Mazor’s appointment to the new company role ushers in a new era of innovation for the AI-powered enterprise email security leader

IRONSCALES, the leading enterprise cloud email security platform protecting more than 13,000 global organizations, today announced the appointment of Gil Mazor as the company's first Chief Product and R&D Officer and GM Israel. Gil’s addition to the executive team underscores IRONSCALES' commitment to growth and innovation in the cybersecurity industry. 

As head of the company’s Israel office, located in Tel Aviv, Mazor will provide regional leadership to a talented team of developers, ML engineers, product managers, customer success representatives, and other professionals fostering a culture of collaboration and innovation in the heart of one of the world's leading technology hubs. In his new position, Mazor will be pivotal in driving new product innovation, engineering excellence, and ensuring the delivery of world-class email security solutions to the market. His leadership will be instrumental as the company continues to expand its global presence and empower organizations around the world to defend against evolving phishing threats.

Mazor brings over 25 years of product development and global management expertise to his new role at IRONSCALES, as well as over a decade of senior leadership experience which includes successful tenures as Senior Vice President at Cybereason and Executive Vice President at Cellebrite.

Throughout his career, Mazor has consistently delivered high-quality enterprise products and solutions, earning him widespread recognition as a leader in the field. His leadership has been instrumental in driving successful organizational and cultural transitions, including the adoption of Agile methodologies and Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) practices. His proven track record of executing innovative enterprise solutions and driving organizational excellence aligns perfectly with IRONSCALES' mission to deliver cutting-edge cybersecurity solutions to its customer base.

"I am extremely excited to join the talented team at IRONSCALES, and look forward to contributing to the company's continued success for years to come," said Gil Mazor. "I believe in IRONSCALES’ mission to protect organizations from advanced phishing threats, and I am excited to lead the Israel office and our product development efforts as we innovate and deliver world-class solutions to our customers."

"We are thrilled to welcome Gil Mazor to the IRONSCALES team," said Eyal Benishti, CEO. "His appointment reflects our commitment to strengthening our executive leadership team and driving growth and success across the cybersecurity market. Gil's expertise will be invaluable as we continue to rapidly innovate, expand our product offerings, and deliver industry-leading solutions to enterprises and managed services providers.”

LeapXpert, the responsible business communication pioneer, and ASC, a leading provider of recording and cloud solutions, today announced a partnership to deliver compliance recording for external Microsoft Teams voice and text communications.

In a time of escalating regulatory scrutiny surrounding communication channels, this collaboration enables regulated entities to use Teams for external communications - across voice and messaging channels – while recording all calls and messages and ensuring adherence to record-keeping requirements.

The LeapXpert Communications Platform is available through the Microsoft Azure Marketplace and integrates natively with Microsoft Teams. It empowers Teams users to communicate compliantly with external parties through WhatsApp, iMessage, WeChat, and SMS from within the Teams interface. The platform enhances the customer experience of Microsoft customers and boosts employee productivity while ensuring enterprise data ownership and governance.

"We're excited to deepen our collaboration with ASC, providing a unified solution tailored for Microsoft customers worldwide," declared Avi Pardo, Co-founder & CBO at LeapXpert. "With the recent launch of our Single Professional Identity and ASC's expertise in communications recording and AI, this partnership strengthens our commitment to delivering comprehensive communication solutions. By seamlessly integrating recording and compliance capabilities across all messaging channels, SMS, and voice calls, together we offer the Microsoft ecosystem an unmatched external communication experience that is fully compliant with record-keeping regulations."

ASC's Recording Insights is an app fully integrated into Microsoft Teams that seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and scales across Microsoft Azure's global infrastructure. The solution was created specifically for compliance management. It uses its AI Policy Engine to leverage and expand upon Microsoft Teams' suite of compliance features to ensure that both ASC and Microsoft clients have the tools to meet ever-evolving and stricter regulations.

"In regulated industries, ensuring compliance by implementing corporate policies upon external communications is a must," said Gerald Kromer, CEO of ASC. "With Recording Insights, ASC has developed a comprehensive compliance recording and AI solution for all Teams media. Our partnership with LeapXpert will now allow our customers to integrate all messaging channels under one single pane of glass for recording and AI."

