Vantiq and Argosy Partners Join Forces to Unleash Real-Time AI Across Southeast Asia

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 15, 2025 by itnerd

Vantiq today announced a strategic alliance with Manila-based Argosy Partners to make the Philippines the launchpad for Southeast Asia’s next wave of AI-driven transformation in healthcare, public safety and smart city projects. The partnership will allow organizations to move from concept to live operations in weeks instead of years and gives Vantiq an immediate foothold in a high-growth region.

The agreement was sealed at the Vantiq AI Summit, held July 8-9, at the Edsa Shangri-La in Manila, where leaders in public safety, defense, healthcare and smart infrastructure witnessed live demonstrations of systems that sense, decide and take action in seconds—from hospital-triage workflows to citywide camera networks. The showcase underscored the region’s demand for platforms that turn streaming data into decisive action without adding complexity or duplicating head count.

Across Southeast Asia, agencies and enterprises face an urgent mandate to keep citizens safe, strengthen healthcare delivery, protect national interests and run cities more efficiently. By uniting Argosy’s local insight with Vantiq’s real-time intelligence platform, the alliance offers a dependable foundation for organizations that need to sense events, interpret them with AI and take action in real time without overhauling existing infrastructure.

Stakeholders interested in exploring AI for public safety, healthcare, defense or smart-city initiatives can connect with Vantiq and Argosy to discuss pilot options, technical requirements and frameworks that ensure secure, responsible deployment.

Vantiq and Argosy will now engage agencies, hospitals, city planners and other stakeholders to identify high-impact pilot projects, share best practices for secure deployment and map investment pathways; organizations interested in applying real-time AI to critical operations can reach the partners at https://www.argosyinvestments.com/contact/.

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North Korean Hackers Hit npm Registry with New XORIndex Malware 

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 15, 2025 by itnerd

In a new North Korean software supply chain attack, researchers have uncovered threat actors, linked to the Contagious Interview campaign, deploying 67 malicious npm packages collectively downloaded more than 17,000 times using a previously unreported XORIndex malware loader. This activity is an expansion of the campaign reported in June 2025, which deployed the HexEval Loader.

Details can be found here: https://socket.dev/blog/contagious-interview-campaign-escalates-67-malicious-npm-packages

Jim Routh, Chief Trust Officer at cybersecurity company Saviynt, commented:

“The extended attack surface for any enterprise due to the use of large language models (LLMs) has evolved in the past few years. It began with browser-based prompts of foundation models to SaaS applications using LLMs for enhanced features to LLMs usage in the software supply chain. The latter represents the most significant growth, partially fueled by threat actors from North Korea, including the Contagious Interview operation. Enterprises have a window of opportunity to improve identity security for those enterprise users with access to environments essential to software engineering, to shrink the enterprise attack surface.” 

This illustrates the fact that companies have to have the smallest attack surface possible as the bad guys are looking for more and more attack vectors to exploit.

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KnowBe4 Delivers AI-Driven Email Security to Small and Medium Businesses to Tackle Outbound Email Risk

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 15, 2025 by itnerd

KnowBe4, today announced the release of KnowBe4 Prevent across all market segments – an AI-driven email security product designed to enable organizations manage the problem of outbound email risk. Following the release of Prevent Enterprise, Prevent is now available to suit the needs of small to medium-sized businesses. 

In 2025, human error remains the leading cause of data breaches (according to Verizon, 60% of incidents involve the ‘human element’). The overwhelming volume of digital communications creates more opportunities for employees to expose sensitive information to the wrong recipients, attaching incorrect files, or inadvertently including confidential data. These breaches incur severe penalties, financial losses, and reputational damage, underscoring the critical need for prevention. However, traditional Data Loss Prevention (DLP) offerings rely solely on inflexible static rules and lack real visibility into what is being sent, to whom, and when.

To address this challenge, KnowBe4 introduces Prevent, an AI-native outbound email security product that alerts your employees in real time when they are about to send emails and attachments to the wrong person. Prevent proactively detects and stops the full spectrum of outbound email security threats, including: 

  • Misdirected emails to incorrect recipients, including those as a result of autocomplete 
  • Unauthorized sharing of sensitive information
  • Replies to suspicious emails and newly registered domains
  • Data exfiltration attempts by malicious insiders or compromised accounts
  • Misattached files, including hidden data within attachments (Prevent Enterprise)
  • Internal unauthorized disclosure and breach of information barriers (Prevent Enterprise) 

Combined with detailed reporting and analytics, security teams are able to get a complete view of outbound security risk across the organization, behavioral analytics of users’ interactions with Prevent’s prompts and quantification of the prevented incidents to demonstrate efficacy and return on investment (ROI). 

