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 utilisation 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 unauthorised 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, organisations 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 organisation. 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 recognises how some attacks have become more intelligent, sophisticated, and difficult to detect.

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.
• Organisations 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 organisations follow proper data backup protocol, including the 3-2-1 rule.

With these trends in mind, Acronis emphasises 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 behavioural 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.

Volante Technologies, the global leader in cloud payments modernization, today announced it has been working with a leading U.S. banking customer to help the custodian bank successfully complete pilot testing on the FedNow^SM instant payments service. 

The comprehensive pilot test included various transaction scenarios, such as send, send/receive, and bank-to-bank pilot testing. By validating the core instant payments functionality on the FedNow network, Volante reaffirmed its commitment to assisting banks in seamlessly adopting the groundbreaking instant payments network.  

“For banks embarking on their instant payments journey, Volante Technologies has been a steadfast partner, providing innovative solutions and expertise," said Reed Luhtanen, Executive Director, U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC). "Their commitment to driving industry progress and supporting financial institutions is commendable. As a sponsor of the FPC’s annual Barometer survey, Volante actively contributes to the evaluation of payment system stakeholders, enabling us to assess the advancements, trends, and challenges surrounding faster payments in the United States." 

While the FedNow Service will not launch until July of 2023, banks can already test their ability to connect to the network with Volante so that they can offer instant payment services to their customers when the service becomes available. In the meantime, Volante provides a single solution to support all U.S. real-time payments, including The Federal Reserve’s FedNow service, The Clearing House RTP® and Zelle®, which are available on-premise, in the cloud or as payments-as-a-service model.  

“Key features such as the ability to automate payments and flexibility of funds are driving businesses toward faster payment options which they leverage to lower costs and help manage cash flow,” said Deepak Gupta, SVP & Global Head, Payments as a Service, Volante Technologies. 

“We are proud to have supported our customer in completing pilot testing and validating our ability to support core instant payments functionality on the FedNow service," added Gupta. “We value our partnerships with our customers and will continue to drive innovation and the adoption of instant payments, so firms of all sizes remain poised for growth.” 

A recent study by the Federal Reserve finds that 62 per cent of its respondents noted cash flow management as one of their most impactful challenges and reported a need for greater flexibility and speed in their payment options as they navigate supply chain complexity and other economic obstacles.  

Volante is a longtime supporter of early adopters on the FedNow instant payments network and is known for driving ubiquity of real-time payments across the globe. In 2017, Volante facilitated the first real-time payment for BNY Mellon over The Clearing House RTP network. 

Following the launch of its real-time payments solution, it remained a driving force in payments modernization internationally, helping banks of all sizes process instant payments in Europe (SEPA instant payments through TIPS and RT1), Mexico (SPEI), Saudi Arabia, and many other countries. The latest achievement builds on its history of being at the forefront of the industry and solidifies its position as payments pioneer. 

Sologenic, a global forerunner in blockchain tokenization technology, today announces the launch of two groundbreaking solutions: SOLONEX, a preeminent asset tokenization brokerage solution, and a specialized custom-built CBDC Tokenization Solution. Geared at facilitating seamless financial transactions and advanced asset management, these pioneering solutions will bridge the gap between traditional and digital finance, providing a seamless tokenization entry point for institutions, banks and government agencies.

"The launch of SOLONEX and our CBDC Tokenization Solution represent Sologenic’s most pivotal innovations to-date. By leveraging the XRP Ledger's efficiency and scalability, we're empowering global financial institutions to partake in the tokenization revolution," commented Reza Bashash, CTO of Sologenic.

The state-of-the-art SOLONEX solution enables financial institutions, including banks, brokerage houses, investment firms and exchanges globally, to tokenize a vast array of asset classes, including stocks, ETFs, commodities, and real estate. Built upon the unmatched capabilities of the XRP Ledger, SOLONEX offers 24/7 trading, on-demand asset tokenization, automatic dividends payout, and fractional trading, making it easier for global financial institutions to join the world of decentralized finance.

Simultaneously, Sologenic has unleashed its innovative custom-built CBDC Tokenization Solution. Tailored to cater to the diverse requirements of financial institutions, government agencies, and private banks, this solution streamlines the creation and management of unique digital currencies.

In conjunction with these advancements, Sologenic has also announced a strategic alliance with Fireblocks, an easy-to-use platform to create new blockchain-based products and manage day-to-day digital asset operations. This integration is anticipated to enhance the institutional custody of blockchain-based assets and significantly bolster the global adoption of Sologenic's tokenization technology.

