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Acronis’ Mid-Year Cyberthreats Report Reveals 464% Increase in Email Attacks

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SCHAFFHAUSEN, Switzerland, June 29, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Acronis, a global leader in cyber protection, today released the findings of its Mid-Year Cyberthreats Report, From Innovation to Risk: Managing the Implications of AI-driven Cyberattacks. The comprehensive study, based on data captured from more than one million global endpoints, provides insight into the evolving cybersecurity landscape and uncovers the growing utilization of generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems, such as ChatGPT, by cybercriminals to craft malicious content and execute sophisticated attacks.

The biannual threat report highlights ransomware as the dominant risk to small and medium-sized businesses. And while the number of new ransomware variants continues to decline, ransomware attacks’ severity remains significant. Equally concerning is the growing prominence of data stealers, who leverage stolen credentials to gain unauthorized access to sensitive information. 

“The volume of threats in 2023 has surged relative to last year, a sign that criminals are scaling and enhancing how they compromise systems and execute attacks,” said Candid Wüest, Acronis VP of Research. “To address the dynamic threat landscape, organizations need agile, comprehensive, unified security solutions that provide the necessary visibility to understand attacks, simplify context, and provide efficient remediation of any threat, whether it may be malware, system vulnerability, and everything in between.”

According to the report’s findings, phishing is the primary method criminals leverage to unearth login credentials. In the first half of 2023 alone, the number of email-based phishing attacks has surged 464% when compared to 2022. Over the same frame, there has also been a 24% increase in attacks per organization. In the first half of 2023, Acronis-monitored endpoints observed a 15% increase in the number of files and URLs per scanned email. Cybercriminals have also tapped into the burgeoning large language model (LLM)-based AI market, using platforms to create, automate, scale, and improve new attacks through active learning. 

The cyberattack landscape is evolving

Cybercriminals are becoming more sophisticated in their attacks, using AI and existing ransomware code to drill deeper into victims’ systems and extract sensitive information. AI-created malware is adept at avoiding detection in traditional antivirus models and public ransomware cases have exploded relative to last year. Acronis-monitored endpoints are picking up valuable data about how these cybercriminals operate and recognizes how some attacks have become more intelligent, sophisticated, and difficult to detect.

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Drawing from extensive research and analysis, key findings from the report include:

  • Acronis blocked almost 50 million URLs at the endpoint in Q1 2023, a 15% increase over Q4 2022.
  • There were 809 publicly mentioned ransomware cases in Q1 2023, with a 62% spike in March over the monthly average of 270 cases.
  • In Q1 2023, 30.3% of all received emails were spam and 1.3% contained malware or phishing links.
  • Each malware sample lives an average of 2.1 days in the wild before it disappears. 73% of samples were only seen once.
  • Public AI models are proving an unwitting accomplice for criminals looking for source code vulnerabilities, creating attacks and developing fraud prevention-thwarting attacks like deep fakes.

 Cybercriminal gangs phish to acquire credentials, extract data and dollars, of note:

  • Phishing remained the most popular form of stealing credentials, making up 73% of all attacks. Business email compromises (BECs) were second, at 15%.
  • The LockBit gang was responsible for major data breaches.
  • Clop breached a mental health provider’s system, affecting the personal and HIPAA-covered data of more than 783,000 individuals.
  • BlackCat stole more than 2TB of secret military data, which included personal information of employees and customers, from an Indian industrial manufacturer.
  • Vice Society compromised 1,200 servers and the personal information of 43,000 students, 4,000 academic staff and 1,500 administrative staff at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany.

Breaches demonstrate major security concerns

Traditional cybersecurity methods and lack of action let attackers in, the report shares:

  • There is a lack of strong security solutions in place that can detect zero-day vulnerability exploitations.
  • Organizations often fail to update vulnerable software in a timely manner, long after a fix becomes available.
  • Linux servers face inadequate protection against the cybercriminals who are increasingly going after them.
  • Not all organizations follow proper data backup protocol, including the 3-2-1 rule.

With these trends in mind, Acronis emphasizes the need for proactive cyber protection measures. A sound cybersecurity posture requires a multi-layered solution that combines anti-malware, EDR, DLP, email security, vulnerability assessment, patch management, RMM, and backup capabilities. Leveraging an advanced solution that combines AI, machine learning, and behavioral analysis can help mitigate the risks posed by ransomware and data stealers. Through ongoing research, development, and collaboration with industry partners, Acronis is committed to empowering individuals and businesses by providing innovative solutions which protect against emerging cyberthreats.

