U.S. stocks end quarter in decline / Toyota reiterates EV strategy / SoftBank lays off 30% of Vision Fund staff

Plus, Gazprom shareholders approve record $21B dividend payout.

Inside.com Part of   Network September 30, 2022

U.S. stocks fell on Friday, closing out a down month and quarter. All three major U.S. indexes were down at least 1.5% on Friday, with the Dow leading the decline at 1.71%. More: For September, the Dow fell 9.26%, losing 2,930.91 points to close at 28,725.51. The S&P 500 declined 9.61%, closing the month and quarter at 3,585.62. The tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 10.26%, closing the month and quarter at 10,575.62. The S&P 500 fell for a third consecutive quarter. YTD, the Dow is down over 21%, the S&P 500 is down 25.25%, and the Nasdaq is down over 33%. On Monday, the Dow fell into a bear market, a decline of 20% or more from a recent high. The S&P 500 fell below its previous 2022 closing low set in June. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose to 3.802% from 1.496% registered on Dec. 31.

Toyota reiterated its electric vehicle strategy amid criticism. The Japanese auto manufacturer plans to offer a range of electrified vehicles for the foreseeable future. Toyota said it would invest $70B in electrified vehicles over nine years, of which $35B would go towards all-electric vehicles. More: CEO Akio Toyoda has built a corporate strategy around the idea that EVs aren’t the only solution for automakers to reach carbon neutrality. Toyota plans to offer hybrids, plug-ins, all-electric, and hydrogen-electric vehicles. The company plans to present data to the public and government officials on consumer adoption of EVs and the environmental impact of producing EVs compared with hybrid electrified vehicles. Toyota noted it launched its Prius model in 1997 and has sold over 20 million electrified vehicles globally since then. The automaker said those sales had prevented 160 million tons of CO2 emissions, comparable to the impact of 5.5 million all-electric battery vehicles.

SoftBank laid off about 30% of its Vision Fund employees as it aims to cut costs. The Japanese investment firm has suffered record quarterly losses amid the tech market downturn. According to sources, about 150 employees were laid off. SoftBank had 500 employees in its Vision Fund division. More: The cuts are expected to impact all teams globally across the firm’s Vision Fund unit. SoftBank reported a record 3.1T yen ($23B) net loss in the June quarter. In a meeting with investors, SoftBank founder and chief executive Masayoshi Son admitted he should have been more selective, stating he was ashamed of himself for being so pleased by big profits in the past. In August, Son had stated the firm would undergo a companywide cost-cutting exercise following the losses. SoftBank shares are down nearly 30% YTD.

Barclays has agreed to pay a $361M fine to the SEC to settle charges over internal control failures related to its unregistered offer and sale of $17.7B worth of securities. The British bank had registered with the SEC to sell up to $20.8B in debt securities but sold about $38.5B worth instead. More: In July, Barclays had estimated the error would cost the bank about £581M or $700M based on the Pound to U.S. Dollar exchange rate then. The estimate included a $200M provision for a potential fine from the SEC. The bank had to repurchase the notes at the original purchase price and also paid interest penalties. The SEC acknowledged Barclays for self-reporting the mistake and providing meaningful cooperation during its investigation. The bank did not admit or deny any wrongdoing.

JPMorgan Chase plans to hire 2,000 engineers globally by the end of the year amid rising fears about the state of the U.S. economy. The bank hired roughly 5,000 software developers and data scientists in 2021. More: JPMorgan has about 278,000 employees globally, of which 20% are tech workers. In a recent interview, JPMorgan’s global chief information officer Lori Beer said the company is still hiring despite news of layoffs and hiring freezes across the tech sector. The bank is hiring for various departments, including general software engineering, data science, cybersecurity, and cloud computing. JPMorgan previously noted it plans to spend about $14.1B on technology this year. Earlier this year, the bank outlined some of its tech-focused initiatives, including personalization for its mobile app, improving payments offerings for e-commerce, and modernizing its infrastructure.

Russia formally annexed four regions in southeastern Ukraine on Friday – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia. Last weekend, Russia held a referendum vote in those regions asking if they wanted to be a part of Russia. Russia claims about 99% voted in favor. More: The regions are about 15% of Ukraine’s land area, comparable to Denmark, Belgium, and the Netherlands combined, or 30% of Germany. It is considered the largest forced annexation in Europe since World War II. During the annexation ceremony on Friday, President Vladimir Putin said the annexation was permanent and accused the West of trying to subjugate Russia. Putin said individuals who lived in those regions were Russian citizens forever. Putin asked Ukraine to stop fighting and begin talks but noted the annexed regions were not up for negotiation. The United Nations has denounced the annexation as illegal. On Friday, the U.S. announced new economic sanctions against Russia in response to the annexation. The U.S. expanded sanctions against top Kremlin officials, including their wives and children.

