Category: technology

Microsoft’s October 2021 Patch Tuesday Addresses 74 CVEs

Microsoft patched 74 CVEs in the October 2021 Patch Tuesday release, including three rated as critical, 70 rated as important and one rated as low. This is the eighth month in 2021 that Microsoft patched fewer than 100 CVEs. Spoofing vulnerability (CVE-2021-36970) in the Windows Print Spooler received a CVSSv3 score of 8.8 and the designation of “Exploitation More Likely” according to Microsoft’s Exploitability Index. This vulnerability requires that an attacker have access to the same network as a target and user interaction. The advisory lists that a functional exploit does exist for this vulnerability so we may see a PoC circulating in the wild. Please find further comment on this month’s Patch Tuesday from Satnam Narang, Staff Research Engineer, Tenable.

“This month’s Patch Tuesday release includes fixes for 74 CVEs, three of which are rated critical, including one vulnerability that was exploited in the wild as a zero-day. This month’s release includes a fix for CVE-2021-36970, a spoofing vulnerability in Microsoft’s Windows Print Spooler. The vulnerability was discovered by researchers XueFeng Li and Zhiniang Peng of Sangfor. They were also credited with the discovery of CVE-2021-1675, one of two vulnerabilities known as PrintNightmare. While no details have been shared publicly about the flaw, this is definitely one to watch for, as we saw a constant stream of Print Spooler-related vulnerabilities patched over the summer while ransomware groups began incorporating PrintNightmare into their affiliate playbook.

“We strongly encourage organisations to apply these patches as soon as possible. Microsoft also patched CVE-2021-40449, an elevation of privilege vulnerability in Win32k. According to reports, this flaw was exploited in the wild as a zero-day. It is not uncommon to see zero-day elevation of privilege flaws patched during Patch Tuesday. These flaws are most valuable in post-compromise scenarios once an attacker has gained access to a target system through other means, in order to execute code with elevated privileges.” – Satnam Narang, Staff Research Engineer, Tenable

Softline ActivePlatform is now available on Microsoft’s AppSource Marketplace

LONDON, United Kingdom – October 12, 2021 – Microsoft has introduced ActivePlatform, a brokering portal for cloud service sales by Softline Group, to its AppSource Marketplace, raising the platform’s visibility and helping customers to compare its advantages with other solutions on the market.

Before AppSource was added, the platform’s authorization procedure was simplified to speed up the onboarding process for new customers. The target audience (which includes Microsoft CSP partners, such as resellers and distributors) will now be able to request a trial of ActivePlatform to get a feel for how the solution works.

“Microsoft’s input is of great importance to us, and these changes have definitely made the platform more accessible for resellers. We’re looking forward to developing the service further and improving integration for new vendors. In fact, we have recently launched the SaaS version, which means that now the platform is even more affordable for our smaller customers.

An ever-growing number of vendors are embracing the subscription business model, so automating the customer lifecycle (particularly sales, billing, and integration with ERP systems) is clearly becoming key to success in the market. This solution offers an effective way to automate customer journeys, while also bringing down transaction costs and increasing profits,” commented Softline ActivePlatform’s CEO, Dmitry Levkovich.

About ActivePlatform

ActivePlatform is part of Softline Group, a leading global IT solutions and services provider in digital transformation and cybersecurity. The platform offers a full-service automated cloud brokering solution for cloud service providers and internal IT hubs which aims to make it easier to manage cloud delivery and profitability. The platform brings vendors, providers, developers, and resellers together in one ecosystem for buying, selling, and managing cloud services. Through its open vendor integration framework, ActivePlatform offers businesses a comprehensive catalog of the cloud services they need in order to thrive.

ActivePlatform can be used for SaaS, PaaS, IaaS aggregation, delivery, and monetization. The user-friendly platform also provides insights into how resellers and cloud services are using services.

ActivePlatform is headquartered in Minsk, Belarus and provides solutions for distributors, cloud solution providers, and telecom operators.