Leading edge platform provider identifies new attack patterns and ways for organizations to best protect digital assets, in inaugural issue of quarterly threat report

Edgio, the platform of choice for speed, security, and simplicity at the edge, found that web application attacks continued to increase and evolve in the fourth quarter of 2023, as reported in its new Edgio Quarterly Attack Trends Report in which the company analyzed 5.2 billion attack requests. Edgio found that the most prevalent attack mitigated was path traversal. A successful path traversal attack allows a threat actor to access files on a web server, and has surpassed the prior #1 threat, SQL injection, a common attack vector that often uses malicious SQL statements to attempt to exfiltrate sensitive data from databases behind applications. 

Edgio’s report explains how path traversal attacks can lead to deep system intrusions posing a significant threat to an organization’s infrastructure and the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data delivered over the Internet. These attacks can result in unauthorized access to content, the loss of personally identifiable information (PII), the dissemination of private/copyrighted information, or even remote code execution. Unmitigated attacks can lead to even more serious consequences, such as the deployment of ransomware or other malicious software.

“As one of the leading edge-computing providers, Edgio has unparalleled visibility into the threats facing web applications today,” said Tom Gorup, Vice President of Security for Edgio. “We are assembling our knowledge and expertise into a quarterly read-out to enable enterprises to better protect their web infrastructure and applications. As more businesses become dependent on their digital assets, it’s critical this knowledge is shared to build a safer Internet.”

The report looked at malicious requests and the different types of blocking, categorizing protection into three categories: access control rules, managed rulesets, and custom signatures. Of those that were focused on access controls, over 76% of mitigated requests were based on IP, user-agent, and country matches, highlighting just how much bad traffic can be eliminated with basic blocklisting tactics. With managed rulesets, Edgio saw a wide range of threat types blocked, with path traversal, SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks leading the way when it comes to OWASP attacks.

In addition, Edgio was able to review web application firewall (WAF) request denials by country of origin, while noting that attackers often leverage local resources to launch attacks in order to evade geofencing tactics. This could explain why attacks coordinated from advanced threat actors in more prominent countries did not crack Edgio’s Top 10 for the quarter.

Top countries by malicious request origin, making up nearly 62% of all requests denied, include:

• United States – 26.3%
• France – 17.4%
• Germany – 9.4%
• Russia – 8.8%

Edgio found that WAF customers used access control features to allow or deny specific request methods, using their knowledge of their own applications to inform their security controls and lower risk. The report indicates that attackers frequently leverage request methods like HEAD that return app and infrastructure information that can be used by the attacker for reconnaissance purposes and to craft a malicious payload.

Based on deep parsing of attack payloads, Edgio found that 98% of all malicious payloads fell into JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) and URL encoded form categories (used for storing and transporting data) but cautioned security teams to remain vigilant as attackers evolve in their selection of payload content types.

Best practices for digital asset protection: proactively stop threats against websites and applications

Based on its findings, Edgio recommends the following methods to best protect digital assets, including websites and applications:

• Ensure your WAF provides a layered defense to protect organizations against the known bad, application-specific, and emerging threats. A complete solution will show a distribution of enforcement across access control rules, managed rulesets, and custom signatures.
• Blocklists are still an effective and low-cost part of a layered security approach to safeguard Internet-facing assets. Organizations should also take advantage of threat intelligence feeds to further harden their security posture against known bad actors.
• While managed rules are often maintained and updated by your WAF provider, it is not advisable to use a ‘set it and forget’ approach. As an application evolves and new functionalities are developed, policy reviews and analysis of managed ruleset enforcement is recommended. It is best to ensure rules are closely aligned with business application needs.
• Organizations should take the time to understand where they are doing business and where they aren’t allowed to do business. Block the countries or sub-regions that bring no value to a brand to reduce their attack surface. Blocking embargoed countries is a great starting point, but don’t rely on this approach as a catch all for bad actors.
• Know the application and use this knowledge to inform security solutions, like a WAF, to limit the application request methods or content types based on application needs.

