As one of the leading types of cyber-attacks, ransomware is expected to dominate cybercrime in 2020. According to PreciseSecurity.com research, weak passwords were one of the most common cybersecurity vulnerabilities in 2019, causing 30% of ransomware infections in 2019.

Weak Passwords Are the Third Most Common Ransomware Cause Globally

Appian (APPN) today announced a technology partnership and integration initiatives with Celonis, the market leader in AI-enhanced Process Mining and Process Excellence software, to unite Appian’s low-code application development platform with the powerful process mining technology of the Celonis Intelligent Business Cloud (IBC). The partnership will accelerate digital business process transformation and continuous process improvement for joint customers.

CaixaBank has started to use artificial intelligence to improve the acquisition of new skills among its employees. The financial institution, chaired by Jordi Gual and with chief executive officer Gonzalo Gortázar, has launched a new version of Virtaula, an online training platform for its entire workforce, incorporating artificial intelligence to identify each employee's areas of interest and recommend courses tailored to their individual profiles.

Customer use of Open Banking in the UK has surpassed the one million customer mark for the first time, doubling in the past six months.

With its sights set on an IPO later this year, Australian neobank Volt has closed a $70m Series C round and is now opening up a $50m Series D on a $285m valuation.

TSB is to create 100 jobs at a new IT centre to be set up in Edinburgh as part of its digital banking strategy to avoid a repeat of its system meltdown.

The new staff in Edinburgh will be IT specialists, data engineers and analysts. The bank has suffered online banking problems under a new system introduced in 2018, with 200 million customer temporarily losing access to their accounts in April of that year.

Former Standard Life chief executive David Nish has today been named as senior independent director at banking giant HSBC.

Nish, who has served on the board of the bank since 2016, will take over the role from Sir Jonathan Symonds next month. He will also become chairman of the group’s audit committee.

London-based crypto banking startup Cashaa is announcing the launch of a “Crypto Business/Broker” account to ensure crypto businesses/brokers are compliant with the FCA’s new rules for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist finance and Fifth Money Laundering Directive (5AMLD).

DayTek Capital is pleased to announce the appointment of Christoph Flefel, as its new Chief Risk and Compliance Officer.

Dubai based fintech company specializing in payment processing is set to launch OG Bank and OG Pay (On the Go) a digital banking solution, chat based payment wallet and a digital point of sale (POS) all to be operated from mobile devices.