Prodevans Technologies announced a new partnership with UK based software company Canonical

Bangalore, 7th October 2021: Prodevans Technologies a Bangalore and Singapore based leading technology solution provider specializing in end-to-end DevOps and fullstack cloud solutions announced a new partnership with Canonical focused on simplifying and improving high availability across multicloud architectures, consisting of common public cloud infrastructure and cost-effective private cloud.

“Ever increasing demand for multi-cloud architectures is driven by organizations constantly trying to optimize their infrastructure costs to make sure that they only use as many resources as needed and pay less for them.” says Devesh Mohan, director of Alliances at Canonical. “Prodevans comprehensive cloud expertise will support our solutions to help companies of all sizes and across industry segments to harness the power of open-source cloud computing.”

Canonical solutions deliver significant cost reduction of cloud computing. However, the risk associated with planned or unplanned downtime is an area of critical importance as enterprises move towards open source. The partnership is such a natural fit since Prodevans is already using Canonical’s solutions to support its multicloud platforms.

“With this partnership, Prodevans can help our customers enable a faster, simpler path to cloud that delivers solutions with lower TCO along with the much needed flexibility to adapt their cloud infrastructure to the future.” says Gagan Pattanayak, CEO, Prodevans, Singapore “We believe we are just enablers, assisting companies in building a cloud strategy that works for business today, tomorrow and into the future as the business evolves”.

Together, Canonical and Prodevans can offer a unified cloud management framework as a one-stop solution to manage all customers’ cloud infrastructure, reducing costs, improving security, and providing the most up to date access to the fullstack features.

About Prodevans: Prodevans is a leading technology solution provider specialized in end-to-end DevOps offerings that streamline and automate IT delivery. We specialize in the entire spectrum of Cloud Solutions from IaaS, PaaS to StaaS. We strive to provide solutions that are time-driven and efficient with a stringent focus on ROI. Prodevans helps companies deliver a great customer experience by deploying the right cloud-based tools and resources. Learn more: www.prodevans.com

Synology® released data protection cloud backup service for Windows devices

Taipei, Taiwan—Oct 8, 2021—Synology Inc. today announced the launch of its newest Synology C2 cloud application. C2 Backup provides powerful and efficient data protection for Windows devices, whether they are located at home or distributed across multiple offices.

“With C2 Backup, we provide a fresh alternative for those who want to centralize protection of their devices, wherever they are,” said Yen-ju Lin, Product Manager for C2 Backup at Synology Inc. “It is easy to set up and use, and requires no additional hardware to protect Windows devices, allowing users to start backing up today.”

Complete and centralized data protection

With C2 Backup For Individuals and C2 Backup For Businesses, everything on Windows PCs and servers can be securely and efficiently backed up from a single console. This includes system configurations and software, files and folders, and external drives.

Data backed up on C2 Backup is fully shielded against unauthorized access by end-to-end AES-256 encryption, with a user-held private key necessary to unlock backup files and sensitive information.

Graph I. C2 Backup is fully shielded against unauthorized access by end-to-end AES-256 encryption, with a user-held private key necessary to unlock backup files and sensitive information.

Flexible ways to schedule backups

C2 Backup makes use of forever-incremental backup to optimize storage and bandwidth.
Incremental backup reduces the amount of data uploaded for every backup to only those blocks that have changed, making backups more efficient.

Each subscriber can set their own individual version retention preferences. Retention policies can be tailored to meet individual needs or comply with corporate policies and regulations.

Finally, C2 Backup offers scheduling strategies to make sure that users never miss a backup. Users can choose to periodically execute backup tasks, or they can let them be triggered by events such as screen locking, account logout, or device power-up.

Fast and full restoration options

In the event of device failure, data loss, or ransomware attacks, C2 Backup’s fast recovery methods allow users to quickly resume services. File-level recovery allows you to retrieve any file you need immediately, while entire devices can be restored to their previous state with bare-metal recovery.

