Activision confirms targeting but denies being hacked / New hacker group named Hydrochasma appears / Metomic raises $20M to help companies avoid leaks

Plus: Entitle raises $15M Seed funding round to make cloud data management more secure and efficient

Inside.com Part of   Network February 22, 2023

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Activision has confirmed that hackers targeted it but has denied being breached. Security researchers are disputing the claims. More: Security researchers are claiming that Activision was breached on Dec. 4, 2022. Threat actors reportedly managed to steal data regarding the release of future game titles such as Call of Duty. If the game development studio failed to notify its employees of this breach, it may have broken state laws in California. Market analysts claim that Activision's failure to report the breach may have been a result of its ongoing acquisition negotiations with Microsoft. The latter is set to acquire the company for $69B.

A new hacker group named Hydrochasma is targeting medical companies in Asia that have ties with COVID-19 vaccines. The threat actor may expand its scope of attack soon. More The first step from the hacker group is using phishing to compromise its targets through email. Secondly, a Fast Reverse Proxy is dropped on the targeted system that ensures the threat actor can gain remote access. Researchers have tracked other common malware used in the group's campaigns, such as the Cobalt Strike Beacon, Gogo scanning tool, and Fscan. The targeted systems have not had their information stolen so far, but the breach leaves space for the hackers to steal it remotely at any given time. The new threat actor uses exclusively public tools to breach its victims, making it harder to track.

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Metomic has raised a $20M funding round to help companies avoid leaks from Slack and other collaboration tools. Evolution Equity Partners led the funding round. More: The company relies on artificial intelligence to find vulnerabilities that could lead to data leaks. Its platform can automatically be integrated with popular enterprise communication apps such as: Google Apps, Slack, Jira, and Zendesk.  The SaaS security market was valued at $8.2B in 2021, while it is estimated that the market will be worth $21B by 2028.

Entitle has raised a $15M Seed funding round to make cloud data management more secure and efficient. The company is based in Israel. More: Entitle offers a SaaS Cloud Permissions Management platform that enables cybersecurity enterprises to control access to cloud resources efficiently. Some of its clients include: Lemonade, At-bay, K-Health, Bilt, and Hippo. Entitle aims to use the funding to improve its product and expand its team, which already has 30 employees. The company was founded in 2021.

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GovForce has raised a $2.5M Seed funding round to enable government contractors to monitor their technology and streamline communication with subcontractors. This market is worth approximately $700B. More: GovForce provides a SaaS platform designed to help government contractors monitor their performance and communicate more effectively with subcontractors.  The platform also organizes different teams and manages projects and relationships while adhering to security standards and regulations. QED Investors and Humba Ventures led the funding round, with participation from Cambrian and NextGen Venture Partners. The company is based in Washington, D.C. This is the first major funding round for GovForce, which was founded in 2022.

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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.

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