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
DTEX Systems | December 21, 2022
DTEX Systems, the Workforce Cyber Intelligence & Security Company™, today announced that one of the world’s leading application performance and cloud security vendors has selected DTEX InTERCEPT to secure patents, protect business process innovation, and prevent data loss.
DTEX InTERCEPT™ is a first-of-its-kind Workforce Cyber Security solution that brings together the capabilities of Insider Threat Management, User and Entity Behavior Analytics, Digital Forensics, and Zero Trust DLP in an all-in-one lightweight, cloud-native platform. Only DTEX InTERCEPT delivers the behavioral context and activity intelligence that answers the Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How related to any potential insider threat situation, compromised account event or data loss scenario without invading personal privacy.
In the face of changing global economic conditions, the increasing risk of corporate espionage, and a pending corporate reduction in force action, the application performance and cloud security vendor prioritized an immediate review of existing insider risk and data loss prevention technology. The vendor’s legal team was heavily involved in the RFP and vendor evaluation processes to ensure employee privacy would be protected as part of the adoption of any insider risk and data loss prevention solution in compliance with the European Union’s GDPR and California’s Privacy Rights Act (CPRA). After exhaustive review of DTEX InTERCEPT’s patented metadata collection model, the vendor’s legal, IT and, cyber security teams selected DTEX to replace its existing first-generation insider risk and data loss prevention solutions globally.
DTEX InTERCEPT’s seamless integration with the application performance and cloud security vendor’s NGAV system, as well as its innovative Zero Trust approach to data loss prevention were also deciding factors in the enterprises choice to standardize on DTEX InTERCEPT across all enterprise workstations and servers. Upon selection, a senior cyber security executive said, “DTEX is a proven solution that won’t break our systems.”
“It is incredibly gratifying to have our insider risk and data loss prevention technology chosen by a fellow cyber security vendor. In this case, it was again the uniqueness of our data set and ability to keep employee data private, while delivering dynamic, contextual human behavior visibility that was the deciding factor in the customer’s decision. “Likewise, a peer’s decision to adopt our technology makes a strong statement that traditional solutions focused on machine intelligence are insufficient to protect data in today’s distributed workforce reality. The difference is most definitely human.”
Bahman Mahbod, CEO at DTEX Systems
About DTEX Systems
DTEX Systems helps hundreds of organizations worldwide better understand their workforce, protect their data, and make human-centric operational investments. Its Workforce Cyber Intelligence & Security platform brings together next-generation Zero Trust DLP, UEBA, digital forensics, user activity monitoring and insider threat management in one scalable, cloud-native platform. Through its patented and privacy-compliant meta-data collection and analytics engine, the DTEX platform surfaces abnormal behavioral “indicators of intent” to mitigate risk of data and IP loss, enabling SOC enrichment with human sensors and empowering enterprises to make smarter business decisions quickly.
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INFOSEC PROJECT MANAGEMENT,PLATFORM SECURITY,SOFTWARE SECURITY
NowSecure | January 03, 2023
NowSecure, the leader in standards-based mobile app security and privacy software, announced the introduction of its latest solution, NowSecure Mobile Pen Testing as a Service (PTaaS), which will bridge the gap between manual and automated mobile security assessments for continuous security.
NowSecure PTaaS is designed to provide mobile developers and security teams with a more cost-effective and efficient pen testing solution. The solution combines periodic expert manual assessments with continuous automated testing to optimize comprehensive coverage at a higher frequency. With this combination, the all-inclusive portal and service can instantly discover concerns early in the developer pipeline, provide consulting help to repair security issues promptly, and accelerate the release of high-quality software into production.
As organizations struggle with tightening budgets in conjunction with an increased threat of mobile cyber assaults, there is an industry demand for a cost-effective, higher-coverage, higher-frequency, mobile AppSec testing solution.
"According to Coalfire and NowSecure's 4th Annual Penetration Risk Report, 99% of mobile applications pose security or privacy threats."
By integrating NowSecure's latest offering, Mobile PTaaS, CISOs and security leaders can optimize their budget for penetration testing while prioritizing continuous, comprehensive security testing. The NowSecure Mobile PTaaS cloud-based platform, built on tens of thousands of pen tests and over 12 years of mobile application security experience, provides a comprehensive set of automatic, continuous, and manual assessments, including:
Expert pen testing periodically depending on the specific demand and timeline
On-demand and continuous security testing is built into the CD/CI and dev toolchains
Automatic ticket generation with incorporated remedial resources
Consultation with an experienced pen tester on remediation
Optional industry standard(s) certifications and validations
All-in-one SAST, IAST, DAST, APISec, and SBOM
Simple-to-use dedicated SaaS platform
About NowSecure
A Chicago-based mobile security company, NowSecure safeguards the worldwide mobile app economy as the leading authority in standards-based mobile application privacy and security automation. The company is trusted by the most demanding enterprises for its comprehensive security testing solution package for DevSecOps, mobile app supply-chain monitoring, Pen Testing as a Service (PTaaS), professional mobile pen testing, and training courseware.
NowSecure actively contributes to and supports the open-source mobile security community, industry standards, and certifications such as ADA MASA, OWASP MASVS, NIAP, ioXt, and others. The firm is SOC 2-certified and has been recognized by Gartner, IDC, TAG Cyber, and Deloitte Fast 500.
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