CloudMasonry Launches Data & AI Practice Under Leadership of Landon Harris
CloudMasonry, a Salesforce consulting firm, announced the launch of a dedicated Data & AI Practice led by Landon Harris. The new unit will provide data strategy, cross‑cloud integration, advanced analytics, AI/ML advisory, and intelligent document processing for clients. Harris brings more than 15 years of CRM, data and AI experience to shape the practice’s go‑to‑market offerings. Early projects will focus on financial services, technology and consumer brands, leveraging CloudMasonry’s existing Salesforce expertise.
Contextual Intelligence Becomes the New Standard For Exceptional CX in 2026
Zendesk’s 2026 CX Trends report declares contextual intelligence—the real‑time blend of AI, data and human insight—as the new benchmark for exceptional customer experience in APAC. The study shows that 77% of regional consumers now expect higher service standards, 96% demand...
Verna Raises $4M to Turn Nature Programs Into Measurable Action
UK‑based Verna has raised $4 million, led by Berlin’s NAP and Zurich’s Übermorgen, to scale its nature‑recovery software. The platform, already adopted by more than 3,000 users across 100 organisations, aggregates existing biodiversity data and applies AI to translate nature commitments...
Ad Security Trends And Threats For 2026
Ad security faces a wave of AI‑driven threats in 2026, with deep‑fake videos and voice clones poised to power more convincing scams. Phishing attacks, already at 3.4 billion emails per day, will leverage AI tools to scale and evade detection. Drive‑by...
Rakuten Advertising Unveils Innovation Labs to Accelerate AI Innovation in Affiliate Marketing
Rakuten Advertising launched Innovation Labs, an AI‑focused collaboration hub within its Insights & Analytics portal, to speed up AI development for affiliate marketing. The platform offers AI Recommendations for advertisers to discover high‑performing publishers and AI‑driven product recommendations for publishers...
Rakuten Viber CISO/CTO on Balancing Encryption, Abuse Prevention, and Platform Resilience
Rakuten Viber’s CISO/CTO Liad Shnell says the messenger is now critical infrastructure, so security priorities extend beyond confidentiality to availability, integrity and abuse resilience. The platform ships end‑to‑end encryption by default and relies on AI‑driven analysis of metadata, behavioral signals...
Top 10 Vendors for AI-Enabled Security — According to CISOs
The CSO 2025 Security Priorities Study reveals that senior security executives continue to favor established, name‑brand vendors for AI‑enabled security solutions despite a flood of AI‑only startups. Cisco and Microsoft lead the list, with reputation, breach history, and integration ease...
NetBird Announces $10M Series A to Expand Open Source VPN Alternative
NetBird, a Berlin‑based open‑source Zero Trust networking platform, closed a $10 million Series A round led by Pace Capital with participation from Nauta Capital, InReach Ventures, and Antler. The company positions its product as a secure, cost‑effective alternative to traditional VPNs, emphasizing...
Turning Cyber Metrics Into Decisions Leaders Can Act On
In a Help Net Security video, Myriad360 Field CISO Bryan Sacks argues that cybersecurity metrics should inform executive decisions rather than serve merely as reporting tools. He emphasizes aligning security initiatives with business priorities set by CEOs and boards, using...
Top 5 Best Free VPN for 2026 to Protect Your Anonymity on the Internet
The article lists the top five free VPN services projected for 2026, emphasizing their ability to safeguard anonymity during activities like torrenting. It highlights common pitfalls of free VPNs, such as data leaks, bandwidth limits, and ad injection. Each recommended...
Top 5 Best Cyber Attack Prevention Methods for Small Businesses With Breach & Attack Simulation
Hackers now target small businesses, accounting for 43% of attacks, making cyber‑attack prevention a critical priority. Affordable cloud‑based antimalware and firewall services, along with Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) platforms like Cymulate, give SMBs enterprise‑level protection. The article outlines five...
Bricks.sh Secures €1.6M Pre-Seed to Expand AI-Native Internal Tools
Bricks.sh, an AI‑native internal‑tool builder, announced a €1.6 million pre‑seed round led by Primo Capital, joined by Octopus First Cheque Fund, Eden Ventures and others. The company also launched its public beta, offering developers a way to auto‑generate admin panels by...