For more information, download a copy of the full Acronis Mid-Year Cyberthreats Report 2023 here: https://www.acronis.com/en-us/resource-center/resource/acronis-mid-year-cyberthreats-report-2023/

To learn more about the report and its findings, visit the Acronis blog post.

Acronis partners interested in cyber protection training and certification programs surrounding Acronis security tools and the latest cyber threats, visit https://www.acronis.com/en-us/academy/.

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About Acronis:
Acronis unifies data protection and cybersecurity to deliver integrated, automated cyber protection that solves the safety, accessibility, privacy, authenticity, and security (SAPAS) challenges of the modern digital world. With flexible deployment models that fit the demands of service providers and IT professionals, Acronis provides superior cyber protection for data, applications, and systems with innovative next-generation antivirus, backup, disaster recovery, and endpoint protection management solutions powered by AI. With advanced anti-malware powered by cutting-edge machine intelligence and blockchain based data authentication technologies, Acronis protects any environment – from cloud to hybrid to on premises – at a low and predictable cost.

Acronis is a Swiss company, founded in Singapore. Celebrating two decades of innovation, Acronis has more than 2,000 employees in 45 locations. Acronis Cyber Protect solution is available in 26 languages in over 150 countries and is used by 18,000 service providers to protect over 750,000 businesses.

Press contact:
Karl Bateson
[email protected]

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f1359483-9768-4162-ac2e-3ddb30426c0d

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GlobeNewswire is one of the world's largest newswire distribution networks, specializing in the delivery of corporate press releases financial disclosures and multimedia content to the media, investment community, individual investors and the general public.

Artificial Intelligence

Lucinity’s AI Innovation Recognized at Microsoft’s Prestigious Global Partner Awards 2024

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REYKJAVIK, Iceland, June 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Lucinity has been recognized as a finalist in the AI Innovation category at the prestigious Microsoft Global Partner Awards 2024, recognizing its breakthrough AI solution and contribution to financial security through its collaboration with Microsoft. 

Lucinity beat more than 4,700 companies to be named a finalist at the annual Microsoft Global Partner Awards, which highlights Lucinity’s achievements as a Microsoft partner in optimizing business processes, improving customer experiences, and opening new pathways for digital transformation.
This achievement comes in addition to winning two prestigious awards at Microsoft Partner Awards 2024 last month, including Partner of the Year – Iceland, and the Sustainability and Social Impact award.
The accolade recognizes Lucinity’s significant advancements in AI for financial crime operations, particularly through their AI-powered copilot, Luci. This innovative solution utilizes Microsoft Azure OpenAI technology to integrate advanced generative AI into financial crime investigations and regulatory compliance, optimizing processes and saving significant time and resources for financial institutions.
The Lucinity platform streamlines compliance, provides instant insights, and reduces typical investigation times from three hours to just 30 minutes. The technology can also save financial institutions an estimated $100 million in productivity savings, as well as savings in training and recruitment.
Microsoft comments on Lucinity’s award recognition, saying “Financial crime profoundly impacts our global community, with far-reaching economic, security, and social implications. It can harm a country’s reputation and increase exposure to criminal activities, emphasizing the critical need for robust anti-money laundering initiatives and persistent vigilance. Lucinity, with their innovative AI solutions, has really tried to combat this huge global challenge. They use ‘Human AI’ to enhance financial crime prevention, combining AI with human expertise for efficient, user-friendly solutions. Additionally, Lucinity has developed a tool called Luci, an AI-powered copilot that helps transform financial crime prevention from a process that took hours to one that takes minutes.”
“Being recognized as a finalist at the Microsoft Global Partner Awards is  validation of our impactful collaboration with Microsoft in financial crime operations. Our partnership has been pivotal for our innovations, enabling us to use Azure OpenAI to bring tools like Luci to life and deliver impactful results for our clients,” says Guðmundur Kristjánsson, Founder & CEO of Lucinity.
Contact:Name: Celina PabloEmail: [email protected]: +354 792 4321
Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2208676/4669079/Lucinity_Logo.jpg

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Asia Pacific View: Foreigners Looking for the Most Practical Smart Technology at the 2024 World Intelligence Expo

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BEIJING, June 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Bionic robots that speak both Chinese and English can have the same skin and nails as humans? A flying car powered solely by wind can have a maximum payload of 160 kg? A smart wheelchair can control its operation with just the “mind”? Kevin and Daria, two foreign bloggers, have experienced during the World Intelligence Expo held in Tianjin how the artificial intelligence can empower people’s future lives in industries such as technology, trade, logistics and cultural tourism.