Quick Hits Build a real estate investment portfolio you won't lose sleep over when you use Doorvest.* Hurricane Ian left at least 21 people dead and millions with power after landfall in Florida on Wednesday. The storm moved back over the Atlantic Ocean, regained strength to a Category 1 hurricane, and made landfall again in South Carolina on Friday near Georgetown. According to tracking site poweroutage.us, about 200,000 in South Carolina and nearly 130,000 in North Carolina were without power Friday afternoon. Shareholders of Russian state-backed energy company Gazprom have approved the company's largest ever dividend payout – 1.208T rubles ($21B). At an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on Friday, shareholders approved an interim dividend payout of 51.03 rubles ($0.8921) per share. Chinese carmaker Geely has taken an 8% stake in Aston Martin. Geely owns carmakers Lotus and Volvo and has a 10% stake in Mercedes-Benz. Peloton will start selling its connected exercise equipment and other items at Dick's Sporting Goods. Dick's will offer Peloton Bike, Bike+, Tread, Guide, and other accessories like mats and bike shoes. This is Peloton's first retail partnership with a brick-and-mortar store outside its own stores. *This is a sponsored post.

Upcoming Events October 04 - Webinar: Shrink the Attack Surface (Register Here) * October 05 - AMA with Ram Bartov (Chief Accounting Officer at TripActions)* (Register Here) October 11 - AMA with Mike Malone (Smallstep)* (Register Here) October 19 - AMA with Zecca Lehn (Responsibly VC) (Register Here) October 25 - Meet Our Fund 4, an Inside.com Summit (Register Here) November 02 - AMA with Bill Glenn (Executive Chairman at Crenshaw Associates) (Register Here) December 07 - Live AMA with Deividi Silva ( Head of Developer Relations at Gun.io) (Register Here) *This is a sponsored listing.

Vanessa Omeokachie is a Freelance Writer for Inside.com. She writes the Inside Business newsletter. Her interests include finance, technology, and entrepreneurship. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hiking, attending concerts and music festivals, exploring cities, and traveling.  Connect with her on Twitter @VanessaOmeo or on LinkedIn. Editor Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 and 1972 Fords.

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Former NSA employee charged for trying to sell data to Russia / New malware hides inside Windows logo / North Korean hackers are using open-source tools

Plus: Senate is likely to add cryptocurrencies to the 2015 Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act bill.

Inside.com Part of   Network September 30, 2022

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A former NSA cyber specialist has been charged in a U.S. spying case for trying to sell secret information to the Russian government. The 30-year-old man could face life in prison or be sentenced to death. More: The cyber specialist was hired at the NSA but worked there for only about four weeks. During his tenure at the agency, he printed top secret documents. After leaving the NSA, the 30-year-old tried to sell the documents on a dark web website that was created by the Russian SVR.  An undercover FBI agent convinced him that he was talking to an agent from a foreign government, sending payments in his cryptocurrency wallet addresses as part of the transaction. He was sent two cryptocurrency payments worth close to $5,000. The former NSA employee asked for $85,000 in exchange for all of the documents, citing financial problems as the reason behind this act. He was later arrested at the planned meeting point for the document handover. He is being charged with three violations of the Espionage Act. Zoom Out: This is not the first case that former NSA employees have sold or leaked sensitive data. Edward Snowden, a previous NSA contractor and CIA employee, famously leaked over 7,000 top secret documents. The documents were sent to numerous journalists who published them.  Since leaking the documents in 2013, Snowden has resided in Russia, where he was recently granted Russian citizenship. Snowden is charged by the U.S. Department of Justice with breaking the Espionage Act and stealing government property.

A new hacking campaign uses malware that hides inside the Windows logo image. Witchetty hacker group is behind the attack. More: Witchetty hacker group is believed to be tied with the state-backed Chinese threat actor APT10. The attack is conducted in multiple phases. First, the threat actors exploit multiple security flaws such as: CVE-2021-34473, CVE-2021-34523,  CVE-2021-31207,  CVE-2021-26855, and  CVE-2021-27065. These security flaws were exploited by hackers to breach ProxyShell servers on previous occasions. In the following step, the threat actors hide the backdoor malware in the image file, which enables them to perform file and directory actions, start, enumerate, or kill processes, modify the Windows registry, download additional payloads, and exfiltrate files. Hackers use steganography to hide the infected file in a public folder that is accessible by the admin, in this case, behind the Windows logo. This hacking campaign is likely to have been launched in June 2022. Zoom Out: APT10 has been linked with the 2016 U.S. Navy cyberattack, where over 130,000 records of Navy members were stolen. The group also attacked the world's largest vaccine maker, the Serum Institute of India.

