent, and mitigate the risks posed by AI-enabled threat actors. GenAI Decoder™ is an innovative LLM model that targets Generative AI-Based BEC and social-engineering attacks. These text-only email threats often leverage AI models like ChatGPT and Google Bard (and unethical alternatives like WormGPT and FraudGPT) to craft highly convincing email attacks that can bypass traditional security systems.

"With cybercriminals leveraging AI to make email attacks ever more dangerous, all organizations must ensure they have the right defenses in place to detect and stop attacks that are missed by traditional email security methods," said Michael Sampson, Principal Analyst at Osterman Research and the author of the report. "Capabilities like those offered by Perception Point - backed by their continual threat research and fortified through managed incident response services - have become essential to organizations for ensuring security in email and related communication and collaboration tools." 

New market research reveals email and multi-channel messaging security is a top concern for organizations, as AI plays a pivotal role in the threat landscape

SlashNext, the leader in SaaS-based Integrated Cloud Messaging Security across email, web, and mobile, today released a report and whitepaper in partnership with Osterman Research, a leading market research and consulting firm. The report, titled "The Role of AI in Email Security" includes data from a recent survey of U.S. tech and security leaders at organizations of at least 1,000 employees, and sheds light on their views of how AI is being weaponized by cybercriminals in email and other messaging-based attacks, and how they are preparing to defend their organizations against these attacks using AI-enabled security solutions.

The report reveals that 91% of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that cybercriminals are already using AI in email attacks targeting their organizations, with 74% indicating they have experienced an increase in the use of AI by cybercriminals in the past six months. Similarly, 88% of respondents believe cybercriminals will continue to innovate in their use of AI in these types of attacks going forward. This strongly echoes what security experts and researchers have been warning since ChatGPT became publicly available just a few short months ago, and spinoffs of ChatGPT developed with malicious intent, such as WormGPT, entered dark web forums.

"Protecting email has always been a top security concern for businesses given its inherently insecure nature and the incredible access it can offer an attacker should they succeed in compromising a user's account," said Patrick Harr, CEO, SlashNext. "However, email is not the only channel cybercriminals use to target employees. The data shows rapidly increasing rates of attacks on mobile devices and other messaging channels such as Slack, LinkedIn, Microsoft Teams, and this study by Osterman Research demonstrates that security and IT professionals are actively seeking security solutions that offer protections to these channels as well."

Additional key data points from the report include:

• 25% of respondents indicated email security is their top concern, with another 52% indicating it is among their top three concerns.
• Email provides access to almost everything else within an organization, and from its early inception was not designed to be inherently secure – this has made it both a prime target for bad actors and an incredibly difficult attack surface to defend.
• The percentage of respondents ranking AI as "extremely important" to their email defenses has increased more than fourfold over the past 12 months, and a total of 92% of respondents currently rate it as moderately or extremely important.
• 90% of respondents confirmed they have implemented an AI-enabled email security solution beyond what is offered by their cloud email provider.
• After adopting AI-enabled security solution(s), four out of five organizations observed improved efficacy in detecting multiple types of threats in email (e.g. targeted spear phishing, BEC, account compromise of internal employees, malicious attachments and URLs, etc.), even as threat actors have changed their attack methods.
• 83.7% of respondents said the ability to protect other communications applications in their ecosystem (e.g. Teams, SharePoint, Zoom, Slack, etc.) was moderately or extremely important when evaluating AI-enabled email security solutions

"Our research clearly demonstrates a critical need for organizations to protect more than just email – IT and security leaders are focused on their complete attack surface and recognize the increasing threat of malicious messages reaching employees via other communication and collaboration tools such as SharePoint, Slack, Zoom and Teams," said Michael Sampson, Principal Analyst, Osterman Research. "What's more, our research indicates that these IT and security leaders view specialized AI-based solutions as key to their current and future defenses when it comes to email and multi-channel security. The security community is clearly embracing the idea that we must fight AI with AI."

Kicking-off in August, the move will expand HSN's sports assortment across its digital platforms

HSN, a leader in multiplatform video commerce, and Fanatics, a global digital sports platform and leading provider of licensed sports merchandise, today announced a new partnership that will provide fans with an extensive collection of high-quality products from several major sports leagues. HSN will now offer a significant assortment across sports, styles and sizes of league and team merchandise under one partner, amplifying the consumer experience for fans of many sports. The move provides HSN with their largest-ever collection of team merchandise to-date.

As the collaboration progresses into 2024, HSN will continue to expand its assortment as new seasons begin. Growing its existing roster of leagues including the National Football League (NFL), National Hockey League (NHL) and Major League Baseball (MLB), the retailer will introduce products for the National Basketball Association (NBA), select colleges and universities, NASCAR, Major League Soccer (MLS), and Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).