 
With the theme of “Intelligent Travel Empowering Future”, the Expo integrates exhibitions, experiences and events, attracting more than 550 exhibitors and institutions from all over the world, including more than 70 well-known enterprises such as Huawei, Alibaba, Baidu and Danfoss, and 57 universities and research institutions such as Peking University, Tsinghua University, Nankai University and Tianjin University. The Expo set up 10 major themes such as artificial intelligence, intelligent networked vehicles, intelligent manufacturing and robots, covering the frontier hot spots of the intelligent industry. A number of cutting-edge new technologies, new products, and new experiences from all over the world were showcased centrally, reminding people that technology will completely change the lifestyles in the future.
At the exhibition site, various intelligent robot products such as humanoid robots, bionic robots, and intelligent robot dogs interact with the audience on the spot. They are no longer fantasies in science fiction or movies, but play an important role in monitoring, rescue, cultural tourism and other fields. In the low-altitude economic exhibition area, a number of drones, flying vehicles, and aerospace technology companies collectively display advanced technology products. A low-altitude aircraft shaped like a helicopter brought by the German company Tensor can independently complete cargo transportation, takeoff and landing according to pre-set routes according to the instructions. Robotic arms incorporating technologies such as 5G, IoT, edge computing, rocker robotics, and artificial intelligence can shoot high-frame-rate video and support autofocus, achieving effects that cannot be achieved in traditional shooting modes. Viewers can also have more novel experiences with the help of smart technology.
The Expo also hosted three major events such as the Asia-Pacific Robotics World Cup Tianjin International Invitational, the World Intelligent Driving Challenge, and the International Intelligent Sports Conference. A number of technological achievements and innovative applications were demonstrated in the competitions. For exhibiting companies, this Expo is also an opportunity to further promote the transformation of enterprises to information technology and digitalization, and will also bring huge business opportunities.
Contact: Guo RanPhone: 008610-68332663Email: [email protected] 
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjjzurfN_r0 Logo:  https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2451195/logo_Asia_Pacific_View_Logo.jpg
 

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Tech Companies Leading the Charge in the Transformative AI Era

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USA News Group Commentary
Issued on behalf of Avant Technologies Inc.
VANCOUVER, BC, June 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — USA News Group – The world is changing rapidly thanks to artificial intelligence (AI), with what’s being called the Transformative AI era which comes with great benefits and also potential dangers. The economic impacts are global, with a new report from The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) urging central banks to adapt rapidly to AI advances. Now it’s become apparent how important it is for companies to understand how to harness the full potential of GenAI to secure strategic revenue growth in the coming years. The surge of AI’s usefulness is accelerating innovation in R&D, while behind the scenes tech companies are advancing the infrastructure required to keep this revolution going, including new developments from Avant Technologies Inc. (OTCQB: AVAI), Accenture plc (NYSE: ACN), Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET), Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG, GOOGL), and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN).