“Individual device owners can easily find and quickly download their backed up data all by themselves by accessing the intuitive C2 Backup console,” Ms Lin said. “Clear versioning also allows users to retrieve older copies of their files from the portal when needed.”

Graph II. File-level recovery allows you to retrieve any file you need immediately, while entire devices can be restored to their previous state with bare-metal recovery.

Unlimited endpoints and transparent pricing

Pricing for C2 Backup For Individuals is based on storage use, with no limit to the number of devices protected under each subscription. Annual subscription rates start at $3.49 per month for 500 GB of backed up data or under $8.50 per month to protect up to 2 TB.

Availability

C2 Backup is offered in two subscription plans: C2 Backup For Individuals and C2 Backup For Businesses.

Users who register for C2 Backup For Individuals until the end of 2021 are offered an extended 90-day free trial period, allowing them to thoroughly test the new platform’s capabilities.

C2 Backup For Business will additionally let Microsoft 365 users back up data stored on Exchange Online. If you are interested in the features of C2 Backup for Business, learn more on Synology C2 page.

Try the capabilities of C2 Backup for FREE with our extended 90-day free trial, valid until the end of 2021: https://sy.to/c2backupprin

IDP’s new app to transform the international landscape for the next generation of international students

8th October 2021: After a year of uncertainty and travel disruptions, international students are now starting to regain control over their education future thanks to a new app and service launched by IDP Education.

The IDP Live fast-track service helps students in India to receive in-principle offers for their dream course right from their smartphone or in an IDP office, alongside one of IDP’s expert counsellors.

Students are invited to share their study goals and current qualifications. Upon completing their academic profile, they are matched to courses they are eligible to apply for. If they want to proceed, students can receive an in-principle offer from their chosen institution within 30 minutes of submission.

This transformative real-time response means the student can choose to only apply to courses where they know they meet the entry criteria, greatly reducing the number of applications they submit, whilst institutions receive higher-quality applications, more quickly.

Piyush Kumar, Regional Director (South Asia), IDP Education said the app centres around bringing IDP’s trusted advice and support to students, right from the convenience of their phone.

“The last 18 months have reminded us that technology is great, but its real purpose is to empower us, and to connect us together with others. When making decisions as big as studying overseas, you need to know you have someone in your corner. IDP Live streamlines the paperwork and administrative process so students can spend more time having real conversations about their future and their goals.

“With IDP Live, students can have confidence that all institutions listed are high quality and that they have the support of IDP’s expert team with them at every step of their research journey.”

One of the biggest improvements of IDP Live is the introduction of fast-tracked applications with select universities.

“Rather than having to apply to multiple institutions, IDP Live matches students earlier in their decision-making journey and allows them to get a near-instant indication on whether they will receive an offer to study,” Mr.Kumar said.

Andrew Barkla, IDP Education Chief Executive Officer, said the service represented an entirely new way for students to find the best-fit courses.

“IDP Live will bring our industry into a future in which technology enhances the interactions between our counsellors, students and institutions, driving the best outcomes for all. The introduction of the fast-track service, which combines cutting-edge technology and trusted human interactions, has immediately begun to help students around the world to find best-fit courses. Our evolving ecosystem, a connected community of students, institutions and counsellors is working to help drive the recovery of international education,” Mr Barkla said.

IDP Live features include:

o Fast-track service – A course search and matching service for students and institutions leading to the student receiving an offer faster

o Personalised search and course recommendation engine

o Course favourite shortlist directly connected to and actionable by IDP Counsellors

o Student 360, connecting counsellors to the most relevant updates about their students

o Access to IDP’s global team of education experts

o Course application tracking with real-time updates and personalised notifications

o More than 1,000 student and institution video answers to prospective student questions

Students in regions where IDP has counselling offices can download the IDP Live app free from their smartphone’s app store and begin searching, applying and preparing for their dream study experiences now. Learn more here: https://www.idp.com/global/app/

­­­­Quantum Redefines Long-Term Data Archiving with New Class of Storage and New Line of Fully Managed Object Storage Services

