Franx, the global trading platform initiative of ABN AMRO, migrates to °neo. Aiming at maximum convenience for their clients to support their international businesses, the core technology will be provided by Five Degrees from the Microsoft Azure cloud.
 
Since its launch in 2018 Franx offers clients currency transactions and international payments from one single digital platform. To utilize the possibilities of their Azure strategy, the Dutch-based FX transactions provider selected °neo as their core banking technology which will be delivered as Software-as-a-Service from the Azure cloud. 
 
Ronald Lokkers, General Director at Franx comments: ‘After a thorough selection process we choose °neo as it caters to our multi-currency requirements and fits our Azure strategy. It was important for us that °neo supports our high standards for cloud technology. With Five Degrees we have a partner that not only provides a strong technological fit, but also continually shows expert understanding of our specific banking products and processes.'  
 
Martijn Hohmann, CEO, and founder of Five Degrees states: ‘Franx and Five Degrees have found each other as we are both keen to change banking services through modern technology. We are delighted to take this partnership to new next level.'

Cybertino Lab, who created the marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) early this year, has secures $10m from institutional investors including VC firms Sky9 Capital, Zoo Capital, Draper Dragon, INCE Capital, UpHonest Capital, blockchain investment funds Divergence Ventures, SNZ, Hashed and branded blockchain gaming investor Animoca Brands. The investment will allow Cybertino Lab to further develop its platform, to expand its marketing output and to create a new web 3.0 social product.

Founded in March 2021 by US and Chinese entrepreneurs Wilson Wei, Ryan Li, Shiyu Zhang, Zhimao Liu, and Duke McKenzie, Cybertino Lab’s mission is to create user-friendly products in web3.0. So far they have launched the world's first community-focused NFT marketplace. CEO and Co-Founder Wilson Wei was previously the chairman of DLive, the first-ever decentralized live streaming platform for gamers and crypto fans, which had more than 30 million monthly active users when it was acquired by BitTorrent in early 2020.

This August, Cybertino announced the launch of the world’s first interactive NFT via a partnership with digital asset price-tracking website CoinMarketCap. The first “roguelike” design available via CoinMarketCap was inspired by classic computer games and by the “to the moon” Bitcoin theme. The design of the unique NFTs can change based on exterior information. The first interactive NFT is linked to the price of Bitcoin and will change depending on the Bitcoin price movements; the astronaut depicted will float closer or further from the moon, depending on the price.

Cybertino CEO and Co-Founder Wilson Wei commented: “We are delighted to have secured such strong backing from these experienced investors for our efforts at this early stage in our development. This investment will supercharge our efforts to build the next generation web3.0 products with great user experiences.”

Even though infecting office documents with malware has been established for a long time, it is still very successful at tricking people. After creating a malicious macro on office documents, threat actors send the infected file to thousands of people via email and wait for possible victims. Macro is a series of commands bundled together to accomplish a task automatically.

According to recent Atlas VPN team findings, 43% of all malware downloads are malicious office docs. Harmful office files are popular among cybercriminals as they usually can evade many antivirus software from detection.

The findings are based on Netskope Threat Lab Cloud and Threat Report: July 2021 Edition. The research covers various office documents from all platforms such as Microsoft Office 365, Google Docs, PDFs, etc.

A year ago, in the second quarter of 2020, only 14% of all downloaded malware were malicious office docs. After that, in the third quarter of last year, the percentage jumped to 38%. Such an increase was mainly influenced by remote work as cybercriminals found malware-infected documents to be effective.

Later on, downloaded malicious office documents slightly decreased to 34% in Q4 2020 and Q1 2021. Despite that, downloaded malware as office documents went right back up to new highs at 43% the next quarter.

One of the most dangerous malware EMOTET was spread via Word documents before being disrupted in early 2021 by global law enforcement. What made EMOTET dangerous is that it opened doors for other malware installations such as information stealers, trojans, and ransomware.

It seems EMOTET’s success spread quickly in cybercriminal groups, inspiring more hackers to try out a similar technique. Another reason for malicious document success is that they can bypass antivirus and tend to manipulate being a trustworthy source.

For example, cybercriminals would mask malicious files and emails during the pandemic as registration for the vaccine or some other financial benefits. It is easier to make people fall for malware when it is associated with reliable documents.

Document-based malware protection

Malware-infected document attacks are made to take advantage of the user’s possible inability to recognize the risk. The best protection can only be achieved with a combination of cybersecurity awareness, training, and security software.

Do not open unsolicited attachments or links from unexpected emails. If the email is claiming to be a recognizable company or person, make sure the email address matches the actual organization’s address and look out for grammatical errors in the email itself.

Businesses should train their employees and educate them on cybersecurity risks. A significant amount of data breaches happen due to human error. Because of that, employees must be prepared to deal with phishing emails or any other type of cyberattack.

Make sure your device systems and software are updated to the latest version. New updates patch security vulnerabilities that malware actors often exploit. In addition, the latest version of antivirus software can recognize new malware threats.