- SaaS Subscriber Base Poised for Significant Expansion in Full Year 2024
- Upgrades from Marketing Services to account for 50% of new SaaS customers
- SaaS Revenues to Account for Nearly 40% of Revenue by Year-End 2024 

Thryv Holdings, the provider of the leading small business SaaS platform, today announced accelerated adoption of its SaaS platform by customers from its legacy Marketing Services business.

“We are pleased to announce our Marketing Services customers are increasingly moving to our SaaS platform,” said Thryv Chairman and CEO Joe Walsh. “This marks an important milestone for Thryv as we scale operations, establish new centers, and drive profitable SaaS growth.

“It symbolizes our commitment to delivering an unparalleled customer experience to small businesses and sets the stage for Thryv’s continued success in the SaaS landscape.”

Throughout Thryv’s evolution, the SaaS business has been acquiring customers through three distinct channels upgrades offered to its Marketing Services client base by its sales organization; referrals from existing SaaS customers; and new SaaS sales made by its premise and inbound sales units. Today’s announcement underscores the growing importance of legacy customers upgrading from Marketing Services to SaaS. Many of Thryv’s Marketing Services customers are adopting the company’s new Marketing Center, which provides them the ability to run ads, generate leads, and analyze marketing performance.

The SaaS platform offers inter-operable centers that enable small businesses to automate and modernize a range of critical day-to-day functions.

“The center-based approach is the game-changer that helps us accelerate SaaS subscriber acquisition, enhance the value we provide to our customers, and streamline our overall business by eliminating legacy systems in our Marketing Services business,” Walsh said. “We encourage SaaS adoption by our small business customers because it enables them to become more competitive long-term. Importantly, by year-end 2024 we expect our high-margin SaaS business to account for approximately 40% of total revenue.”

Business Model Evolution

Thryv has been prioritizing product and engineering investments to develop the center-based design. The SaaS platform eliminates the hassle for small businesses (SMBs) who become frustrated using various point solutions that do not speak to each other. Customers upgrading to Thryv’s SaaS platform find they can more easily automate their business operations because functionality is integrated and day to day tasks can all be operated from a single screen with a single login.

Thryv’s SaaS platform currently features three centers that offer small businesses everything they need to communicate, grow, and manage their business: Marketing Center℠; Business Center℠; and the forever-free Thryv Command Center. The centers allow clients to explore different modules that help them to operate a modern business and communicate with their customers across their preferred channels. The company intends to offer additional future centers that will help SMBs automate additional parts of their operations, saving time and money and making them easier to do business with.

“We have worked with our clients for decades, building trusted relationships and a strong understanding of the challenges small businesses face,” said Grant Freeman, President of Thryv Holdings. “As we’ve seen for the last several quarters, the accelerated uptake of our centers presents an exciting opportunity for customers to modernize their business. It is our mission to continue making the upgrade easy and to help capitalize on the high-value proposition of our platform.”

Thryv’s Center-based SaaS Platform

• Business Center. The company’s flagship do-it-all small business platform, Thryv Business Center is designed to provide clients with everything necessary to streamline day-to-day business, including customer relationship management, appointment scheduling, estimate and invoice creation, and online review management.

• Thryv Command Center. This freemium offering serves as a communications hub, offering: a centralized inbox for email, social and text messages; a business line (voice calls and text); and a chat component for direct messages and group chats. It allows clients to combine customer conversations from 12+ channels into a single, easy-to-follow discussion thread, an industry first.

• Marketing Center. This integrated marketing and advertising platform provides the tools small businesses need to market and grow their business. It simplifies the process of running ads, boosting online presence, understanding customer audiences and making data-driven decisions.

As part of the Company's strategic evolution aimed at driving higher gross margins through its multi-center platform, the focus is on prioritizing the sale of such centers; including future centers slated for introduction in 2024 and beyond. This decision builds upon the Company’s financial success already achieved through its multi-center strategy, as evidenced by a 690 basis point year-over-year increase in SaaS adjusted gross margins and a 500 basis point year-over-year improvement in Net Dollar Retention (NDR) reported in the fourth quarter of 2023. By prioritizing center sales, Thryv seeks to amplify these results and unlock further value creation for investors and drive higher lifetime value for clients.

