DATA SECURITY,PLATFORM SECURITY,SOFTWARE SECURITY
Zapata Computing | December 06, 2022
Zapata Computing, the leading enterprise quantum software company, today announced that the company has earned two new patents for post-quantum cybersecurity techniques. The new patents are for its Variational Quantum Factoring (VQF) and Quantum-Assisted Defense Against Adversarial AI (QDAI) algorithms.
With the addition of these patents, Zapata now owns one of the world’s largest quantum computing software patent portfolios. The company’s growing portfolio includes a diverse range of proprietary quantum algorithms, machine learning, optimization and hardware methods.
VQF and QDAI In the Age of Post-Quantum Cybersecurity Threat Intelligence
As the narrative regarding post-quantum cybersecurity continues to gain momentum across the security, intelligence and technology landscapes, VQF and QDAI underpin Zapata’s post-quantum cybersecurity threat intelligence solutions for its customers.
VQF is a heuristic algorithm for cryptanalysis that can run on near-term quantum devices, quantum-inspired data structures, and other special purpose classical hardware. The hybrid quantum-classical algorithm was developed by Zapata’s technical experts and is a technique that demonstrates that an adversary can already start attempting to compromise existing encryption schemes using heuristic algorithms. A heuristic algorithm is designed to solve a problem faster than traditional methods by sacrificing accuracy or completeness for speed. This means that VQF is effective at identifying specific instances of the encryption vulnerability – helping enterprises shore up defenses in advance of an attack.
“VQF introduces a new category of decryption possibilities that could arrive a lot sooner than the market expects. “We don’t need to wait for a fully fault-tolerant computer that can run Shor’s algorithm to see the threat. It’s not a sudden ‘one-day’ jump. VQF demonstrates that an adversary can try to compromise existing encryption schemes using heuristic algorithms that don’t have a mathematically provable guarantee they will compromise all instances. Using Shor’s algorithm, factoring a 2048-bit RSA number requires a quantum computer with millions of physical qubits running for hours. We estimate that VQF can factor a 2048-bit RSA number with approximately several thousand NISQ qubits in around the same amount of time.”
Yudong Cao, CTO and co-founder of Zapata Computing
QDAI is the first hybrid quantum-classical algorithm for defense against adversarial attacks. Machine learning (ML) classification models are prone to adversarial attacks. These attacks add a very small -- but carefully chosen -- variance to data that confuses the classifier, rendering results to be incorrect. Quantum computers provide a new method of attack against ML models that possess a uniquely quantum noise meant to confuse the model. QDAI trains ML models to be immune to these types of adversarial AI attacks.
“Quantum computers have a high potential to exploit potential vulnerabilities of neural networks,” added Cao. “As threats accumulate and adversarial AI models get stronger, we must leverage the power of quantum and classical resources to successfully defend against these attacks. That’s exactly the reason we developed QDAI. As quantum computers grow, we may be able to switch to a fully quantum classifier, but in the meantime, there is potential for significant gains with the quantum-classical hybrid approach like QDAI.”
“Zapata is consistently pushing the innovation envelope, developing new proprietary methods and technology that can benefit our customers and the ecosystem,” said Christopher Savoie, CEO of Zapata Computing. “These patents represent a growing focus and concern regarding the threat that quantum computers present to national security and global enterprises. We developed VQF and QDAI as proactive threat intelligence techniques in order to develop countermeasures so our enterprise and government customers can assess their systems and make them more robust against an attack. We anticipate that more vulnerabilities will emerge as quantum and AI technology mature, and we’ll continue to research and identify new threats down the road to try to stay a step ahead.”
About Zapata Computing
Zapata Computing, Inc. is a leading enterprise quantum software company. The Company’s Orquestra® platform supports the research, development, and deployment of quantum-ready applications® for enterprises’ most computationally complex problems. Zapata has pioneered new methods in ML, optimization, and simulation to maximize value from near-term quantum devices, and works closely with ecosystem hardware providers such as Amazon, D-Wave, Google, NVIDIA, Quantinuum, IBM, IonQ and Rigetti. Zapata was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.
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DATA SECURITY, PLATFORM SECURITY, SOFTWARE SECURITY
BigID | September 23, 2022
BigID, the leading data intelligence platform that enables organizations to know their enterprise data and take action for privacy, security, and governance, today announced native data security controls for Snowflake, alongside becoming the first Snowflake partner to achieve Snowflake Ready Technology Validation in both" Data Security" and "Data Cataloging".
BigID provides Snowflake customers with simplified access control, a data-centric approach to data masking, and accelerated security controls to better manage and protect their data. With Snowflake Ready Technology Validation, these integrations make it easier than ever for joint customers to manage and protect their sensitive data in Snowflake Data Cloud.
