Friday Tech News - Updates to FTN & More

Good morning and Happy Friday!

Quick note:

I’m really proud of this week’s edition of Friday Tech News. I’ve been trying to think of new ways to innovate the newsletter and provide additional value to you, and I think I’ve come up with some ideas. If you like it, would you let me know? I think I might even carve it out entirely if you do in fact enjoy it.

In the coming weeks, look for Buzzword Breakdown’s and the return of $.02 Observations.

Buzzword Breakdowns is new. I think you’ll like it, and I put a ton of personal time and energy into researching this week’s focus.

Anyway - I hope you’ve had a great week, and I truly hope you enjoy this edition of Friday Tech News.

Phil

Thank you so much for making this a part of your Friday morning coffee time. I'm Phil Moroni, and I'm an Account Executive in the Information Technology industry here with another edition of Friday Tech News!

What is this? This is a newsletter that provides updates and insights on the latest trends and developments in the technology industry. I am a professional who specializes in supporting IT leaders in evaluating, investing, and managing people, processes, and technology tools that support their businesses.

Each week, I summarize relevant industry updates from popular Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM's), software publishers, and managed providers. The goal of my research and newsletter is to keep you informed about current trends and events that may impact your business from a trusted and reputable source. It's just information I'm sharing, and I follow and work with hundreds of partners in the industry, keeping track of their growth, changes, and evolution so that you don't have to.

Bottom Line: As you focus on improving your business through digital initiatives, my commitment is to keep you informed of the fast-paced changes and trends taking place so that you can plan ahead and stay ahead of the game.

Key areas of focus for me are:

1. Cloud Computing, Security, Trends

2. Developer & Security Tools

3. Networking & Infrastructure Tools

4. End User Tools & Workspace Tech

5. Emerging Technologies and Future Concepts

If you have any questions, would like information about any specific vendors I follow, or would like to have a conversation about any topic that is challenging you, I invite you to engage with me! I value feedback immensely and would love to know what you find valuable about this newsletter so feel free to reach out!

Thank you for reading and stay digitally and physically safe!

Phil

Buzzword Breakdown 🐝 

In a new segment I’m adding to Friday Tech News, I’ll be starting to break down popular buzzwords, acronyms, and other items you see consistently IT. This will take me some time and hopefully I’ll have various guests join me over time, so don’t expect it on a weekly basis (yet).

Do you know what it’s like to be in InfoSec? From what I can tell, it’s hell for the practitioners and tough on decision makers. Business leaders are constantly scrutinizing Security teams, and they’re even scrutinized by their peers from network, infrastructure, etc…

That’s why Posture Management is now a thing. People are constantly looking at the posture of a business’s security organization and measuring it up against little known, and hardly ever implemented correctly best practices and standards.

I thought it would be great to take a look at all the “-PM’s” out there, that is, the buzzwords ending in Posture Management. So far, the ones I know of are listed below. It’s my intent to start breaking these down so that we can see if there’s any trends or insights available from the origins of these terms and the correlation of their success in the market.

To start, it’s best to cover the evolution of Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) providers and how this term has become popular and jumbled with tons of other capabilities. With Wiz’s potential acquisition by Alphabet falling through for $23B this week, I think it merits some attention to the space.

Special thanks to James Berthoty for the simple breakdown of the category visually in one of his recent newsletters from the below graphic. If you aren’t reading what he’s putting out you’re missing out. But don’t worry - I link his content weekly here at the bottom!

Background: CSPM

In December of 2019 I was approached by a friend to join Lacework. I declined. I wasn’t selling Lacework - Rapid7 had just acquired Divvycloud and that was the closest thing to a CSPM I knew of, and I thought they’d likely win out in that battle. Lacework sounded cool, but it was still agent based at the end of the day with no true differentiation to me.