Teaching Cybersecurity by Letting Students Break Things
Airbus Cybersecurity and Dauphine University found that embedding structured hacking, social engineering, and capture‑the‑flag exercises into curricula dramatically increases student engagement and confidence. The study tracked participants as they assumed attacker, analyst, and insider roles, culminating in a mixed‑reality CTF...
Klearly Secures €12M for Restaurant Payments System
Amsterdam‑based Klearly has closed a €12 million Series A round, bringing its total funding to €20 million. The round was led by PayPal Ventures with participation from Italian Founders Fund and existing backers. Klearly offers a hospitality‑focused payments layer that integrates with merchants’...
PayPal Ventures Leads €12 Million Funding Round in Klearly
PayPal Ventures led a €12 million financing round for Dutch hospitality‑payment platform Klearly, bringing total capital to €20 million. The funding will accelerate Klearly’s expansion into Italy and Belgium while bolstering engineering and operations. Klearly’s solution integrates with existing POS systems, allowing...
Danske Bank UK Appoints Fiona Browne as Head of AI
Danske Bank UK has appointed former Datactics chief Dr. Fiona Browne as its first head of AI, effective immediately. She will lead the creation of an AI centre of excellence in Belfast, working alongside data and analytics lead Lyndsay Shields....
Things Worth Reading: 13th January 2026
Chris Skinner’s roundup highlights several pivotal developments shaping finance in early 2026. Bloomberg predicts bots, banking automation and stablecoins will dominate fintech, while Augmentum Fintech’s Tim Levene stresses the pressure to deliver strong investor returns. Former Federal Reserve chairs publicly rebuke...
Beauty Briefing: How Beauty’s Beleaguered Makeup Brands Can Turn It Around
Estée Lauder is divesting its once‑iconic makeup brands Too Faced, Smashbox and Dr. Jart as it reshapes its portfolio, while Pat McGrath Labs also puts assets up for sale. The makeup category, however, is showing a resurgence, with NielsenIQ reporting a 9 % year‑over‑year...
Limited Inventory and Thoughtful Partnerships: How Brands at NRF Are Making the Most of TikTok Shop
Brands at the NRF Big Show highlighted how TikTok Shop is reshaping fashion and beauty commerce, with U.S. sales soaring over 400% and now accounting for more than 20% of social commerce. Success stories like Pacsun’s 11,000 pairs of jeans...
Congress' Biotech Panel Pitches FDA Policy Upgrades to Help Performance
The National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology released a report urging the FDA to modernize its policies as biotech innovation outpaces regulation. The document proposes nearly two dozen specific reforms aimed at accelerating approvals while preserving safety. Recommendations include real‑time...
AbbVie, Amgen, Lilly Lead Calls for FDA To Update Post-Approval Change Rules
Big‑pharma leaders including AbbVie, Amgen and Eli Lilly urged the FDA to decouple pre‑approval inspections from marketing applications and modernize its post‑approval change framework. They argue the 1990s SUPAC guidance treats all biologics as high‑risk, slowing domestic facility transfers. The coalition...
Cybersecurity Jobs Available Right Now: January 13, 2026
The January 2026 cybersecurity job roundup lists more than 30 senior‑level openings across continents, from CISO roles at Australia’s CSIRO to GenAI security specialists in Israel. Positions span core disciplines such as threat hunting, vulnerability management, IAM governance, and OT network...
Emirates NBD Issues World’s Largest Dual-Tranche Blue-Green Bond by a Financial Institution
Emirates NBD has issued a $1 billion dual‑tranche sustainable bond, the world’s largest blue‑green bond from a financial institution. The offering comprises a $300 million blue tranche with a three‑year tenor and a $700 million green tranche with a five‑year tenor under its...
The Salary of a Chief Security Officer
The 2025 Foushée Security & Compliance Compensation Survey, now run by ScottMadden, reveals notable pay shifts across 90 security roles. Chief Security Officers saw a modest 6.9% rise in base salary to $364,826, while total cash compensation slipped 2.9% and...
Malicious Chrome Extension Steals Wallet Credentials, Enables Automated Trading Abuse
Socket’s Threat Research Team uncovered a malicious Chrome extension, MEXC API Automator, that silently creates MEXC exchange API keys with withdrawal permissions. The extension exfiltrates the keys to a hard‑coded Telegram bot, enabling attackers to programmatically trade and drain wallets....
