ANOTHER ATTACK AGAINST PUBLIC FRENCH SERVICEs
The French government website “Zéro logement vacant” (no empty house) which assists local authorities in bringing unoccupied homes back onto the market was inaccessible on Sunday, August 30, after hackers claimed responsibility for stealing data hosted on the platform. Hackers from the group ZeroBytes who were behind the cyberattack on the tax authority’s website and also claimed responsibility for the attack targeting the Ministry of National Education’s site assert that they obtained files potentially containing names, dates of birth, postal addresses, and various identifiers linked to property owners or the properties themselves.
BLOCTEL: this service was in charge of regulating telephone advertisement calls (with limited success). As the Service is about to sht down, it has announced that its files have been stolen.
After all the attacks against public services this summer, or in the previous months, it becomes difficult to avoid the question “where next ?” Of course, hundreds of cyber attacks occur each week, but the French public services seem to be specifically targeted and underprepared. Again it’s less a question of building up a new service or a new emergency team, but to enforce the use of sanitary rules. To start, a general audit on public sites would help …
AND ALSO IN THE USA: FBI PROBES SALE OF 153 MILLION DRIVER’S LICENSES
The FBI opened an investigation into an apparent breach involving an identity verification company after a darkweb service began selling scans of more than 153 million driver’s licenses belonging to people in the United States and Canada. The service, called Nexus, was advertised on the Russian cybercrime forum Exploit and claimed to hold more than 153 million driver’s licenses, over 10 million identification cards and more than 3 million travel documents and international IDs. The records also include some medical and marijuana dispensary cards. An investigation by independent cybersecurity reporter Brian Krebs found evidence suggesting the data may have been stolen from Louisiana-based identity verification provider IDScan.net. The company provides identity verification technology to thousands of businesses and locations, including rental car companies and marijuana dispensaries.
STOIK, THE CYBER INSURER, OPENS A NEW CHANNEL
STOIK will now open its platform dedicated to cybersecurity systems for SMEs, to Managed Security Services Providers. However, insurance services distribution remains attributed to brokers only.
INTEREST IN SOVEREIGN CYBER SOLUTIONS IS GROWING BUT NOT RE-SHAPING CHANNEL PORTFOLIOS YET
Our friends of BridgerWise Research recently published a report titled “European Cybersecurity Sovereignty and the Channel” which includes the results of a survey among 108 European distributors, MSPs, integrators and resellers. The research was motivated by the increasing shifts in policy and narratives around cloud and digital sovereignty, aiming to contrast it with what is the reality the local Channel observes.
The report confirms that interest from European customers in European solutions is increasing, particularly in government, defense and critical infrastructure. However, the Channel is cautious about fully embracing these solutions until demand clearly increases and the local alternatives can satisfy it without substantial additional costs.
Moreover, the research highlights the growth of the “sovereignty wrapper”: how non-European vendors are reacting rapidly and partnering with local cloud providers and integrators to launch solutions that can address the major concerns of local customers.
This is the direct link to this very interesting and documented report
THE SWISS EMAIL SECURITY XORLAB SECURES A ROUND OF FUNDING
XORLAB raises EUR 5 million to build Europe’s sovereign email security platform.
A six-time Top100 Swiss Startup ranker and member of the Venture Leaders Technology team in 2021, Zurich-based xorlab has raised EUR 5 million in a Series A+ round led by Spicehaus Partners, with participation from Grapha-Holding AG, EquityPitcher Ventures, and Zürcher Kantonalbank Startup Finance. The funding will support xorlab’s expansion across Europe, starting with DACH, Benelux, and the Nordics, as demand grows for cybersecurity solutions that reduce reliance on US-controlled infrastructure.
Xorlab’s behavioral AI protects organizations against advanced email threats, including AI-generated phishing and business email compromise, while allowing them to maintain control over their data and infrastructure.
OT SECURITY: SECLAB GETS NICE RATING
OT Cybersecurity remains a key topic as manufacturing and production are more and more connected. Nevertheless, the European offering remains rather scattered and fragmented. Is this about to change ? In its “Operational Technology Security Market” study, the MarketsandMarkets™ firm ranks Seclab in the Progressive Companies cohort, referencing the most innovative and high-performing emerging companies. The matrix evaluates startups and SMEs in the OT cybersecurity market along two axes: product footprint and market share/rank. Seclab is placed at the highest position.
This positioning illustrates the strong momentum Seclab is driving in its market and the depth of its offering, covering the needs for visibility, network or USB protection, and attack detection.
“Our position on the MarketsandMarkets matrix reflects the trust our customers and partners place in us every day. It also confirms the trajectory Seclab has taken to become the European reference in industrial and operational cybersecurity,” said Michel Van Den Berghe, CEO of Seclab.
DISCUSSION: WILL AI DISRUPT CYBERSECURITY VENDORS, OR WILL IT HELP THEM DO BETTER ?
Last week, we wrote a first paper on this issue, stating : While we strongly believe in merging the potential of AI tools and the knowledge of experienced cybersecurity software designers, we also see this evolution as a lesson: listing vulnerabilities is one thing, helping users be resilient in front of cybersecurity attacks is another, more complex, more business oriented, more depending on the concrete context.
We have since then got some reactions: some readers underline the fast progress of AI systems. For instance, GOOGLE has just launched FLASH CYBER 3.8, which is reported to be better at discovering cyber defaults but also at proposing corrective actions. However, this version will be commercialized only within a “trust circle” of operators…
It seems that, while cybersecurity vendors are at work adapting their systems, AI systems continue to run faster. Where this race will lead is still open.
And you, dear reader, what do you think? Please contribute by replying to this Newsletter.
In the meantime, the EU is launching a new request for proposals, which includes a fantastic fifteen million euros that will be dedicated to AI-based cybersecurity tools and services, including generative AI. 15 M€ is approximately the amount which AI US giants invest each day in frontier technology…