For more information on how KnowBe4 Prevent can help organizations mitigate outbound data loss over email, visit www.knowbe4.com/products/prevent. See how it helped KnowBe4 customer Publix Employee Federal Credit Union below:

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Guest Post – Turbulence ahead: New SAP Concur research reveals five travel topics that divide business stakeholders

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 15, 2025 by itnerd

Business travel is up in the air. The toss-up between cost-savings, employee safety, and the value of in-person interaction is an ongoing boardroom debate. In the age of virtual calls, many employees are desperate to hit the road, while others prefer to conduct their business via digital channels.

Whichever side of the fence you fall on, business travel remains vital to build working relationships and drive growth. Yet, there are certain topics relating to company travel initiatives that stakeholders don’t quite agree on. To understand the perspectives, challenges, and opportunities, it’s vital that leaders know where the disconnects lie.

The latest Global Business Travel Survey from SAP Concur asked Canadian business travellers, travel managers, and chief financial officers (CFOs) about friction points in business travel. These are the main areas of disagreement:

  1. The need for business travel: The overwhelming majority (95%) of business travellers believe travel is helpful, if not essential, to success in their roles. Yet, 51% of Canadian CFOs say more than half of their company’s business travel could effectively be replaced by teleconferencing or other communication methods that don’t require travel. A (27%) of travel managers view the tilt towards virtual meeting options as a direct threat to their company’s business travel.
  2. Employee willingness to travel: 74% of Canadian business travellers are very willing to travel over the next 12 months, marking an increase from 67% in 2023. However, nearly half (46%) of Canadian CFOs believe employee reluctance or refusal to travel could negatively impact company health within the next year. Additionally, 35% of Canadian travel managers view employees’ unwillingness as a threat to business travel.
  1. Changes in travel budgets: Each role has a different view on how travel budgets are evolving. Although not a majority, (38%) of Canadian business travellers think their company’s travel budgets will remain stagnant or decrease this year. Yet, only 16% of Canadian CFOs and 8% of travel managers say budgets will be maintained or cut – suggesting a disconnect between employee perceptions and management’s financial outlook.
  2. The roles that hold the most influence: There’s a perception gap over who influences business travel decision-making. Canadian business travellers believe travel managers (46%) and Canadian CFOs (32%) have similar influence, significantly ahead of their own at 22%. However, Canadian travel managers are broadly aligned in feeling they (39%) have nearly the same amount of influence as CFOs (34%), compared to only 27% for business travellers. Canadian CFOs strongly disagree, with 61% believing they are the most influential decision-makers, ahead of travel managers (25%) and travellers (14%).
  3. The impact of budget limitations: Although they see travel as critical to their roles, two-thirds (66%) of Canadian business travellers say important trips have been curtailed due to costs. In alignment, 75% of travel managers believe their company travel budget fails to reflect the importance of business travel to their organization’s success. And whilst CFOs acknowledge the problem, there’s dissent in the ranks. 57% of CFOs somewhat agree that budget limitations stop employees from travelling as much as they need to do their jobs well, while just 22% strongly agree.

Kristen Hrycoy, Senior Global Partner Business Manager at SAP Concur says “These findings highlight the points of contention between travellers, travel managers, and CFOs, for the first time in our Global Business Travel Survey. To empower employees to develop professionally and create new opportunities on the road, it’s vital that every role in the organization aligns on common goals.”

Explore more insights in the seventh annual SAP Concur Global Business Travel Survey.

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New study reveals top reasons why Ukrainians use VPNs during wartime

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 15, 2025 by itnerd

Following Russia’s February 2022 invasion, VPN searches surged across Ukraine as citizens sought ways to share critical information and engage in digital activism. Yet in a cruel irony, the very privacy apps designed to protect users became a liability in occupied territories, where their presence on a phone during routine checks could lead to arrest.

An original analysis by the Cybernews research team reveals how VPN usage in wartime Ukraine diverged dramatically from typical patterns. Ukrainians turned to these privacy tools for digital activism and coordinated DDoS attacks rather than streaming Netflix or bypassing geo-blocks.

Study methodology:

  • Cybernews analyzed 111 VPN-related posts from Ukrainian Reddit and Telegram channels during the first year of the full-scale war.
  • Content was coded into 8 categories: information sharing, digital activism, security/privacy, geo-unblocking, free VPN offers, miscellaneous, and censorship circumvention.
  • Data contextualized with search trend analysis and occupation zone dynamics.

