Tag Archive for: ventures

EQT Ventures portfolio company Baffin Bay Networks acquired by Mastercard


Stockholm-based Baffin Bay Networks has been acquired by payments tech giant Mastercard for an undisclosed sum. The purchase from Purchase aims to add Baffin Bay’s cybersecurity offer to bolster businesses with further armour in an increasingly challenging cyberattack landscape.

Founded in 2017 by a group of cybersecurity professionals, Baffin Bay Networks offers a cloud-first threat protection platform that leverages AI to mitigate attacks from the IP layer right on through to the application layer. 

The platform also continuously improves as it adds customers since learnings from one attack are shared across networks, creating what Baffin Bay Networks calls a “herd immune system”.

Backed solely by EQT Ventures, in early January 2019, the firm announced its expansion to the US via the acquisition of botnet and IoT research startup Loryka.

Building from strength to strength, Baffin Bay Networks’ lineage and timing couldn’t be better (?). Positioned as it is, the company is playing its part in staving off cyber criminal activities and post-acquisition will see its offer funneled into Mastercard’s single cyber service, a service provided to customers around the world and one that includes RiskRecon. This data analytics tool enables organisations to identify vulnerabilities well in advance of any nefarious actors exploiting them. 

Where Baffin Bay fits into the mix is by shoring up operations on the automated Threat Protection service, which helps to stop attackers from penetrating or taking down cyber systems.

“Our cloud-based Threat Protection service provides a simple and effective way to safeguard against application and network-level attacks,” said Joakim Sundberg, founder, and chief technology officer at Baffin Bay Networks. “Our two companies share this vision: to provide our customers with security and trust. We are thrilled to join the Mastercard family to expand our impact across the globe.”

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Pepsi Bottling Ventures says info-stealing malware swiped sensitive data • The Register


Crooks have breached Pepsi Bottling Ventures’ network and, after deploying info-stealing malware, made off with sensitive personal and financial information according to a notification sent to consumers.

The breach happened on or around December 23, 2022. However, Pepsi Bottling Ventures – America’s largest manufacturer and distributor of Pepsi-Cola beverages – didn’t discover the unauthorized activity until January 10, we’re told. 

“We took prompt action to contain the incident and secure our systems,” CEO Derek Hill wrote in a breach notification letter [PDF]. 

The preliminary investigation determined the intruder accessed internal IT systems, installed malware and downloaded “certain information” contained on the infected systems. That information included names, home addresses, email addresses, government-issued identification including drivers license numbers, social security numbers, and passport information, according to the notification.

Additionally, crooks stole some financial information including a “limited number” of people’s passwords, PIN codes, and other access numbers, along with digital signatures, benefit and employment information, and health insurance claims and policy numbers.

“While we are continuing to monitor our systems for unauthorized activity, the last known date of unauthorized IT system access was January 19” Hill wrote, adding that Pepsi Bottling Ventures is not aware of any identity theft or other fraud involving people’s stolen data.

After discovering the breach, the fizzy biz claims it took “prompt action” to secure its IT systems, and reported the attack to law enforcement. It also has “taken a number of steps” to boost its network security in light of the breach, although we don’t have much information as to what those steps include, aside from “requiring the change of all company passwords.”

The Register reached out to Pepsi Bottling Ventures requesting more information about its new security measures, as well as the size and scope of the breach, but we’ve yet to hear back. We will update this story with additional information if we do.

To help “restore confidence” in Pepsi Bottling Ventures the company says it will…

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Smart Ship© Hub , Singapore headquartered B2B (SaaS) Maritime digital platform raises pre series round of $ 2.5M led by Ideaspring Capital and StartupXseed ventures


SINGAPORE, Aug. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Smart Ship Hub(SSH) is a ready to deploy digital platform for global maritime logistics. SSH is disrupting the maritime industry the way avionics did in airline industry. Cloud based and on demand, SSH provides “unified platform and a single source of truth” for Ship owners, Ship Operators, Charter Parties, maritime insurers, Port authorities. The platform caters for merchant ships, naval ships, oil rigs, river going barges and fishing vessels.

Global maritime , despite being the largest mode of transport suffers from operational inefficiencies, lack of visibility, transparency leading to commercial leakages. Ship owners, operators, chartering agencies, insurance companies are now focussed on technology backed smarter processes to ensure “High vessel uptime , Sea worthiness and Predictability” with digital systems.

SSH’s “ship-to-shore and shore-to-ship” based management of fleet using smart sensors, IOT, big data is saving substantial operational costs while enhancing voyage efficiencies . The digital platform is helping predict possible machinery down time, malfunctioning, identify performance deviations, vessel routes to improve voyage and vessel performance. SSH’s ” Marine Insights ” is a unique maritime big data platform providing actionable intelligence, smart alerts and performance advisory for entire fleet using millions of records.

SSH’s global customers are able to achieve their target of ” minimal breakdown maintenance”, “optimum fuel utilization”, “staying in total compliance including for emissions”, ” optimize costs with condition based maintenance” and a much higher level of ” voyage control” . “Performance Advisory” feature is reducing number of incidents for these ships while saving maintenance and fuel costs . Future ready maritime companies are helping in creation of a connected ecosystem: connected ships,  shared services (routes, capacity, procurement) and “pay per use” model with SSH digital.

Joy Basu , Founder of Smart Ship Hub adds: “Digital platforms will play a fundamental role in disrupting maritime legacy processes. Inefficient…

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Meta Ventures into Virtual Currency with “Zuck Bucks”; Sky Mavis Raises $150m Following DeFi Hack


In today’s ExchangeWire news digest: Meta ventures into virtual currency with the development of “Zuck Bucks” and NFTs; Sky Mavis raises USD$150m (£114.7m) just weeks after losing USD$615m (£469m) to crypto hackers; and JD.com founder, Richard Liu, steps down as its chief executive.

 

Meta explores creating virtual “Zuck Bucks”

Facebook-parent Meta has outlined plans to introduce virtual currency and lending services to its apps. Led by founder and chief executive,  Mark Zuckerberg, the company, which also owns Instagram and Whatsapp, is venturing into alternative revenue streams and features to bolster its digital presence. The move comes just months after the collapse of Facebook’s project to launch a cryptocurrency, which had been developed over a period of almost 3 years.

Meta Financial Technologies, the financial arm of Facebook, has been looking into the potential creation of a virtual currency for use in the metaverse. Referred to as “Zuck Bucks” by employees, the currency is unlikely to be blockchain based and will instead take the form of in-app tokens similar to those used in gaming apps, reports the Financial Times.

Meta is also believed to be exploring the creation of “social tokens” or “reputation tokens” to reward users on the platform, in addition to developing “creator coins”, which could be associated with influencers and notable content creators on Instagram.

Aside from its ventures into virtual currency, Meta is also reportedly in the very early stages of exploring traditional financial services, such as helping to provide small business loans at attractive rates. The company’s plans to integrate non-fungible tokens (NFTs) into its apps are said to be more developed, with Mark Zuckerberg confirming that Instagram would soon support NFTs, and an internal memo from Meta outlining a pilot to share and post NFTs on Facebook to launch in May this year.

Meta’s drive towards virtual currency follows months of legal troubles and uncertainty for the big tech giant. In February, Meta lost over USD£220bn (£168.2bn) of its market valuation following the news that users were leaving its apps for competitor platforms, such as short-form video app…

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