MobileFuse, one of the largest in-app, CTV, and DOOH advertising platforms, today announced its strategic partnership with Adelaide, the leader in attention-based media quality measurement. This collaboration demonstrates MobileFuse's commitment to providing advertisers with premium, consumer-friendly supply and enabling clients to achieve better outcomes.

To kick off this collaboration, MobileFuse conducted a comprehensive supply audit across both its Mobile and CTV networks, leveraging Adelaide's attention-based metric AU. Adelaide's omnichannel media quality metric, AU, assesses any media placement's probability of capturing attention and driving impact using a machine learning algorithm trained to proxy outcomes. By analyzing a broad range of media quality signals, eye-tracking data, and full-funnel outcome data, AU reflects a precise quality score for each placement.

The audit results highlight MobileFuse's in-app formats, exceeding Adelaide's benchmark by up to an impressive 57%. Additionally, MobileFuse's CTV network met Adelaide's robust benchmarks across all of its inventory – it is rare for CTV networks to meet these benchmarks. This means that advertisers opting for mobile and CTV media through MobileFuse can confidently rely on the network's direct access to premium publishers and placements.

"Our partnership with Adelaide reinforces MobileFuse's commitment to excellent, premium ad experiences," said Ken Harlan, Founder and CEO of MobileFuse. "By integrating AU into our inventory curation process, we empower clients to achieve stronger performance outcomes and engage consumers confidently."

These results are aligned with a meta-analysis of nearly 50 case studies published by Adelaide that reveals the substantial impact of AU measurement and optimization. On average, clients experienced a 40% upper-funnel lift, 53% lower-funnel lift, and 37% cost savings.

Expanding on the audit's success, MobileFuse will leverage Adelaide's AU to guide its inventory curation process. This strategic move ensures that advertisers target media above an AU threshold throughout their campaigns, underscoring MobileFuse's dedication to delivering cutting-edge tools for campaign optimization.

"MobileFuse's adoption of AU is a great example of how premium, high-impact publishers are using attention metrics to differentiate their products," said Marc Guldimann, co-founder and CEO at Adelaide. "We're excited to partner with them to increase the transparency of media quality and move the industry towards a more equitable marketplace."

Kajabi, the leading creator commerce platform, today unveiled its partnership with the New York Times bestselling author of #Girlboss Sophia Amoruso, which includes migrating her digital entrepreneurship program, Business Class, to the Kajabi platform. The membership program consists of a digital course, 80 hours of interview content, live workshops, and a thriving community of more than 3,000 members worldwide who have collectively earned more than $5 million, profitably.

In Sophia's Business Class course, which launched on Kajabi in 2020, she teaches members how to plot, plan, and build a successful business from scratch, leaning on her experience building many companies over her career, with her first company, Nasty Gal, reaching over $100 million in revenue. With the recent launch of Kajabi Communities and a shared mission of empowering go-getting creators, Sophia knew this was the perfect opportunity to partner with Kajabi and move her entire business over to the all-in-one creator platform. Sophia will transition Business Class into a full-fledged membership program and bring her online community, the Lounge, to Kajabi from a pre-existing community platform.

With the migration to Kajabi, Business Class members including founders, freelancers, solopreneurs, creators, and side hustlers will now have access to the following:

• Exclusive live content, including fully integrated live video experiences with Sophia and other notable experts, including the founder of ClassPass Payal Kadakia Pujji, CEO and founder of FUBU Daymond John, and CEO and co-founder of Away Jen Rubio.
• Year-round access: Previously, members were only able to join twice a year in a cohort-based program. Today, the fully integrated digital course and community are available year-round as a membership, opening up access to more people than ever before.
• Monthly Q&A with Sophia: Members will also have the opportunity to gain invaluable insights directly from the entrepreneurial mastermind in live monthly AMA-style calls.