Cybercriminals have benefited from the popularity of Microsoft Office, Google Docs by inserting malicious code into the files. Organizations must implement and maintain a cybersecurity strategy addressing both the technological and human components to protect users from falling victim to malware threats.

Misconfiguration of Firebase database by developers causes data risk in apps worldwide from food delivery to gaming apps

Avast, a global leader in digital security and privacy, has found over 19,300 Android apps exposing user data to the public due to a misconfiguration of the Firebase database, a tool Android developers can use to store user data. This affects a broad range of different apps, from lifestyle, workout, gaming to mail and food delivery apps in regions worldwide including in Europe, South-East Asia and Latin America.

Data exposed can include personally identifiable information (PII) collected by the apps, such as names, addresses, location data, and in some cases even passwords. Avast notified Google of its findings so they could inform app developers to take corrective action. 

Developers can use Firebase to facilitate developing mobile and web apps for the Android mobile platform, and they can keep their Firebase implementation visible to other developers so, technically, also visible to the public. When Avast Threat Labs researchers looked at 180,300 publicly available Firebase instances, they found that over 10% (19,300) were open, exposing the data to unauthenticated developers. These were open due to misconfiguration by the app developers.

These open instances put the data stored and used by the apps developed with Firebase at risk of theft. The data these apps store can include a variety of information such as personally identifiable information (PII) like names, birthdates, addresses, phone numbers, location information, service tokens and keys among other things that could be exposed by this. When developers use bad security practices, records can even contain plain text passwords.

“Each one of these open instances is a data breach event waiting to happen and can pose critical business, legal and regulatory risks if they happen. Potentially the personal information of over 10% of users of Firebase-based apps could be at risk,” explained Vladimir Martyanov, Malware Researcher at Avast. “Today, any company has an app - shops, gyms, postal services, or even environmental and donation apps, built for convenience, and often with good causes in mind. Even more so businesses should insist on a responsible development of their apps, making security and privacy a key part of the entire app development process, not just as a later ‘bolt on.”

Avast recommends developers to stay informed about potential risk of misconfigured databases and follow the best practices that Google has provided.

“We urge all developers to check their databases and other storage for possible misconfigurations to protect users' data and make our digital world safer,” said Vladimir Martyanov.

For more information, please read the full blog and research on Avast Decoded.

According to a recent study from market research firm Graphical Research, the Asia Pacific POS terminals market size is poised to expand at substantial CAGR during the forecast period. Adoption of cloud computing technology is likely to add fillip to Asia Pacific Pos terminals market outlook. Cloud-based POS systems will witness increased traction among retailers and restaurant owners in the region. Cloud technology will offset the hassle of on-premise hardware for data storage and streamline the production adoption.

Concerted efforts to embrace cashless economy will further stimulate the trend for POS terminals. While the Government of Singapore has set an audacious target to be a cashless economy by 2025, its Indian counterpart has launched the Digital India program. In terms of revenue, Asia Pacific POS terminals market is forecast to exceed USD 40 billion by 2026.

Use of biometric POS systems will be noticeable across the end-use applications for access control and improved security. Industry players are emphasizing R&D activities with facial recognition-based and fingerprint POS solutions. For instance, WeChat rolled out facial recognition-based POS system in August 2019. The solution can leverage offline payments by scanning faces of shoppers.

Hantec Financial, the co-brand of financial entities under Hantec Group, a multinational corporation with over 30 years of financial experience, has officially announced its global expansion into Vietnam. Hantec offers its prestigious financial services to clients across the country, opening the doorway to new global trading opportunities.

Offering diversified global financial services

Hantec Financial offers gold, forex, and CFDs - diversified global financial services. The entry into the Vietnamese markets marks the latest milestone in the company's global expansion. They have already brought its industry-leading platform to investors in 19 cities across 14 countries: UK, Japan, Thailand, Australia, South America, the Middle East, and Africa, with 12 regulatory licenses authorized.

A credible brand with reliable and secure trading

Hantec financial was the first trader in Hong Kong to operate an online bullion-transaction platform that was fully developed in-house. Hantec continuously optimizes its platform by keeping up with changes in the markets and adapt to investor preferences. The team obtains the ISO 27001 and ISO 20000 international certifications. It ensures that Hantec meets the international security level in the power of protecting customer assets and offer a smooth, stable, and safe trading experience for investors.

Strive to deliver professional financial service

As one of the fastest-growing economies in South-East Asia, Vietnam has seen a rising demand for investment products. Hantec Financial has the expertise and the experience to make high-quality marketing investment services accessible to all people in Vietnam. The company will also draw up a highly localized approach by cultivating local teams, integrating local culture into their operations, to adopt the concept of global citizenship.

• 70 underlying stocks with large turnover volume
• Most represented sectors are IT, Banking and Commerce
• Leverage enables participation even in high-priced stocks

Spectrum Markets, the pan-European trading venue for securitised derivatives, is offering investors another trading opportunity using turbos. In addition to indices, foreign exchange and commodities, products linked to selected equities from Europe and the U.S. are now tradable.