Breakdown of Reasons for VPN Usage:

  • Information sharing was the reason 34% of Ukrainians turned to VPNs.
  • Digital activism, including DDoS attack coordination, accounted for 20% of motivations for VPN usage. 
  • Security and privacy protection represented 17% of VPN usage motivations.
  • Traditional VPN use cases, such as geo-unblocking (10%) and circumventing Russian censorship (5%), were rare motivations for using VPNs in Ukraine during the first year of war.

Platform-specific patterns:

  • Telegram (56% of information sharing): Focused on official safety advisories and survival protocols, reflecting its role as Ukraine’s essential wartime communication tool.
  • Reddit (28% digital activism focus): Became a hub for coordinating DDoS attacks and cyber resistance tactics against Russian targets.

Regional risk dynamics:

  • VPN searches spiked in occupied/threatened regions: Crimea, Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, and Odesa.
  • In occupied territories like Kherson, having VPN apps, Signal, or Tor could trigger arrest during routine phone checks.
  • Russia saw a 668% increase in VPN usage due to state censorship, while Ukraine’s adoption remained lower due to physical risks.

The asymmetric risk landscape

Unlike typical scenarios where VPNs enhance privacy, our analysis reveals what cybersecurity scholars call an “asymmetric risk” environment. In occupied territories, privacy tools designed to protect users became potential evidence of resistance, creating a paradox where digital security measures increased physical danger.

Conclusion 

VPNs in wartime Ukraine functioned not as universal privacy solutions but as highly contextual tools whose use depended on geography, occupation status, and individual risk tolerance. While some used VPNs to coordinate digital resistance from safer areas, others in occupied territories avoided them entirely to survive physical scrutiny. This research demonstrates how conflict fundamentally alters the landscape of digital privacy and security.

To see the full study, please visit: https://cybernews.com/cyber-war/study-reveals-reasons-why-ukrainians-use-vpns-during-wartime/ 

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Research: S&P 500’s software companies face mounting AI-related threats 

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 15, 2025 by itnerd

As the world prepares to celebrate Artificial Intelligence Appreciation Day on July 16th, the recent Grok scandal has reminded us that AI can’t serve or be celebrated by the public unless it’s secure and trustworthy. 

To address AI security, the Cybernews research team has analyzed potential security issues of AI tools used by the S&P 500 companies, and found that security risks are mounting due to the fast adoption of AI tools across industries. 

Key findings:

  • 98% of S&P 500 companies now use AI in their operations – from finance and healthcare to critical infrastructure.
  • The report identifies 970 AI-related security risks across 327 leading US companies, including:
    • 194 instances of possibly insecure AI output (e.g., flawed recommendations, unsafe automation),
    • 175 data leakage risks (there already are high-profile cases like Samsung’s code leak via ChatGPT),
    • 64 potential cases of IP theft through AI-driven model extraction and compromised platforms.
  • Critical infrastructure and patient safety are at risk, with 35 attack vectors identified in sectors like energy and utilities. Real-world examples already include IBM Watson’s unsafe cancer treatment advice and Zillow’s $400 million loss from predictive algorithm errors.

Please read the full report here. 

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Centreon Launches Next-Generation Monitoring Agent for Large-Scale IT Performance Monitoring  

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 15, 2025 by itnerd

 Centreon, announces the general availability of the Centreon Monitoring Agent. This new open-source, multiplatform agent is provided with a dedicated user interface simplifying platform administration. The agent supports passive monitoring, as well as modern, hybrid and ephemeral infrastructures. 

Agent-based Monitoring: A must in modern environments

From containers, native clouds, short lifecycles to scalable services: modern infrastructures are evolving at an increasingly rapid pace. Using monitoring agents is essential to ensure optimal visibility into such dynamic environments, which demand a high level of flexibility, frequent data collection, and automation.

Centreon Monitoring Agent:  Supporting customers in their transformation

Centreon introduces its monitoring agent in the context of the continued digital transformation of its customers. The agent is installed directly on the components to be monitored. This so-called passive monitoring mode complements the existing active approach. 

The result is that Centreon monitoring is more flexible and quicker to deploy. The Centreon Monitoring Agent is fully secure, easy to configure across platforms, with unified administration on Linux and Windows, and supports Cloud or DMZ architectures. The primary benefit of the Centreon Monitoring Agent is that it simplifies configuration for ephemeral infrastructure and automates the monitoring of new components.

Beyond traditional metrics, observability

With its new monitoring agent, Centreon is further expanding its adoption of the OpenTelemetry framework. This unmatched open-source framework has become a staple in the observability market. Above all, the commitment to OpenTelemetry aligns with Centreon’s open-source DNA. 