"The introduction of SOLONEX signals a groundbreaking shift in the interplay between blockchain and finance," shares Bob Ras, Sologenic's Co-Founder. "Our integration with Fireblocks strengthens Sologenic’s dedication to ensuring secure, forward-thinking transformations in this arena.”

“Fireblocks’ scalable and highly-secure technology was created to support innovative companies like Sologenic,” said Stephen Richardson, Managing Director of Financial Markets at Fireblocks. “Our institutional-grade key management technology ensures peace of mind as customers manage their day-to-day digital asset operations as they create the financial products of tomorrow.”

In line with these developments, Sologenic has unveiled a newly formed business division: Securities Market Strategic Partnerships. This unit will focus specifically on providing these transformative solutions to financial institutions, government agencies, and private banks.

gigaroo, an innovative startup dedicated to empowering GenZ individuals with financial stability, announced today that it has successfully raised $2.5M in pre-seed funding. Since its app launch in early January, the company has garnered a substantial user base of thousands of GenZ individuals and is working with dozens of service industry customers.

Adir Oren, Co-founder & CEO of gigaroo, expressed the company's commitment to addressing the unique challenges faced by GenZ's in today's evolving economic landscape. "At gigaroo, we are devoted to equipping GenZ with the tools, resources, and opportunities needed to thrive financially," stated Oren. "Our AI-powered app serves as a bridge, connecting GenZ with flexible service industry job options that are aligned with their lifestyle. By providing next-day payments, we enable them to access their earnings promptly and plan for both short-term obligations and long-term goals."

Looking towards the future, gigaroo has ambitious expansion plans. Oren outlined, "We aim to scale our operations in Austin, Dallas, Miami, Boston, and beyond. Additionally, we plan to establish partnerships with the restaurant's point of sale and management systems, helping businesses fill their open positions and help them retain their employees. This approach creates a win-win scenario, as GenZ individuals gain the flexible financial stability they seek while businesses reduce turnover, increase profit, and recover and average of over 200K of their annual lost revenue."

gigaroo, founded in 2022 by Adir Oren and Yair Almagor, renowned Israeli entrepreneurs, is headquartered in Austin, TX, with its research and development center located in Israel. The company plan to raise its seed round in the coming months.

Fintech startup Bitpanda is splitting into two companies as Bitpanda Pro — the company’s cryptocurrency exchange — is going to become its own independent company called One Trading. As part of this move, One Trading is also raising $33 million (€30 million) in funding.

Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures is leading the funding round, with participation from MiddleGame Ventures, Speedinvest, Keyrock and Wintermute Ventures.

Bitpanda is a popular consumer trading app that has raised hundreds of millions of dollars and attracted millions of users in Europe. While the company started as a crypto broker and exchange, it then added the ability to buy and sell stocks, ETFs, precious metals like gold and commodities.

More recently, the company has been partnering with other fintech startups so that they can offer stock and crypto trading in their own apps. For instance, Lydia and N26 both selected Bitpanda as their white-label trading partner.

In addition to these trading products designed for retail investors, Bitpanda has been running its own crypto exchange called Bitpanda Pro. This service is designed for institutional investors who handle large orders or businesses that want to trade using bots and the company’s API.

And that’s the part of the business that is becoming its own company called One Trading. Going forward, Bitpanda is still going to offer crypto trading — but it will act as a broker, not an exchange. A crypto exchange manages trades between different users while a broker acts as an intermediary between customers and different markets.

One Trading CEO Joshua Barraclough, who was already in charge of Bitpanda Pro, said in an email that Bitpanda and Bitpanda Pro are “separating so that they can build out a market leading product for sophisticated retail and institutional customers, with the right focus and investment to be successful. Bitpanda continues to operate, but no longer has an exchange or institutional OTC business.”

Splitting the company also means that Bitpanda won’t face as many regulatory challenges as One Trading. For instance, One Trading plans to offer derivatives, which are risky financial assets.

Similarly, in the U.S., crypto companies like Coinbase and Binance are facing lawsuits for securities law violations. While the regulatory landscape seems more stable in Europe for now, things could change in the future. Isolating Bitpanda from the crypto exchange activities seems smart to guarantee Bitpanda’s long-term prospects.

So far, Bitpanda Pro hasn’t been the most active crypto exchange. As of this writing, CoinMarketCap reports that the platform has facilitated $634,000 in transaction volume over the past 24 hours. As a comparison, Binance and Coinbase have handled more than $8 billion and nearly $1 billion in transaction volume, respectively.

One Trading hopes that it can improve liquidity with recent infrastructure improvements. “We aim to become a utility for large liquidity providers to exchange unlimited amounts of risk under a membership model instead of pay-per-trade and have low fees and deep books for retail with a number of liquidity protections,” Barraclough said in a statement.