Navigating the World of Journalist Databases: A Closer Look at PressReacher
PressReacher is an AI‑driven journalist database that streamlines media outreach by delivering verified contacts, real‑time job change alerts, and publication analytics. The platform lets users query in plain English, filter by beat, location, and recent activity, and track email performance...
Ethereum & Pepe Face January Growth Limits as BlockDAG Targets Major Upside Ahead of February 16 Listing
Ethereum is holding near $3,100 with steady volume, but its massive market cap limits rapid gains. Pepe remains a meme‑driven coin, swinging between $0.0000040 and $0.0000048 on hype rather than utility. BlockDAG, a PoW‑DAG Layer‑1, is in its final presale...
Meta-Backed Hupo Finds Growth After Pivot to AI Sales Coaching From Mental Wellness
Meta‑backed Hupo, originally a mental‑wellness app, has pivoted to AI‑driven sales coaching for banks, insurers and financial services. The startup raised a $10 million Series A led by DST Global, bringing total funding to $15 million. Its platform, trained on real financial products...
Best Cryptocurrency for Day Trading in 2025: Profit Strategies for Czech Traders
Cryptocurrency day trading is gaining traction among Czech traders as 24/7 markets deliver constant volatility and liquidity. The article outlines how technical analysis, rapid decision‑making, and disciplined risk management differentiate day trading from long‑term investing. It highlights Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance...
Coinbase Might Pull Its Backing From Key Market Structure Bill Impacting Stablecoin Transactions
Coinbase warned it may pull its backing from a pending market‑structure bill if the legislation curtails rewards for stablecoin users, a key component of its revenue model. The bill, slated for introduction Monday, could restrict such incentives to licensed financial...
Zodia Custody Becomes First Global Custodian to Support Australia’s AUDM Stablecoin
Zodia Custody announced it will provide institutional‑grade custody for AUDM, the Australian dollar‑backed stablecoin issued by Macropod. This makes Zodia the first global custodian to support Australia’s first licensed stablecoin, integrating the token into its cold‑storage infrastructure. The partnership gives...
Provenance Is the New Version Control
AI‑driven code synthesis is turning traditional version control on its head. When a component can be regenerated from a formal specification, the program text ceases to be the primary source of truth, and the reasons—requirements, constraints, and design decisions—become the...
Google Wants Gemini in iOS Like ChatGPT
The episode explains Google and Apple's new partnership to embed Google’s Gemini models into Apple Intelligence, clarifying that Gemini will power behind‑the‑scenes personalization for Siri rather than appear as a standalone ChatGPT‑style assistant. It highlights recent AI milestones, such as...
Physical AI Is the Next Frontier - and It's Already All Around You
Physical AI, the integration of perception and reasoning into hardware, emerged as the tech industry's newest frontier at CES 2026. Executives likened its impact to the ChatGPT launch, signaling a shift toward machines that can understand context and act autonomously....
Apache Struts External Entity (XXE) Injection Vulnerability S2-069 (CVE-2025-68493)
Apache Struts has been disclosed with a critical external entity injection flaw, S2‑069 (CVE‑2025‑68493), scoring 9.8 on the CVSS scale. The vulnerability resides in the XWork XML parser, enabling attackers to read files, perform SSRF, or launch DoS attacks. Affected...
HSBC Establishes Asset Management Business in UAE
HSBC has launched an asset‑management business in the United Arab Emirates, registering ten new on‑shore investment funds with the Securities and Commodities Authority. The platform will serve both retail and institutional clients, offering globally diversified strategies managed by HSBC’s investment...
How Navi Is Embedding AI as Infrastructure, Not an Add-On
Navi is treating artificial intelligence as core infrastructure rather than a peripheral feature, aiming to embed AI across its UPI, lending, insurance and mutual‑fund businesses within the next 12‑18 months. The company reports that its GenAI‑powered bot AISHA now resolves...
Real Estate Focused Zillow Pushes Into Transactions Amid US Property Market Slowdown
Zillow is pivoting from lead‑generation fees to a performance‑based "success fee" model, taking up to 40% of agents' commissions on deals closed through its platform. CEO Jeremy Wacksman frames the shift as a move toward a more lucrative, integrated transaction...
