FTN | Simplified Tech News

Buongiorno! Happy Friday from Rome, Italy!

Hope you’ve had a great week so far. Some quick updates for you before we get to the updates:

1. I’m moving the “what is this section” to the bottom. From now on, straight to the meat of the content after a short weekly greeting from me.

2. I’ll go back to summarizing items here and linking my data at my website, www.fridaytechnews.com. Data still available there and best viewed on desktop. I’ll craft more detailed reviews of the below after vacation as well.

   1. Please visit that site and give me feedback!

3. I’m going to experiment with new sections I’ve thought about over the coming months.

This week was obviously big from a news perspective with the annual Black Hat conference happening in Vegas. Read on below for updates from vendors and news I liked this week. I’ll come back to this likely and update the summaries I typically provide. I’m in Italy and Germany for the next couple weeks recharging and spending some quality time with my family.

I wish you a wonderful weekend and safe travels if you’ve got plans.

Phil

P.S. - I’m overwhelmed at the support for this new venture I’m pursuing personally and am super grateful to YOU for believing in my writing and content creation. THANK YOU.

OEM News & Updates 📰

Tenable | Tenable Unveils Industry Leading Vulnerability Intelligence

Lasso Security | Lasso Security Launches Context-Based Access Control

AppOmni | AppOmni unveils SaaS-aware ITDR capabilities

Stellar Cyber | Stellar Cyber Automates SecOps with Industry First Multi-Layer AI™ in One Platform

Swimlane | Swimlane enhances Hero AI with advance case summarization and AI-augmented reporting

Rapid7 | Rapid7 Launches the Command Platform, A Unified Attack

IBM | IBM Introduces New Generative AI-Powered Cybersecurity Assistant for Threat Detection and Response Services

Akamai | Akamai and Datadog Partner to Detect, Investigate, and Respond to Threats Across Applications and Workloads

F5 | Robust Intelligence partners with F5 to bring real-time security to enterprise AI applications

Vultr | Vultr Announces Launch of Industry Cloud to Accelerate AI Innovation Across Verticals

Grip Security | Grip Security and SecurityScorecard Forge Groundbreaking

Varonis | Varonis Announces AI-Powered Data Discovery

Varonis | Varonis Announces Integrations with SentinelOne

Apiiro | Apiiro Launches Industry-First AI-Driven Risk Detection at

Apiiro | Apiiro Debuts AI-Powered Application Design Phase Security Analysis

Elastic | Elastic Accelerates SIEM Data Onboarding with Automatic Import Powered by Search AI

BigID | BigID Expands Industry-Leading Autodiscovery to AI Assets and Models, Setting New Standards in Data Security

• and another one: BigID Becomes the First DSPM to Pioneer Data Security and AI Innovation with First-Ever AI Vector Database Scanning Solution

Elastic | Elastic introduces new Automatic Import for faster SIEM onboarding with AI

SentinelOne | SentinelOne unveils AI and cloud innovations on Singularity Platform 

Code42 | Code42 for GenAI: Announcing Expanded Protections for

Qualys | Qualys announces the launch of Qualys TotalAI

Armis | Xage and Armis partner

Contrast Security | Contrast Security launches new ADR service to bolster application security

Balbix | Balbix Unveils BIX: the Industry's First GenAI Powered Assistant for Cyber Risk and Exposure Management

Strata Identity | Strata Identity unveils identity continuity feature for zero downtime in IDP failovers

AWS | Amazon upgrades its AI image generator

Vecta AI | Vectra AI updates platform to detect risks in hybrid infrastructure

Legit Security | Legit Security Launches Industry-First AI Security Command Center, Expanding Its ASPM Platform to Protect the Modern AI-Native Software Factory

Cribl | Anomali and Cribl Announce Strategic Partnership to Supercharge Cybersecurity And Significantly Reduce Costs to Enterprises

Menlo Security | Menlo Security Unveils Enhancements to Zero Trust Access Solution, Advancing Secure Enterprise Browser Capabilities

Rubrik | Rubrik and Mandiant join hands to secure backups

Weka | WekaIO: WEKA Teams With Contextual AI to Power Production-Ready Enterprise AI Solutions in Google Cloud

Bugcrowd | Bugcrowd Introduces Continuous Attack Surface Penetration Testing on its AI-Powered Crowdsourced Platform

ArmorCode | ArmorCode ASPM Platform Adds AI Remediation

Commvault | Commvault Strengthens Cybersecurity Ecosystem with New Partner Integrations

Palo Alto Networks | Palo Alto Networks Rolls Out Secure AI by Design Portfolio

ByteDance | ByteDance joins OpenAI's Sora rivals with AI video app launch

Endor Labs | Endor Labs launches Upgrade Impact Analysis and Magic Patches for SCA market

SentinelOne | SentinelOne® Forges Security Alliance with Google Cloud to Revolutionize AI-Powered Cyber Defense

AtScale | AtScale Unveils Breakthrough in Natural Language Processing with Semantic Layer and Generative AI

Articles I Liked This Week 💡

RoS | AI Security Shared Responsibility Model: Navigating Risks in AI Deployment

• If you’re not following my buddy Mike, hit subscribe below. This is timely and needed. From my seat, I see the intersection of business demand for GenAI solutions and AI solutions and “stop this we gotta control it” security policies coming up left and right. Glad Mike took a stab at trying to throw some guardrails around this. Either way the article is great and Mike has a fantastic purview into what his peers are doing with regards to AI Security.

NYT | ‘Google Is a Monopolist,’ Judge Rules in Landmark Antitrust Case

OpenAI | OpenAI Has Software That Detects AI Writing With 99.9 Percent Accuracy, Refuses to Release

I didn’t read much else because I’m on vacation this and next week. Enjoy the articles though. Read something good? Feel free to share to me!

Tech Funding & M&A 💸

Contextual AI | Contextual AI Raises $80M in Series A Funding

• Contextual AI is a California based AI platform that designs and develops augmented LLMs for enterprise applications.

Abnormal Security | Abnormal Security raises $250M on $5.1B valuation to enhance AI-driven cyber protection

• Abnormal is a California based AI powered email security platform that offers solutions including account takeover protection and security posture management (lol @ PM) for businesses.

Next DLP | Fortinet acquires Next DLP to extend its data security capabilities

• Next DLP is an England based cybersecurity platform that provides solutions including data loss prevention, data protection, and insider risk management for businesses.

Neon | Database startup Neon nabs a Microsoft investment

• Neon is a California based Postgres platform that enables production teams to build and scale applications.

Launchable | Cloudbees acquires AI-based software testing startup Launchable

• Launchable is a California based AI augmented testing platform that provides solutions such as test suite intelligence and optimization for businesses.

Anjuna | Anjuna Raises $25M Funding to Fuel Momentum and Expand Confidential Computing Offerings for AI

• Anjuna is a California based confidential computing platform that enables organizations to run applications on any cloud with data security and privacy.

Napkin | Napkin uses visual AI to automate business storytelling

• Napkin is a California based AI powered platform that provides text into visual content conversion solutions for people and creators.

Meme of the week 🤣

Recommendations 👉🏻

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