The open standard will eventually enable Centreon to go beyond traditional metrics, and ensure the unified collection of logs, traces, and events, paving the way for enhanced observability and a deeper understanding of application behavior. Thanks to the OTLP protocol, the Centreon Monitoring Agent ensures native interoperability with other systems and is fully integrated into the modern open-source ecosystem.

Close collaboration with the Centreon community 

The development of the new Centreon Monitoring Agent was informed by feedback from over a hundred of The Watch community members participating to  a dedicated beta program, as well as ongoing interactions with users. Through engaging its community, Centreon provides a solution tailored to users’ expectations.

The Centreon Monitoring Agent benefits from a lifecycle independent of Centreon versioning, meaning it will not require a Centreon upgrade. Scheduled for release in July 2025, it will be accessible to all, regardless of the Centreon edition they are using (Open-Source, IT Edition, Business Edition, MSP Edition) or the deployment mode (Self-Hosted and SaaS for Centreon Cloud).

For more information on the Centreon Monitoring Agent, visit the dedicated blog.

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Research Exposes $7M Mobile App Security Blindspot Fueled by Overconfidence

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 15, 2025 by itnerd

Guardsquare, the leading provider of mobile application security products, today unveiled the compelling results of an Enterprise Strategy Group study, “Mobile Application Security Cannot Be an Afterthought,” highlighting a critical misalignment between the perception and reality of mobile apps. While 93% of organizations believe their mobile app protections are sufficient to prevent attacks, the survey revealed that a substantial 62% of organizations faced at least one mobile app security incident in the past year. On average, organizations are reporting nine incidents per year.

The independent study, conducted by the Enterprise Strategy Group, surveyed more than 300 decision-makers from the application development, cybersecurity, and IT sectors worldwide. The research highlights the urgency of addressing the mobile app security perception gap, as the financial toll from these incidents continues to escalate. Survey results found the average cost of mobile app security breaches has reached $6.99 million in 2025.

Other Key Insights:

  • The impact goes beyond the balance sheet: The repercussions of mobile security lapses extend far beyond financial losses. Organizations reported application downtime (in more than 50% of cases), sensitive data leaks (48%), erosion of consumer trust (41%), and a diminished user experience (38%).
  • With the right mobile app protection in place, faster release cycles become a strength, not a risk: The average number of unique mobile applications released annually has jumped from 10 in 2023 to 13 in 2025. Yet a noteworthy 74% of organizations noted feeling increased pressure to accelerate their development cycles, with 71% conceding that this push for speed has come at the expense of robust mobile app security measures.
  • Significant gaps in security strategies: Nearly 40% of organizations rely solely on security measures built in-house or those included in operating systems. Only 31% employ code obfuscation techniques, leaving many mobile apps open to static analysis. Besides, 60% of organizations have not implemented Runtime Application Self-Protection (RASP).


The Multi-layered Security Imperative
The study highlights the need for a comprehensive security strategy. Such a strategy should encompass robust code hardening and obfuscation, proactive runtime application self-protection, rigorous mobile application security testing, and continuous threat monitoring. While a reasonable 63% of organizations are engaged in mobile application security testing and nearly 60% are utilizing threat monitoring, the study revealed that substantial weaknesses persist in other vital areas of defense.

New Priorities in Mobile App Security
The study also identified evolving priorities for organizations. Notable ones include:

  • Rising legal repercussions from mobile app breaches: 31% of organizations are already facing legal consequences stemming from a mobile app security breach.
  • Increased budget allocations: 84% of organizations plan to increase their financial commitment to mobile app security.
  • Tighter integration of security into development: 46% are prioritizing the integration of security measures directly into the tools, processes, and workflows used by their development teams.


To read or download the report, please click this Link.

Methodology
The research was conducted by Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) between January 8 and January 30, 2025. The survey included 315 qualified respondents from the United States (37%), the United Kingdom (32%), Brazil (16%), and Singapore (16%). Respondents were application development/software engineering (51%), cybersecurity (39%), and IT (9%) decision-makers influential in the purchase process for mobile application security technologies. Organizations represented both midmarket (250 to 999 employees, 31%) and enterprise (1,000+ employees, 69%) segments across multiple industries.

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Trupeer.ai Raises $3M to Unlock Studio Quality Videos for Every Software

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 15, 2025 by itnerd

Every product demo starts with a screen recording. But for most teams, turning that into something polished can mean hours of editing, painful handoffs, or bloated video tools. Trupeer, the AI video platform built specifically for software and business workflows, has raised $3 million to change that.