Stupid move? I don’t think so. I’m happy where I’m at and with what I’m doing. I likely would have gotten my lunch eaten a year later when Wiz really started coming on to the scene. I thought it would be cool and fun to review this history in timeline form and posit why it’s garnered so much attention recently. Let’s take a look back at the timeline for CSPM.

If you remember, 2020 was pandemic. Literally. CSPM really took the world by storm when Wiz emerged with $100M in funding and an agentless approach to the problem. People were looking at Lacework, Orca, Palo Alto, and Sysdig to solve these problems with Agents, but Wiz came in with an Agentless Graph based results approach that immediately identified risks and provided value to its customers.

But why did it become the focus of CISO’s and practitioners to contain vulnerabilities in the cloud and identify misconfigurations now? Why was 2020 the year of the CSPM? Well, I believe two factors largely contributed to the adoption of CSPM software tooling: Ransomware and Covid. 

The Rise of Ransomware

Ransomware has been a major threat to individuals and organizations worldwide since 2017, when Cybersecurity Ventures predicted that damages would cost the world $5 billion. In 2021, the number of ransomware attacks increased by 105% from 2020, with more than a third of organizations globally suffering an attempted attack. In 2024, the frequency and complexity of ransomware attacks have continued to increase, with some factors contributing to this include: 

• Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) kits
  These kits make it easier for anyone to carry out cyber-attacks, even those without much technical knowledge. Prices for these kits start at as little as $40.

• Faster attacks
  Gangs are carrying out more attacks faster, with the average number of days taken to execute one falling from around 60 days in 2019 to four in 2024.

• Data theft
  Most ransomware attacks now involve the theft of personal or sensitive commercial data for the purpose of extortion, which increases the cost and complexity of incidents.

People were starting to attack cloud environments due to their complex nature and many in-roads, as well as it being a new attack surface for malicious actors to expose. Oh, and people were also starting to work remotely and VPN in to cloud environments that, let’s be honest, were just shoved into cloud largely 🙂.

COVID-19 Impact on Cloud Adoption

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted cloud security for enterprises in a few ways:

First, it caused rapid cloud adoption. Many businesses rapidly migrated to cloud-based services to support remote workforces. This rapid shift sometimes led to lax security protocols as companies prioritized functionality over security.

Popular challenges that emerged from early cloud adoption and rushed cloud adoption in the COVID-19 Pandemic Era included:

• Misconfigurations of popular resources

• Lack of overall visibility into cloud environments

• Compliance and Regulatory concerns, audit concerns

• Confusion in general over the shared responsibility model

Just look at the YoY growth for AWS, Azure, and GCP.

*Revenue in Billions

With the increase in cloud adoption, estates became wider. This led to an increased attack surface and less visibility of that attack surface in general. Imagine having a house that could grow in size over time. Would you remember to bring locks to every door and window? Seal every crack and crease as you built?

The expanded use of albeit misconfigured cloud services created a wider attack surface for cybercriminals to exploit. But nobody was calling it this yet. Nobody was looking at their environments in the cloud thinking these are just huge estates that are continuing to grow. Nobody thought “hmm. I now have SaaS in my architecture. That’s interesting”. It just wasn’t happening from this perspective yet. 

Finally, to add to the mix, everybody was stressed and burnt out. With IT teams stretched thin supporting remote workforces, plus daily uncertainty, it became more challenging to maintain robust cloud security measures.

The Takeaway:

Fast forward to 2024 and there were just talks of Wiz getting purchased for $23B by Alphabet. They decided to go their own way, which I love. I truly hope Assaf and Yinon and the team at Wiz build a powerhouse behemoth that can take on any major cloud security company. What they’re doing is innovative, fresh, and bottom line - HELPFUL - to practitioners. They’re on their way and they’re super well-funded. It’ll likely be a battle between Palo Alto and Wiz for all things Cloud Security Moving forward IMHO as the battle of platforms continues to evolve.