"In addition to indices, which account for around 40-45 percent of general trading volume on the main market places in Europe, equity turbos are traded by a good third of market participants via leveraged products”, explains Eren Eraslan, Head of Product Innovation at Spectrum Markets. "This is our response to a growing demand."

At launch, products linked to 70 stocks are available on the platform. These stocks are the most popular from the U.S. and Europe, which currently see high trading volume through securitised derivatives, were selected for this purpose.

"Usually, it is only a small number of stocks that account for about 90 percent of the trading volume," Eraslan continues. "An analysis in the affiliated countries of our pan-European trading platform - including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands, Ireland and Belgium - clearly indicates as much."

Currently the best represented sectors are IT (19 stocks), bank/finance (11 stocks) and commerce/e-commerce (8 stocks). Stocks include well-known tech favourites like Alphabet, Amazon, and Tesla, alongside longstanding corporations like LVMH Group, The Coca-Cola-Company, Astra Zeneca and Deutsche Bank. Investors will also be able to access niche innovators like plant-based meat substitute maker Beyond Meat, Dutch payments group Adyen, and Chinese electric vehicle company NIO.

Turbo certificates on stocks enable as well equity investors to hedge their positions. Due to the underlying leverage of turbo certificates, it also allows retail investors to invest just a fraction of the stock price to get exposure to the movements in the underlying equity price.

“We have further expanded our range of products with this latest addition. The aim is to successively add a selective number of shares in response to customer demand," says Eraslan.

Chip, the digital savings app, has launched a new marketing-leading saving account offering 0.70% interest, easy access, and Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) protection, placing the new account at the very top of the savings tables.

The award-winning fintech has negotiated the best easy-access interest rate on the market for its users. Chip’s aim is to build the best savings account in the world and, as part of that mission, fight to bring its users the best rates possible. Unlike traditional savings accounts, Chip actively scours the market and works with private banks to bring exclusive top-table savings rates to its users.

The market-leading rate offered through the new account is not available anywhere else and comes with FSCS protection, where eligible. With interest accruing and compounding daily, Chip users can view the progress directly in their app. As the account is easy access, savers can also withdraw their money whenever they like without penalty.

Chip, which has saved its users over half a billion pounds to date, has partnered with Flagstone, the UK's leading cash deposit platform, to provide access to this market-leading interest rate and combine the savers’ money into a trust account. This means that all Chip savers - regardless of whether they have £5 or £5,000 in their account - can benefit from some of the advantages normally only available to Flagstone clients.

The new market-leading account is powered by Allica Bank, a UK-based business bank working with British small-medium enterprises. To ensure that as many users as possible are able to take advantage of the account, Chip is initially capping total deposits per person at £30,000.

Simon Rabin, CEO of Chip, commented: “I’ll never tire of saying that at Chip, our mission is to build the best savings app in the world. Granted, it’s a hell of a goal, but in the last 12  months alone we crossed the half a billion pound mark for the amount saved for our users, started working with the world's largest asset manager, launched investments, built ChipX and now… we have negotiated the best easy-access interest rate on the market for our savers.”

“We have even more exciting savings accounts on the way”, Simon continued, “and are in fact in the process of negotiating with a few banks right now. We’ll continue on working hard to bring our users the best savings rates and put market-leading returns in the palms of their hands - just as the world’s best savings app should.”

Railsbank, the leading global Embedded Finance platform, has appointed Stuart Gregory as Chief Product Officer. He joins the Railsbank ExCo to lead product, engineering and partnerships, as Railsbank continues to rapidly scale.

Stuart Gregory joins from Wise (formerly TransferWise), where he was managing director of Wise Business and Wise Platform. Over the last five years he built, launched and scaled the business propositions to represent 20% of Wise at their recent £9bn listing. He hired and led the business product and sales teams, as well as supporting other areas including customer support and product risk.

Prior to Wise he was VP Product at Paysafe Group and responsible for all consumer products, representing €100m of revenue. Before that he was VP Head of Visa Checkout Product Development, at Visa Europe, which involved shaping the digital wallet into a product available for member banks in a £150m project. 

Nigel Verdon, co-founder and CEO of Railsbank, said: “It is with great pleasure that we welcome Stuart to the team and he has already made a significant contribution at what is a very exciting time for us. We value his insights, knowledge and experience of scaling a business which will be of benefit to both our customers and the Railsbank team. Railsbank continues to rapidly expand and Stuart will play a leading role in our future ambitions.”

Stuart Gregory added: “Embedded Finance is a huge opportunity. It finally moves us beyond stand-alone financial services, and brings them directly into the context of our relationships with people and brands. I’ve been watching Railsbank closely for a few years, as I think they uniquely have the vision to solve this both globally and in a fundamental way. I’m excited to join and see the next generation of experiences that we’re going to design and enable with our partners!”

Railsbank is headquartered in the UK and has offices in Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Australia, the US, Germany and Lithuania.