As a validated solution in both data security and data cataloging, customers can:
Gain continuous control of their snowflake data and automatically detect new and changed data
Automatically find and classify all types of data - including dark data - alongside sensitive, regulated,critical, and personal data
Streamline access policy definitions with a data-driven approach
Apply intelligent tag-based data masking based on sensitivity and type
"With this validation, our customers gain the trust and confidence that BigID has been battle tested against Snowflake best practices across deployment, performance, security, compliance, and more. "We're thrilled to continue to deepen our relationship with Snowflake, and drive innovation together across the modern tech stack."
Nimrod Vax, Head of Product at BigID
About BigID
BigID's data intelligence platform enables organizations to know their enterprise data and take action for privacy, security, and governance. Customers deploy BigID to proactively discover, manage, protect, and get more value from their regulated, sensitive, and personal data across their data landscape. BigID has been recognized for its data intelligence innovation as a 2019 World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, named to the 2021 Forbes Cloud 100, the 2021 Inc 5000 as the #19th fastest growing company and #1 in Security, a Business Insider 2020 AI Startup to Watch, and an RSA Innovation Sandbox winner.
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DATA SECURITY,PLATFORM SECURITY,SOFTWARE SECURITY
BlueVoyant | November 14, 2022
BlueVoyant, an industry-leading cyber defense company that combines internal and external cybersecurity, today released the findings of its third annual global survey into supply chain cyber risk management. The study reveals that 98% of firms surveyed have been negatively impacted by a cybersecurity breach that occurred in their supply chain. This is up slightly from 97% of respondents last year. Digital supply chains are made of the external vendors and suppliers who have network access that could be compromised.
"The survey shows that supply chain cybersecurity risk has not decreased and, in fact, more enterprises than ever have reported being negatively impacted by a cybersecurity disturbance in their supply chain," said Adam Bixler, BlueVoyant's global head of supply chain defense. "The good news is that across industries and regions, organizations are making supply chain defense a priority, but these organizations need to better monitor suppliers and work with them to remediate issues to reduce their supply chain risk."
Other key survey findings include:
40% of respondents rely on the third-party vendor or supplier to ensure adequate security.
In 2021, 53% of companies said they audited or reported on supplier security more than twice per year; that number has improved to 67% in 2022. These numbers include enterprises monitoring in real time.
Budgets from supply chain defense are increasing, with 84% of respondents saying their budget has increased in the past 12 months.
The top pain points reported are internal understanding across the enterprise that suppliers are part of their cybersecurity posture, meeting regulatory requirements, and working with suppliers to improve their security.
"While supply chain defense is a challenge, there are solutions for enterprises to better defend against this risk," said James Rosenthal, BlueVoyant's CEO and co-founder. "Enterprises should continuously monitor their supply chain to be able to quickly remediate threats. As companies are being negatively impacted by supply chain disturbances, they must prioritize this risk with the appropriate budget."
The study was conducted by independent research organization, Opinion Matters, and recorded the views and experiences of 2,100 chief technology officers (CTOs), chief security officers (CSOs), chief operating officers (COOs), chief information officers (CIOs), chief info security officers (CISOs), and chief procurement officers (CPOs) responsible for supply chain and cyber risk management in organizations with more than 1,000 employees across a range of industries. These include: business services, financial services, healthcare and pharmaceutical, manufacturing, utilities and energy, and defense. It covered 11 countries: U.S., Canada, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Australia, the Philippines, and Singapore.
The 2021 research was also conducted by Opinion Matters and recorded the views and experiences of 1,200 CTOs/CSOs/COOs/CIOs/CISOs/CPOs in similar enterprises and the same industries. It covered six countries: U.S., Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, the U.K., and Singapore.
Analysis of the responses from different commercial sectors revealed considerable variations in their experiences of supply chain risk:
While healthcare and pharmaceutical was the third-highest vertical in terms of experiencing greater board scrutiny for supply chain risk at 42%, the sector also indicates the lowest likelihood to increase budget for external resources to bolster supply chain cybersecurity, by a margin of 7% below the next closest vertical. This sector is also the least likely of any vertical (34%) to have no way of knowing if an issue arises with a third party's environment.
The energy sector was most likely to report negative impact from at least one supply chain breach in the last year (99%) but 49% are monitoring supply chain cyber risk regularly or in real time, and 44% are updating senior leadership monthly or more frequently. In addition, energy companies say they are increasing their budget for supply chain cyber risk by an average of 60%.
In manufacturing, 64% of respondents say that supply chain cyber risk is on their radar and 44% say they have established an integrated enterprise risk management program.
About BlueVoyant
BlueVoyant combines internal and external cyber defense capabilities into an outcomes-based platform called BlueVoyant Elements™. Elements is cloud-native and continuously monitors your network, endpoints, attack surface, and supply chain plus the clear, deep, and dark web for vulnerabilities, risks, and threats; and takes action to protect your business, leveraging both machine learning-driven automation and human-led expertise. Elements can be deployed as independent solutions or together as a full-spectrum cyber defense platform. BlueVoyant's approach to cyber defense revolves around three key pillars — technology, telemetry, and talent — that deliver industry-leading cybersecurity to more than 700 clients across the globe.
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