"By combining HSN's expertise in live shopping and video storytelling with Fanatics' extensive selection of licensed merchandise, we will bring an unparalleled and engaging sports shopping experience to our customers," says Rob Robillard, HSN Chief Merchandising Officer. "Fanatics is a trusted leader in sports merchandise and joining forces with them provides an enhanced shopping experience that is unlike any other."

The collaboration kicked off in June with hundreds of MLB products launched on HSN.com from Fanatics' industry-leading inventory, with NFL and college merchandise to follow soon. Products are featured in dedicated HSN Fan Shops, creating a seamless browsing and buying experience. Fanatics will also extend its hot market and championship collections as a part of the deal, featuring products from some of the sports world's biggest moments. Exclusive offerings will also be available live on-air.

"We're excited to kick off this unique arrangement with HSN, which will bring a robust assortment of high-quality products to their shoppers on a platform they are familiar with," said Gary Gertzog, Fanatics President of Business Affairs. "Our cross-channel approach will create new avenues for HSN's audience to browse items for the teams and players they love and showcase their pride and passion on gamedays and beyond."

To kick things off, HSN will present NFL veteran and former Executive Committee member of the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA), Sam Acho, as the guest for Fanatics' first HSN on-air appearance on August 21. In time for the 2023 football season, customers can shop for their team's merchandise on-air, at HSN.com, and on digital streaming platforms including a dedicated episode on HSN+ premiering September 21 where fans can shop for the latest Fanatics styles and deals.

Company Unveils Boosted Product Capabilities and Evolved Platform to Meet Continuing Demand for Software Supply Chain Security Solutions

Sonatype, the pioneer of software supply chain management, has announced new product capabilities for Sonatype Repository Firewall, Sonatype Nexus Repository and Sonatype Lifecycle. Bolstering Sonatype’s industry-leading software supply chain management platform, these enhancements are designed to give organizations greater control of their software development life cycle (SDLC) while meeting the evolving needs of DevSecOps – empowering developer teams and their organizations to deliver innovative software safer, faster, and at scale.

New Sonatype product features include:

• Additional Cloud Delivery Options: Streamline the procurement process with Sonatype Lifecycle and Sonatype Repository Firewall on AWS Marketplace. Sonatype Repository Firewall is also now available as a convenient SaaS solution, making onboarding easier than ever before. 
• Streamlined User Experience: Easily control open source risk with improved navigation, compatibility enhancements, and extended inclusion of wildcard characters in Sonatype Lifecycle. Sonatype Repository Firewall enhancements feature cleaner views and improved discoverability of specific repositories and violations to simplify automated policy enforcement. 
• Simplified Onboarding and Administration: Effectively manage the onboarding process in Sonatype Nexus Repository with enhanced privilege administration and Quick Action to expedite common tasks, such as blob storage mapping and connecting new proxy repositories. With the new Sonatype Repository Firewall onboarding experience, AI-enhanced malware protection and vulnerability scanning for Nexus Repository can be turned on in minutes.
• Improved Search Capabilities: Effortlessly connect new proxy repositories with streamlined connectivity in Sonatype Nexus Repository. Additional improvements include search capabilities for dates and times, along with faster component repository selection, contributing to a more intuitive and user-friendly experience.
• Deeper Customization Capabilities: Sonatype Lifecycle users now have even more power to tailor vulnerability details for their environment, organization, and deployments, including the ability to customize CVSS Vector Strings, Severity, and CWE-IDs.
• Boosted Observed License Coverage: Using the latest machine learning (ML) models, Sonatype Lifecycle has supercharged observed license detection with its Advanced Legal Pack, helping enterprises meet OSS license compliance obligations without sacrificing development velocity.
• Enhanced Release Integrity Detection: Block malicious open source at the door with improved AI and ML-driven malicious package detection in Sonatype Repository Firewall.  

“In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, organizations are in a continuous innovation cycle to retain their competitive edge, making speed paramount to success. That means software developers not only serve as a business-critical function to drive innovation and revenue, but also play a crucial role in fortifying ecosystems against relentless cyber threats,” said Mitchell Johnson, Chief Product Development Officer at Sonatype. “With this enhanced product functionality, Sonatype is enabling developers and engineering teams to accelerate productivity without sacrificing security. Teams can identify and mitigate risk earlier, innovate faster, and develop software fearlessly.”

Sonatype’s groundbreaking software supply chain management platform empowers customers to rapidly create, deploy, and maintain innovative software at scale. More than 2,000 organizations, including 70% of the Fortune 100 and 15 million software developers, rely on Sonatype to be ambitious, move fast and do it securely.

“Sonatype is continually recognized for its forward thinking, industry-leading approach to software supply chain security,” said Alex Berry, President at Sonatype. “We’re proud to offer best-in-class, cutting-edge security solutions that exceed the evolving needs of our customers, and are thrilled for what’s to come.”