Known for pioneering advancements in AI, Avant Technologies Inc. (OTCQB: AVAI) has persistently refined and expanded its premier offering, Avant AI™. This sophisticated AI platform, celebrated for its machine learning and deep learning capabilities, is the culmination of Avant’s efforts to deliver unprecedented and cost-effective compute infrastructure that unlocks the full potential of AI and ushers in a new era of technological advancement. 
“There is a real unmet need as rapid growth across the entirety of the AI and big data industries is outpacing the necessary infrastructure for an industry that demands exponential power and capacity while remaining cost effective,” said Avant’s CEO William Hisey in a recent address of progress on AI supercomputer-driven data centers. “Avant’s ‘edge-native’ approach doesn’t rely on cloud-based services so we can offer AI and big data companies many advantages over the more familiar ‘cloud-native’ approach, including, reduced latency, improved security and privacy, increased scalability, and reduced costs.”
In a recent strategic development, Avant entered into a Binding Letter of Intent (BLOI) with Flow Wave, LLC (FW), a prominent Florida-based firm specializing in immersible computer server technology. This agreement allows Avant to acquire up to 50 cutting-edge immersible computer servers from FW, in a transaction valued at $50 million.
“By integrating proprietary machine learning algorithms with open-source innovations into these servers, Avant is developing a highly intelligent system designed to optimize resource allocation, enhance performance, and drive unprecedented levels of efficiency and automation,” said Hisey.  “This marks the beginning of a new era for Avant Technologies, positioning us at the forefront of the supercomputer-driven data center industry and setting new standards for managing and storing AI applications.”
Flow Wave Immersible AI Supercomputer Servers are engineered for demanding AI and machine learning applications, delivering powerful processing capabilities that accelerate data analysis. Their cutting-edge cooling system is both energy-efficient and cost-effective, reducing environmental impact. These servers’ compact design facilitates easy installation in space-constrained data centers, and their robust construction ensures longevity and lower maintenance requirements.
In response to digital era challenges, Avant intends to acquire up to 50 of these high-performance servers. Their superior cooling technology boosts performance while conserving energy, aligning with Avant’s goal of providing top-tier AI infrastructure and maximizing efficiency. Additional details about the acquisition will be shared once the final agreement is secured.
In Q3 2024, Accenture plc (NYSE: ACN) brought in over $900 million in new Generative AI bookings, for a total of $2 billion fiscal year-to-date. Despite missing its overall earnings targets, the market responded by sending its shares upward.
“We achieved strong new bookings of over $21 billion, up 22% over last year, and continued to accelerate our strategy to be the reinvention partner of choice, with another 23 clients with quarterly bookings of over $100 million, bringing the total of such bookings to 92 year-to-date,” said Julie Sweet, Chair and CEO of Accenture. “We also achieved two significant milestones this quarter — with $2 billion in Generative AI sales year-to-date and $500 million in revenue year-to-date — which demonstrate our early lead in this critical technology.”
Back in May, Accenture took steps to help its clients to scale their Generative AI responsibly.
“Clients are eager to embrace the potential of generative AI, and we are ready to help them build responsible AI into every use,” said Sweet. “We do this for ourselves, and we can use that example to help our clients find success faster. Our focus is to enable our clients to innovate AI safely and be ready to seize the opportunities that AI will bring in the decades ahead.”
Recently, the cloud-based security solution provider Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET) unveiled the general availability of its AI Gateway platform. Marketed as a comprehensive interface for managing and scaling generative AI workloads, the platform has transitioned from its beta phase, which started in September 2023, to full client use after successfully handling over 500 million requests.
This launch coincides with Cloudflare’s announcement of a partnership with Hugging Face, a leading platform for AI developers. The collaboration offers a one-click global deployment for AI applications via the Workers AI platform, now also generally available. As the first serverless inference partner integrated on the Hugging Face Hub, this allows developers to deploy AI models quickly, easily, and cost-effectively on a global scale, without the need for managing infrastructure or paying for unused compute capacity.
“Workers AI is one of the most affordable and accessible solutions to run inference,” said Matthew Prince, CEO and co-founder, Cloudflare. “With Hugging Face and Cloudflare both deeply aligned in our efforts to democratize AI in a simple, affordable way, we’re giving developers the freedom and agility to choose a model and scale their AI apps from zero to global in an instant.”
In the education space, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG, GOOGL) through Google, is bringing new AI tools to Google Workspace for teen students using their school accounts to help them learn responsibly and confidently in an AI-first future, and empowering educators with new tools to help create great learning experiences.
“In the coming months, we’re making Gemini available to teen students that meet our minimum age requirements while using their Google Workspace for Education accounts in English in over 100 countries around the world, free of charge for all education institutions,” said Google in a blog post. “To ensure schools are always in control, Gemini will be off by default for teens until admins choose to turn it on as an Additional Service in the Admin console.”
Google has also developed a number of resources and trainings to help students, parents and educators use generative AI tools responsibly and effectively, including a video on how teens can responsibly use AI while learning.
After recently hitting a $2-trillion valuation, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) continues to be a big player in the AI space. Now it’s reportedly working on its own AI chatbot that some say might be smarter than ChatGPT, named Metis, which will generate answers by grabbing info from the internet.
Metis is driven by an internal Amazon AI model known as Olympus, drawing inspiration from Greek mythology. According to sources, Olympus is a more advanced version of Amazon’s publicly available Titan model.
Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy has noted that nearly every division within the company is engaged in some form of AI project. As a pioneer in cloud computing, Amazon has been developing machine learning, a subset of AI, for many years. Jassy recently announced that Amazon’s AI initiatives are projected to generate over $1 billion in annual revenue, with expectations of driving “tens of billions of dollars” in sales in the coming years.
However, Amazon has lagged in the realm of consumer AI assistants. An internal document from last year highlighted that Amazon “does not have a publicly or internally available product that looks and works exactly like ChatGPT.”
According to a source reported by Business Insider, the tentative launch date for Metis is September, right around the time when Amazon is set to host a big Alexa event, although the timeline could still change.
Source: https://usanewsgroup.com/2023/10/26/unlocking-the-trillion-dollar-ai-market-what-investors-need-to-know/
CONTACT:
USA NEWS [email protected](604) 265-2873
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