As for the other companies - they’re offering competing products to Wiz these days with an agentless approach, but are they really as innovative as the Israeli supergiant? It seems that everyone has come out with a CSPM of some sort, and the term itself is evolving to include other components of feature-type point products and solutions in the ever-consolidating IT market.

My hope is that Wiz continues their meteoric trajectory and continues to namely hire, train, and develop new leaders in information security. We need more (less) products like that of Wiz on the market!

Quick Note: Has this been cool? Useful at all? Do you think it merits a standalone newsletter? Let me know by either commenting, responding to the email, or pinging me directly. I’d really appreciate it as this just sort of came to me to start doing.

OEM News & Updates 📰

H20.ai | #AI | H2O.ai Announces the Launch of Danube3 Series, Surpassing Apple and Rivaling Microsoft with Latest Small Language Models

• H20ai has launched the Danube3 series which are models designed to enhance natural language processing capabilities.

• Claims to surpass Apple’s OpenELM-3B and rival Microsoft’s Phi3 4B.

• Available on Hugging Face today under Apache 2.0 license and are suitable for lots of things including chatbots, research, and offline use on edge devices.

AWS | #AI | AWS launches generative AI-powered feature for Connect Contact Lens to help agents in call centers

• New feature that assists call center workers with after-call work by generating AI summaries of customer conversations.

• The AI Agent produces detailed summaries within seconds after a call, drastically reducing the time it takes workers to input said details.

• Can connect to other apps like Salesforce.

Adobe | #AI | Adobe's Photoshop can now generate AI images via prompts like Dall-E or Midjourney

• New Feature of text to image generation for Photoshop powered by Firefly. You can create images from scratch by typing descriptions.

• Already backlash from artists.

• There are additional AI tools like Generative Shape Fill to be explored.

OpenAI | #AI | OpenAI Debuts SearchGPT AI Search Engine

• OpenAI has introduced SearchGPT, a prototype AI search feature designed to provide fast and timely answers from relevant sources.

• Will be integrated with ChatGPT eventually.

• Combines conversational capabilities with real time web info.

Radware | #Cloud | Radware Expands its Cloud Application Protection and Delivery Services

• Radware has introduced two new cloud services: Domain name System as a Services (DNSaaS lol) and NoKey for private key protection, storage, and management.

• DNSaaS: Offers reliability, comprehensive management tools and advanced security features to ensure apps remain available and protected.

• NoKey: This integrates with 3rd party HSM’s allowing customers to manage their private key storage without exposing their SSL keys.

Snowflake | #AI | Snowflake Teams Up with Meta to Host and Optimize New Flagship Model Family in Snowflake Cortex AI

• Snowflake and Meta will collaborate by Snowflake hosting Meta’s Llama 3.1 AI models in Cortex AI.

• Llama 3.1 model supports a massive 128K context window, real time inference, and fine-tuning using a single GPU node.

• Snowflake’s AI Research Team is open sourcing its Massive LLM inference and Fine-Tuning System Optimization Stack.

Sonatype | #Security | Sonatype Launches End-to-End Software Supply Chain Security

• SBOM manager from Sonaytpe now available in AWS Marketplace.

• Offers open-source malware protection, SCA, and Policy Enforcement.

• Anyone using this? I have heard good things.

Backslash | #Security | Backslash Security Introduces Fix Simulation and AI-Powered Attack Path Remediation

• Cool stuff from Backslash. They announced Fix simulation that helps developers simulate multiple fix options for vulnerabilities, ensuring the best choice without introducing new risks.

• Integrates with LLMs to provide contextual guidance on code vulnerability remediation while maintaining code confidentiality. 🤯 

• These features align with CISA’s Secure By Design Pledge.

GCP | #AI | Google's Vertex AI to use Mistral AI's Codestral

• GCP will partner and integrate Mistral AI’s codestral model into its Vertex AI service.

Veeam | #Security | Veeam adds Splunk connector for improved SIEM

• Veeam has introduced a connector for Splunk allowing users to monitor Veeam Backup and receive alerts through Splunk dashboards.