"What Kajabi is doing for creators is exactly what eBay did for me in the early days of Nasty Gal. I'm excited to join forces with Kajabi in a shared commitment to further democratize business-building for the next generation of entrepreneurs," said Sophia Amoruso, founder of Business Class. "This partnership means we can reach more people than ever before, offering them the tools, insights, and support they need to turn their knowledge and passions into income. Kajabi's innovative and flexible platform, paired with my 15 years of experience as an entrepreneur, is rapidly creating a community of ambitious business owners with a platform and arsenal of information to support them in achieving their dreams. 

The collaboration will extend beyond the digital realm into real-world experiences. Sophia and Kajabi will host an exclusive gathering for key players within the creator economy representing a shared interest in fostering connections and experiences both online and in person.

"Empowering creators to share their knowledge, experience, and expertise with the world lies at the heart of Kajabi's purpose to transform ambitious creators into successful entrepreneurs," said Ahad Khan, CEO of Kajabi. "Our partnership with Sophia represents a significant milestone in this journey as we come together to provide founders with the resources they need to succeed. We're excited to work with partners like Sophia, who have lived the highs and lows of building businesses and exemplify the tenacity it requires to create something extraordinary."

In 2023, Kajabi announced it had surpassed $6 billion in creator revenue just a few months after reaching the $5 billion mark. Additionally, the creator commerce platform launched several disruptive innovations, including Creator Studio, a generative AI tool that has reduced time spent on content creation by 90 percent; its own payment processing solution, Kajabi Payments; and the branded mobile app, which allows creators to build their own mobile app experiences without technical complications or a high price tag. So far in 2024, Kajabi has unveiled its partnership with renowned YouTube creators Colin and Samir to launch their first course, Creator Startup. Additionally, Kajabi recently released its comprehensive annual 'State of Creators' report revealing key trends in the creator economy including the rise of creator ownership, the diversification of income streams, and creator forecasts for 2024.

British final mile delivery company enables retailers to reduce carbon footprint and provide customers with a sustainable shopping experience

Retailers in the UK can offer customers a new zero-emissions delivery option when it comes to final mile delivery of their products.  nShift, the global leader in parcel delivery management software, has confirmed zero-emissions carrier Fin as the latest edition to its library.

Founded in 2022, Fin provides logistics services that create a positive impact on society and the environment.  Deliveries are made exclusively using e-cargo-bikes and electric vans, meaning deliveries are emissions-free, while traffic congestion is reduced.

Shoppers today increasingly choose to buy from brands and retailers whose values mirror their own. Around half of consumers report a willingness to pay more for "environmentally friendly" products or services.  Meanwhile, 41% of shoppers will abandon their shopping carts if their preferred delivery provider was not available.

nShift customers can access this service after Fin, founded by former Google executive, Rich Pleeth and serial entrepreneur Chris Sargeant acquired Urb-it - a carrier with whom nShift had previously established connections in Sweden.  The service is launching in London, with expansion into other UK cities including Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester expected in the coming months.  Fin plans to grow into central Europe later in 2024.

Ian Russell, Director of Carrier Partnerships at nShift, said, "We're pleased to add Fin to our growing library of net-zero carriers.  This vital offering comes at a time when pending regulation demands that sustainable shipping is no longer a nice-to-have and when companies must do more than talk about their values, but instead, make them clear and tangible."   

Rich Pleeth, CEO and co-founder of Fin said, "Being integrated into nShift is huge for fin, being able to tap into nShift's extensive and well-established customer base.  This has accelerated our offering of zero-emissions and sustainable parcel delivery.  Our commitment to sustainability is more than just a business strategy it's in our company's DNA and encompasses protecting both the planet and people, all while maintaining profitability."

The partnership comes as businesses throughout the EU are preparing for the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) - regulations that require businesses to disclose, and report on, environmental and social impacts.

To help retailers track and report on their emissions, and highlight the impact of moving to low- and zero-emissions deliveries nShift has developed Emissions Tracker.  It collates all carrier data into one reporting tool with an easy-to-use template. Calculations are made at shipment level, giving retailers the ability to drill into shipping data, compile accurate reports, and identify quick wins for emissions reduction.