The seed funding round was led by RTP Global, with participation from Salesforce Ventures following Trupeer’s win at the Salesforce AI Pitchfield, and a consortium of over 20 CIO and CTO angel investors from Fortune 500 companies. This round supports Trupeer’s mission to reinvent how teams create product videos, tutorials, and walkthroughs. With a single raw screen recording, Trupeer’s AI engine can produce a clean, professional video in seconds, complete with AI voiceovers, avatars, highlights, and the ability to translate video instantly into 50+ languages.

Trupeer was founded by Shivali Goyal and Pritish Gupta, who saw a pattern across teams: product knowledge was hard to share, and even harder to scale.  They experienced this firsthand, Shivali while driving digital transformation projects at BCG, and Pritish while leading large teams at fast-growing startups. That one insight led to hundreds of conversations with SaaS founders, IT leaders, and customer teams – all looking for a faster, more flexible way to create high-quality product marketing and training content.

With Trupeer, teams drop in a rough recording of a demo, a process walkthrough or an internal how-to, and the platform handles the rest. Its multi-modal AI pipeline removes filler words, generates studio-quality voiceovers, adds intelligent zooms and subtitles, tracks cursor actions, and inserts a humanlike AI avatar for a more engaging delivery. Alongside the video, Trupeer automatically generates step-by-step documentation with screenshots and summaries, giving users everything they need to explain a product clearly, instantly, and at scale. 

Unlike traditional video editors or generic screen recorders, Trupeer is built to meet the speed and complexity of modern businesses. Its AI personalization layer creates multiple versions of a single video, tailored by audience, language, or brand style, and lets teams share them instantly through public links or embedded formats.

Trupeer is already being used by over 10,000 teams globally, from fast-growing startups to Fortune 500 companies. As a result, teams are going live with customers faster, cutting support tickets, and slashing training time across departments.

Trupeer’s momentum also reflects a broader shift: video has become the dominant format for sharing knowledge, and teams need faster, more adaptable tools to keep up.

Looking ahead, Trupeer is expanding beyond screen recordings. The team is building new ways to generate video from documents, personalize content at scale, and integrate natively with the tools where teams already work, from CRMs to learning platforms. Longer term, the vision is bigger: a system that doesn’t just create product knowledge, but acts like a common brain for organisations; allowing anyone, anywhere to create, share and access every single piece of information, workflow and process that exists in the workspace. Trupeer started with a vision to make technology accessible for all, and this fundraise is the first step in that direction.

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Rogers Launches Satellite-to-Mobile Service in Canada

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 15, 2025 by itnerd

Rogers launched today Rogers Satellite, a new satellite-to-mobile text messaging service to all Canadians. With Rogers Satellite, Rogers now covers over 5.4 million square kilometers – that’s over 2.5 times more than any other Canadian wireless service provider.

Rogers Satellite Free Beta Trial available to all Canadians​
Starting today, all Canadians can sign up to use Rogers Satellite beta trial at no cost. Rogers Satellite will initially support text messaging and text-to-911 and will expand to support apps, data and voice services, including 911 voice services.

Once the beta trial ends in October, Rogers Satellite will be included at no additional cost to customers on the Rogers Ultimate Plan and will also be available for all Canadians for $15/month. Canadians participating in the beta trial will receive a $5/month discount for the first 12 months. For more information about the beta trial, visit rogers.com/satellite.

Expands coverage in rural and remote areas
Only 18 per cent of the country is covered by traditional wireless networks. With this new technology, Rogers now covers over 5.4 million square kilometres within Canada, over 2.5 times more than any other wireless carrier.​

When connected to Rogers Satellite, customers can send a text to friends in the Rocky Mountains, text 911 if stranded on a remote highway or connect with friends and family on the southern shores of Hudson Bay or the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Automatically connects your phone in areas without cell service
Rogers Satellite uses low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites and Rogers national wireless spectrum. Wireless spectrum ensures this technology works on most modern smartphones. The company will continue to test and optimize Rogers Satellite services throughout the beta trial.

Build on legacy of innovative firsts​
Rogers has invested $45 billion to deliver a series of wireless firsts for Canadians over the past 40 years. 1G introduced voice calls, 2G added texting, and 3G offered email and the Internet. 4G brought the smartphone and with it, the on-demand economy, and 5G has unlocked even faster speeds, lower latency and a new era of innovation. ​Today, Rogers is ranked as Canada’s most reliable 5G+ network.​

Rogers Satellite is available outside, including on bodies of water, where you can see the sky. For coverage areas, see coverage map.

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