• Provides detailed dashboards, reports, and alerts for monitoring events.

• Free with a Veeam Data Platform Advanced or Premium License. Accessed via Splunkbase.

Cohesity | #Security | New Version Cohesity Data Cloud 7.2 Brings Faster and More Efficient Data Protection to Enterprises to Strengthen Their Cyber Resiliency

• v7.2 enhances speed, security, scale, and simplicity.

• Now supports OAuth 2.0.

• Improved backup and recovery capabilities for K8s.

Airtable | #AI | Forget coding bootcamps: Airtable's AI can build your app in seconds

• Airtable launched Cobuilder, an AI powered tool that creates customizable applications using natural language prompts.

• Allows for non-technical users to build complex apps quickly.

• Definitely going to try this.

Articles I Liked This Week 💡

Washington Post | How the CrowdStrike, Microsoft outage turned IT techs into heroes

• Yes, this made headlines and I’m covering it.

• Thought this was a good one. Take a read.

CNBC | CrowdStrike outage and global software's single-point failure problem

• I liked this article because it mainly points out that we’re dependent upon these large-scale systems and they’re going to go down more. Resiliency has and will remain a key theme and trend I’m seeing in the coming years for businesses.

• What are you doing for BC/DR today?

• How are you auditing your people and processes for software development and security?

CIO | OpenAI touts new approach to AI safety after troubling executive transfer

• OpenAI announced a new method of using Rule Based Rewards (RBR’s) to align AI models safely without extensive human data collection.

• Is OpenAI prioritizing Innovation over Safety?

Tech Funding & M&A 💸

Dazz | Unified security remediation platform startup Dazz raises $50M to enhance capabilities

• Woo! So happy for them! These are some of my favorite people over here at Dazz. Congrats to Merav, Tomer, Julie, Trent, and all the others working hard to solve remediation-based priorities in the risks the tools we deploy are finding!

• I’ll have Tomer their CTO on before Black Hat for a session of $.02 Observations!

Vanta | Sequoia Capital-backed Vanta raises funding at $2.45 billion valuation

• Thanks for being a sponsor of FTN!

• Vanta is a California based trust management platform that offers solutions such as automated security monitoring, risk management and compliance for businesses.

Databricks | Goldman Sachs Unit Invests in Plaid, Databricks Company Stakes

• Databricks is a California based cloud enabled platform that offers solutions such as data warehouse management and analytics for businesses.

Raytion | ServiceNow Acquires Raytion to Enhance GenAI-powered Search and Knowledge Management Capabilities on the Now Platform

• Raytion is a Germany based IT consulting firm that provides solutions such as cross-platform application development, generative AI, and enterprise search for businesses.

• Very cool integration benefits for personalized AI search experiences.

Mimecast | Mimecast Announces Acquisition of Code42, Expands Human Risk Management Platform with Visibility into Insider Threats

• Interesting. More platformization.

• Code42 is a Minnesota based Cybersecurity firm that provides solutions such as insider risk detection and threat management for businesses.

Promptfoo | Promptfoo Raises $5M in Seed Funding

• Promptfoo is a California based Open-Source LLM testing platform that enables software developers to find and fix vulnerabilities in their AI applications.

Chainguard | Chainguard raises $140 million to strengthen open source software security

• Chainguard is a Washington based cybersecurity company that offers solutions such as supply chain security and risk management for businesses.

Linx | Linx emerges from stealth with $33M to lock down the new security perimeter: Identity

• Linx Security is a New York based cybersecurity platform that provides Identity Security and Access Management solutions for businesses.

Meme of the week 🤣

Here’s what I wanted to post this week:

And here’s your CrowdStrike Meme’s:

Recommendations 👉🏻

This is a section that I intend to build out more! Know fantastic newsletter resources for information? Please let me know so I can start linking appropriate reads here!

Sources for the content in this newsletter today come from the internet with items like the below.

Poll