“We will then start listing more products with appropriate controls and vetting as we move into derivatives. Above all we want a regulated, institutional-grade platform where people feel safe to trade with unique product options,” he added.

It’s going to be interesting to see if there is any significant change in transaction volume in the coming weeks.

Visa today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Pismo for $1 billion in cash.

Together, we will be positioned to provide core banking and issuer processing capabilities across debit, prepaid, credit and commercial cards for clients via cloud-native APIs. Pismo’s platform will also enable Visa to provide support and connectivity for emerging payment rails, like Pix in Brazil, for financial institution clients.

Visa is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories.

“Through the acquisition of Pismo, Visa can better serve our financial institution and fintech clients with more differentiated core banking and issuer solutions they can offer their customers,” said Jack Forestell, Chief Product and Strategy
Officer, Visa.

“At Pismo, we aim to enable our clients to launch cutting-edge payments and banking products within a single cloud-native platform, regardless of rails, geography or currency,” said Ricardo Josua, Co-Founder, CEO, Pismo. “Visa provides us unrivalled support to expand our footprint globally and help shape a new era for banking and payments.”

Pismo will retain our founders and current management team. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions and is expected to close by the end of 2023.

In today’s rapidly evolving financial landscape, accountants are acutely aware of the need to embrace technological advancements and digitalisation to remain competitive. A fact supported by a recent Sage study, revealed that 82% of accountants claimed their clients demanding a broader service offering. Since its inception in 2018, open banking has emerged as a transformative force for accounting firms and software, enabling a way to improve productivity and client experiences via open APIs. Be it an accounting firm that handles the activities of hundreds of SMEs or an accounting software used by the financial director of a big corporation with offices spread across the globe, open banking brings many levels of digitalisation. From access to aggregated bank data in real-time and the ability to initiate payments from a customer’s bank account, to automated complex processes and unlocked actionable insights.

Salt Edge has built a reputation as a reliable partner when it comes to providing open banking solutions to accounting firms over the last several years. Based on the company’s experience facilitating open banking for accounting companies, we will explore the five advantageous outcomes that these businesses can acquire by opting for open banking integration.

Display various bank data in a single accounting system

Many accounting procedures are still far from being digital, requiring the manual or semi-manual extraction of data from Excel or PDF files and its subsequent introduction into accounting software. Human error cannot be prevented during these operations, which results in low efficiency and high operational costs. Leveraging open banking, accounting companies get instant access to clients’ data from any bank in any country – in one place. The automatic import of live bank feed data is normalised into a unified format and readily available, excluding the need to convert the data from different banks to a common standard.

Seamless payments

Companies can now experience a smooth payment process free of time-consuming manual steps by integrating open banking solutions into their accounting apps. This advantage is particularly valuable for accounting firms handling multiple SMEs accounts or financial directors responsible for managing accounts across global entities. Through open banking, they can initiate payments, such as salaries, taxes, and multiple invoices, with just a few clicks. The added convenience of making payments directly from the accounting app streamlines the entire process, eliminating the need for separate payment platforms or complicated procedures.

Actionable insights

In addition to data aggregation, clever algorithms may also be used to further process the bank data in order to generate up-to-date and helpful insights. With data already classified and categorised, accounting professionals can dive into budgeting, forecasting, and cash flow analysis with ease. The integration between open banking and accounting software features allows for efficient collaboration, ensuring that the insights gained from the data can directly influence decision-making processes.

Reconciliation made easier

According to numerous studies, mistakes in bank reconciliation can significantly affect a company’s profitability. Due to improper bank reconciliation procedures, about 30% of businesses tend to have financial record errors. In this case, there is also room for open banking. The APIs can automate the processes, revolutionising the way reconciliation is performed. Traditionally, reconciliation involved manually detecting cash manipulations or discrepancies between records and bank account balances. With open banking, these errors can be mitigated as automated reconciliation ensures real-time matching of transactions. Joining forces with Salt Edge, Odoo made a strategic decision to provide its customers with instant access to banking data, facilitating quick reconciliation of invoices and payments through the utilisation of open banking technology.

Smooth client onboarding

Incorporating dozens of new businesses into the accounting software can be done easier by automating the data import directly from the bank. The automatic import of live bank feed data, including KYC details, account numbers, and personal and business data, streamlines the onboarding flow, creating a better user experience and less manual work for accountants. Additionally, accounting firms can finally escape the spreadsheet avalanche by obtaining years worth of transaction history in just a few clicks through one integration. Automation of bookkeeping enhances real-time reporting and decreases operational costs.