For the first time, marketers have a single solution to acquire identity-based audiences, verify eligibility to gated offers, and stream data throughout their martech stack for deeper personalized marketing

SheerID, the global leader in identity verification for commerce, today announced the launch of two significant platform capabilities that drive customer acquisition and retention for consumer brands with gated offers to high-value communities like GenZ, teachers and essential workers. Marketing Hub provides brands with a curated marketplace of data-driven marketing products, agency services and earned media solutions to drive awareness and accurately engage highly valued communities. DataConnectors take the first-party data provided by consumers and verified by SheerID, and streams it into more than 400 martech solutions such as a brand’s BI, CRM and CDP systems for personalized marketing. 

Marketing Hub

Launching gated offers for communities throughout the world is a proven strategy for attracting new customers such as students, teachers and healthcare workers. For example, SheerID’s research has shown that when students buy through a gated offer, 90% of them share it with others. This authentic, organic evangelism lowers acquisition costs and makes gated-offer programs deliver a return on investment of 337%, according to research from Forrester Consulting.

Many businesses need help promoting their offers to specific communities. Rather than limiting a brands’ reach and awareness to consumers who sign-up for closed, affiliate-based memberships, Marketing Hub allows brands to leverage best-in-class providers that provide more reach and expertise to communicate with these unique audiences. Marketing Hub provides access to:

• Specialized Agency Packages. SheerID has formed strategic partnerships with Refuel Agency and The Campus Agency to create turn-key, results-oriented packages. These packages provide brands with options for full-service digital and social marketing campaigns, branded content and video to students, teachers, military veterans, and military service members. Both Refuel and The Campus Agency have led successful campaigns for Spotify, Adobe, T-Mobile and more market-leading brands attracting consumer communities.
  
  Liz Carmo, SVP of Refuel Agency, explained, “Our partnership with SheerID enables brands to reach key audiences, including the military, first responders, students and teachers. We are thrilled to offer compelling custom marketing packages designed to pair expertly with SheerID's verification platform and boost brands’ campaigns authentically and with measurable results."

• Data-driven Marketing. SheerID has partnered with leading data partners to provide opt-in consumer data lists that can be used for omnichannel campaigns including email, social media, direct mail and ad platforms. Currently, audience targeting lists are available in the US for college students and the military and can be tailored to fit a brand’s ideal customer profile.
  
  Sheldon Katz, COO of Giant Partners, SheerID’s military database marketing partner, said, "We are excited to partner with SheerID to bring our industry-leading military database marketing to their customers. As more brands are interested in honoring the military community with exclusive offers, pairing our proprietary marketing database with SheerID's military verification platform will ensure brands reach their target customers, see more engagement, and ultimately more conversions."

• Earned Media Best Practices. As a SheerID customer, brands get access to the best resources and proven practices that accelerate the deployment of gated offers. These have been curated by SheerID’s 10+ years of experience designing and managing gated offers for brands and include webinars, marketplaces, media opportunities, and more.

DataConnectors

A pervasive B2C marketing challenge is collecting high-quality, first-party data that can be easily used for remarketing and engagement. Often data is stuck in a third-party marketing platform or data silo. DataConnectors in the SheerID platform help marketers for the first time, to overcome this challenge by instantly streaming opt-in, verified customer data to over 400 marketing solutions in a brand’s tech stack like Salesforce, Adobe, AWS, and many others. In a recent study conducted by SheerID, 81% of consumers indicated that their most meaningful attribute for future communication is their life stage or community. DataConnectors enable marketers to easily add this valuable first-party data to a customer profile for personalized messaging. It can also be connected directly to reporting systems like Tableau and Google Analytics and engagement platforms like Marketo, Braze and HubSpot. See the full list of integrations.

“Incomplete solutions, data silos, and cookie deprecation have severely impacted marketers' abilities to build trusted, tight-knit relationships with their customers,” said Jake Weatherly, CEO of SheerID. “Gated offers powered by SheerID have proven to be an effective way to invite consumers to engage with a brand, and leaders have seen tremendous results. Now with Marketing Hub and DataConnectors, we enable them to double-down on their Gated Offer programs to acquire consumers with best-in-class community marketing providers and instant data streaming through a brand’s tech stack to truly scale their programs and build long-term value.”