Behind (The Walking) Hand of a Sci-Fi Icon: Animatronics Designer Jesse Velez Gets Into the Geeky Details
Animatronics designer Jesse Velez created a fully wireless, portable animatronic hand for the Netflix series “Wednesday.” The device captures a performer’s hand movements with Manus motion‑capture gloves and translates them in real time via custom software to a prosthetic‑based robotic...
Citigroup to Cut 1,000 Jobs in Ongoing Restructuring Effort
Citigroup announced it will eliminate 1,000 positions this week, accelerating a restructuring plan that targets 20,000 job cuts by the end of 2026. The bank says the reductions align staffing levels, locations and expertise with current business needs and technology‑driven...
Capital One Gains Preliminary Approval for Revised Settlement in Class Action
Capital One secured preliminary judicial approval for a revised class‑action settlement that combines a $425 million cash payment with higher interest rates for 360 Savings account holders. The revised deal is projected to deliver roughly $530 million in total value to depositors,...
At JPM26, Experts Try To Look Past the Most Favored Nation ‘Distraction’
At JPM26, life‑science investors and policymakers dissected the Trump administration’s disruptive biotech agenda. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ordered the CDC to drop several childhood‑vaccine recommendations, unsettling billion‑dollar vaccine revenues. The administration’s focus on Most Favored Nation (MFN) drug‑pricing leverage spurred a...
JPM Lineup: New Roles Across Industry
Dozens of biotech firms and investors announced senior‑level moves ahead of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, with several companies naming new CEOs. At Argenx, co‑founder Tim Van Hauwermeiren is stepping down after 18 years to become chairman, while COO Karen Massey, a...
Open Banking UK Celebrates Eighth Anniversary
Open banking in the UK marks its eighth anniversary, now supporting over 16.5 million live user connections. Since its 2018 launch, the initiative has grown from a regulatory mandate to a core financial infrastructure, encompassing 145 authorised third‑party providers. Account‑to‑account payments...
Walmart Adds AI Leader to Board
Walmart announced the appointment of Shishir Mehrotra, the chief executive of AI‑focused productivity suite Superhuman, to its board of directors. The move underscores Walmart's intent to embed advanced artificial‑intelligence capabilities across its retail operations. Mehrotra brings deep expertise in generative...
B2B Payments Make the Leap to Real Time in Latin America
Instant‑payment rails such as Brazil’s Pix and Mexico’s CoDi, originally built for consumers, are now powering B2B transactions across Latin America. December 2025 saw Pix handle over 263 million business transfers worth 1.5 trillion reais, a 50% jump from the previous year....
Gamma Rays Quickly Toughen Nitrogen‑fixing Bacteria
Researchers at Japan’s National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology combined adaptive laboratory evolution with repeated gamma‑ray mutagenesis to create heat‑tolerant Bradyrhizobium diazoefficiens strains. By exposing cultures to stepwise temperature increases and ten 40 Gy irradiation rounds, they reduced development time...
Nine-Digit Venture Rounds for Mirador, Kinaset
Mirador Therapeutics announced a $120 million Series B round, while KinaseT secured $95 million in a Series A financing. Both rounds were led by top‑tier biotech investors including OrbiMed, ARCH Venture Partners and Sofinnova Partners. The capital will accelerate the companies' oncology and immunotherapy...
Plucky Startup Bolt Graphics Still Wants to Use RISC-V to Compete with Nvidia, AMD in AI and Beyond — and...
Bolt Graphics, a Sunnyvale startup, is advancing its Zeus GPU built around a RISC‑V processor that doubles as a general‑purpose CPU, positioning the card as a standalone Linux system. The architecture replaces traditional shader‑heavy designs with fixed‑function rasterization, ray tracing...
JPM Day 1: Big Bucks for Bispecific
AbbVie announced a $5.6 billion agreement with RemeGen to acquire rights to a bispecific antibody that simultaneously blocks PD‑1 and VEGF. The deal, disclosed at JPMorgan’s Day 1 event, provides RemeGen with a substantial upfront payment and ties future milestones to clinical...