Concluding…

For the accounting sector, open banking has proven to be a game-changer by giving businesses the tools they need to better serve their customers while navigating the constantly changing financial landscape. Accounting firms can automate their operations and difficult tasks and use real-time financial data to help them make wise business decisions by embracing open banking solutions.

Accounting professionals can uncover the full potential of open banking with Salt Edge’s knowledge and extensive suite of open banking APIs, digitalising their operations and providing unmatched value to their clients. Join Salt Edge on a transformative journey of open banking.

Nomura's digital assets subsidiary, Laser Digital, today announces the acquisition of Elysium Technology Group, a leading provider of post-trade solutions for over-the-counter (OTC) foreign exchange (FX) and digital assets. Founded in 2007 by ex-UBS executives Andy Siciliano and Ed Mount, along with tech pioneers Mark Rosenfeld and Lo Shih, Elysium is an innovator of post-trade solutions for the foreign exchange industry. This strategic acquisition marks a significant milestone for both companies as they join forces to bring cross-asset post-trade capabilities to institutional digital asset investors. The transaction is expected to close imminently.

Elysium Technology Group has been an established and trusted leader in post-trade solutions over the past decade, particularly in the OTC FX market. With its proven track record, Elysium brings a wealth of expertise, experience, and technological advancements to the digital asset landscape. The company will be renamed Elysium LD Technology, Inc., operating as an affiliate of Laser Digital and will continue to grow its FX and digital asset product lines and client base.

RiskDB, Elysium's longstanding enterprise platform, integrates business logic within a real-time database to streamline post-trade workflows and create scalable business efficiencies while minimizing trade processing costs. In addition, MatchHub is a revolutionary central clearing solution which offers a cost-effective software platform to match, reconcile, and settle transactions in real-time, minimizing various risks by vastly improving business and counterparty transparency. The acquisition underscores Elysium and Laser Digital's commitments to delivering innovative solutions and empowering clients.

Ed Mount, CEO of Elysium Technology Group commented; “A group of us at Elysium had the good fortune to launch our careers at O'Connor and Associates in Chicago.  We have continued to embed their core principles of using leading-edge technology, rigorous risk management, and the highest ethical standards throughout our services for over 20 years together.  We are thrilled to join forces with Steve and the rest of the Laser Digital team, who share our values and ambitions of bringing our cross-asset platform to an expanded audience."

Steve Ashley, Executive Chairman of Laser Digital, added, "The acquisition of Elysium is a strategic move that aligns perfectly with our vision for the future of finance. Combining Laser Digital with Elysium’s RiskDB and MatchHub platforms will enable us to deliver the cross-asset post-trade system institutional digital asset investors require.”

By combining Elysium's extensive knowledge and expertise in post-trade solutions with Laser Digital's innovative approach to financial technology, the two companies are poised to create unparalleled offerings for the digital asset industry, driving efficiency, transparency, and reliability in post-trade services, for the benefit of financial institutions and market participants worldwide.

Planixs, the leading provider of real-time, intraday cash, collateral and liquidity management solutions, today announced the launch of Realiti Cloud, a full-service cloud offering covering all Planixs Realiti modules.

Realiti Cloud is a fully managed hosting service that covers all Realiti modules and provides dedicated infrastructure per customer with complete data isolation and unparalleled scalability. The cloud-native architecture has been designed to accommodate the volumes of the world’s largest financial institutions with a full set of proactive monitoring and support services for a high service-level experience. Realiti Cloud will be compliant with all required security, governance and process standards to provide customers with complete data security coverage.

With a range of high-availability resilience options to choose from and the opportunity to take advantage of regular generally available upgrades, Realiti Cloud will set the standard as to how cloud hosting should be provided in the Financial Services Industry. Clear and transparent pricing will enable customers to easily justify increased scaling and new module take-on across all hosting environments including production, pre-production, UAT and development.

At their annual Customer Forum event, Neville Roberts, Planixs CEO said, “We are delighted to announce the launch of Realiti Cloud, our full-service hosting offering for customers. The service will set the standards in terms of a fully compliant cloud service to support all our modules in the Financial Services Industry. As we extend our capabilities into providing data insights across a firm’s operations the deployment speed, scalability and total cost of ownership of Realiti Cloud will be unbeatable.”

Realiti continues to be the pioneering intraday cash, collateral and liquidity management solution with live implementations at global scale. Its delivery models and high performance and scalable architecture mean that Realiti can be deployed with minimal intrusion to a bank’s infrastructure, rapidly delivering business value.

Planixs was recently awarded the RegTech of the Year accolade in the UK and European FinTech Awards 2022, which recognises the company as a leader in the RegTech space and Realiti as the most innovative regulatory solution in these markets.