A message from SECURITY COMPASS Discover an automated, scalable, developer-centric approach to threat modeling.  So what differentiates a developer-centric threat modeling platform from more traditional threat modeling tools?  A holistic developer-centric threat modeling platform offers a solution that covers the entire process—from analysis to implementation to measurement and reporting.  It will help you release secure software faster by: Automatically generating threat modeling diagrams  Identifying required threat countermeasures and security controls  Engaging key stakeholders (especially developers) Ensuring developers implement the required controls  Measuring the effectiveness of the program  Maintaining audit trails and data  Understanding a change in risk profile Read Developer Centric Software Threat Modeling Powered by Automation, a comprehensive guide on why developer-centric threat modeling is critical for your business. Get the guide

North Korean Hackers have been tracked using open-source software to cyberattack companies. The campaign was tracked by Microsoft and LinkedIn. More: The two companies believe that the threat actor responsible for the attack is Zinc, also tracked as Labyrinth Chollima.  Zinc has been active since 2009. This hacking campaign is targeting multiple industries such as media, defense, aerospace, and IT. The targeted entities operate in the U.S., the U.K., India, and Russia. First, the threat actor creates contact through LinkedIn, then convinces its targets to download an infected file that they send through WhatsApp. The group uses open-source software such as PuTTY, KiTTY, TightVNC, Sumatra PDF Reader, and muPDF/Subliminal Recording software installer to carry out these cyberattacks. Once the threat actor successfully gains access to a device, they deploy backdoor spyware named Zetanile.  This campaign began in April 2022. According to the findings from Microsoft, the hacker group is motivated by cyberespionage, financial gain, data theft, and corporate network destruction.

The U.S. Senate is likely to add cryptocurrencies to the 2015 Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act bill. U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) have proposed the reform. More: According to the senators, cryptocurrency has been consistently used by threat actors to hide their illegal financial gains. The 2015 cybersecurity bill does not include cryptocurrency firms; therefore, amending the bill also serves as the next step toward crypto regulation. The proposed reform would aim to make cryptocurrency companies more transparent regarding suspicious transactions and would aim to reduce losses caused by cyber security incidents. If the bill is passed, the  Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency will issue policies and procedures for crypto firms facing potential cybersecurity risks.

Cybersecurity startup Detectify has raised a $10M funding round. The company is based in Stockholm, Sweden. More: Detectify offers multiple solutions that help companies scan their system for any possible vulnerabilities. The company claims it has over 2,000 customers and over 10,000 users. Detectify offers Surface monitoring and application scanning. The product can be integrated with popular enterprise communication apps. Clients will soon be able to track specific KPIs and receive alerts.

Quick Hits: Build a real estate investment portfolio you won't lose sleep over when you use Doorvest.* The European Union is in talks to pass a new cybersecurity bill named the Cyber Resilience Act. This bill would widen the scope of authority for several cybersecurity agencies and would oblige more private sector industries to report their cybersecurity issues. Researchers believe that China-based hackers have found new techniques to install malware that can lead to remote access control and data extraction. Australia's Attorney General Mark Dreyfus stated that the country is going to adopt tougher cybersecurity legislation as a response to the recent hack of Optus, which exposed close to 10 million people. Companies in Singapore reported that they are attacked by 54 hacking campaigns every day. 62% of security professionals in the country claimed they cannot keep up with this pace. *This is sponsored content.

Upcoming events at Inside: October 04 - Webinar: Shrink the Attack Surface (Register Here) * October 05 - AMA with Ram Bartov (Chief Accounting Officer at TripActions)* (Register Here) October 11 - AMA with Mike Malone (Smallstep)* (Register Here) October 19 - AMA with Zecca Lehn (Responsibly VC) (Register Here) October 25 - Meet Our Fund 4, an Inside.com Summit (Register Here) November 02 - AMA with Bill Glenn (Executive Chairman at Crenshaw Associates) (Register Here) December 07 - Live AMA with Deividi Silva ( Head of Developer Relations at Gun.io) (Register Here) *This is a sponsored listing.

Arbër is an Inside writer who also has experience in entrepreneurship. He has experience covering Consumer Tech, Venture Capital, NFTs, Crypto, etc. Arbër holds a Bachelor's degree in Business from XAMK University in Finland. When he is not reading(and writing) business news, he chooses to watch sports or anime...and then read news about sports or anime. Editor Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 and 1972 Fords.

Security Compass is on a mission to accelerate software time-to-market while managing risk.

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