BANGALORE, India – October 7, 2021 — Quantum Corporation (NASDAQ: QMCO) today announced two breakthrough innovations aimed at organizations generating, storing, and managing huge amounts of data. Quantum is introducing ActiveScale Cold Storage, a new class of storage that combines advanced object store software with hyperscale tape technology to provide secure, highly durable, and extremely low-cost storage for archiving cold data. In addition, Quantum is offering a new line of fully managed Object Storage Services to bring the cloud experience to wherever data lives and accelerate digital transformation. These new offerings reduce cold storage costs by 80%, enable organizations to maintain control of their most valuable data assets, and unlock value in cold data over years and decades without expensive access fees.

“Quantum is fast becoming the world leader in hyperscale cold data storage solutions. We now provide solutions to many of the world’s biggest hyperscale cloud providers that are on the forefront of building ‘forever’ cold data archives,” said Jamie Lerner, chairman and CEO, Quantum. “The innovations announced today enable us to combine Quantum hyperscale tape architectures with Quantum software, package all of this technology as a cloud service that can be deployed anywhere and offer it to enterprises and cloud providers who are facing the same challenges as hyperscalers.”

Massive data growth drives need for cold storage strategy

The world has entered a new era of data, as the quantity of unstructured data generated globally continues to grow exponentially. The gap between data growth and storage budgets is widening, and it is estimated that 60%1 of the data generated will be “cold” – inactive data that must be stored, protected, and remain accessible for years or decades because of compliance requirements and the immense value it contains. With traditional storage architectures, most organizations don’t have the budget, footprint, or resources to handle this data explosion, forcing them to make operational or budget tradeoffs.

“Storage capacity in the enterprise is expected to grow by 30%1 annually, driven by increased digitization and data-driven business initiatives,” said Andrew Smith, research manager, Cloud Infrastructure Services, IDC. “It is estimated that 60%1 of this data will be cold, which is why we are seeing growing adoption of cold storage solutions and services. The right cold storage strategy can help enterprises manage the gap between data growth and infrastructure budgets, while addressing concerns around security and compliance.”

¹Source:  IDC InfoBrief, sponsored by Quantum, “Data Deluge: Why Every Enterprise Needs a Cold Storage Strategy”, Doc. #US48119821, August 2021.

Introducing ActiveScale Cold Storage: A new class of object storage designed for cold data

To address this pressing challenge, Quantum is introducing ActiveScale Cold Storage – a new class of object storage designed for cold data, built on hyperscale architectures, and offered as-a-service from Quantum. ActiveScale Cold Storage combines object storage software with two-dimensional erasure coding and Quantum Scalar tape storage to create a new class of storage that is secure, highly durable, and extremely low-cost.

With the introduction of ActiveScale Cold Storage Class, ActiveScale provides industry-leading durability, affordability, and accessibility, allowing organizations to preserve data for years and decades and unlock the inherent and potential value of their growing data assets.

Highlights of ActiveScale Cold Storage include:

• Industry’s most advanced cold storage archive with new levels of performance, durability, and storage efficiency: ActiveScale Cold Storage introduces a series of technical advantages that are not available in any other solution on the market today, including patent-pending two-dimensional erasure coding (2D EC) software and the highly available, scale-up and -out Quantum RAIL Architecture (Redundant Array of Independent Libraries). Quantum 2D EC encodes data within and across tapes, tape drives, tape libraries, and geo-dispersed data centers, simultaneously maximizing data access performance, data durability, and storage efficiency. 2D EC uses local reconstruction codes with tape drives so the system only requires a single tape to recover from nearly all types of tape and drive errors and requires far fewer hardware resources to write objects to tape. Writes are managed without impacting other object store tasks, delivering better performance and availability than all other tape-based solutions. Further, Quantum 2D EC technology delivers better data durability with less overhead – archives can be designed so customers can lose three tapes without losing any data, with overhead as low as 15%. In contrast, other solutions either offer only two-copy protection or very limited erasure coding policies that have greater risk of data loss and require more storage hardware.
• Brings cloud archive services to wherever data lives; on-premises, third-party data centers, or hosted environments with multi-geo dispersed storage and hybrid-cloud capabilities: ActiveScale Cold Storage can be deployed as a fully managed service at the customer’s data center, at a third-party data center, or at a combination of the two to build geo-dispersed, hybrid cloud archive storage. ActiveScale’s architecture enables both active and cold storage infrastructures to be deployed at a single-site, two-sites using data replication, or three sites using 3GEO Dynamic Data Placement (DDP). Data buckets can also be migrated and replicated between ActiveScale and public cloud environments in support of hybrid cloud environments.
• Uses S3 Standard and S3 Glacier Storage Classes for Broad ISV Application Compatibility: ActiveScale Cold Storage uses AWS S3 APIs, the Glacier Storage Class, and Lifecycle Policies to store, migrate, and restore objects to and from the cold data archive. Applications and services that use the AWS S3 Glacier Storage Class can leverage the same API to read and write data to ActiveScale Cold Storage. These include applications such as the Quantum StorNext File System, Quantum CatDV Asset Management Software, leading backup applications, many data management and archiving applications, and more. This new offering builds on the robust ecosystem of applications certified with Quantum ActiveScale today to provide many options for customers to move data to cold storage.
• Unlimited, independent scalability of both active and cold data classes: ActiveScale Cold Storage is based on ActiveScale object storage software, which provides unlimited scalability of both active and cold data classes in a single namespace, at consistent levels of availability and performance at scale with no rebalancing. No other object store system on the market provides the levels of scale, durability, and flexibility now offered by this solution.
• Reduces cold data costs by 80% by bringing hyperscale tape technology to enterprise: ActiveScale Cold Storage is based on low-cost, high-density Quantum Scalar tape storage, leveraging the same technology used by leading cloud storage providers as the basis for their cold storage services. Tape is much less expensive than disk and requires much less power and cooling in a datacenter, which is why it is the preferred technology for long-term data archiving. ActiveScale Cold Storage combines advanced object storage software with two-dimensional erasure coding and high-density rack-based tape storage hardware that includes many innovations born out of large hyperscale tape archives. These Quantum tape storage systems include fundamental advancements in serviceability for all system components, can be deployed quickly in modular configurations, and monitored 24×7 using the same AIOps software used to manage over 30 exabytes of tape storage in hundreds of data centers around the world.

“Tape is rightly the preferred cold storage technology used in hyperscale environments because it is low cost, secure, and environmentally friendly. Until now, using it as part of an on-premises object storage system was impossible.” said Bruno Hald, general manager, Secondary Storage, Quantum. “ActiveScale is now the industry’s first and only on-premises object store system with an integrated cold storage class based on tape technology. In short, this means it dramatically lowers costs, consumes little power, and reliably stores data for decades.”

New Object Storage Services: Bringing the cloud experience to wherever data lives and accelerating digital transformation

To deliver this technology easily and affordably as a fully managed service, Quantum is introducing a new line of Object Storage Services. Quantum Object Storage Services provide scalable private and hybrid cloud storage solutions for active and archived data sets, from petabytes to exabytes. Quantum is introducing two classes of service – for active and cold data – with a simple all-inclusive two-tier pricing model as shown below.

These services are delivered efficiently using a combination of Quantum expertise and technology like Quantum’s AIOps software, Cloud-Based Analytics (CBA), and the recently introduced Service Delivery Platform, MyQuantum. CBA software is used today to monitor thousands of systems worldwide, capture telemetry data, and use predictive analytics to assist in system maintenance and to reduce downtime. It will be used by the Quantum services organization to help deliver these services and can be made accessible to partners and customers to monitor their environment as well.

Quantum Object Storage Services are delivered efficiently with advanced technology such as Quantum Cloud-Based Analytics (CBA) AIOps software

Customers can access the AIOps software by logging into MyQuantum. This modern online portal is designed with the customer in mind, making it easy to interact with Quantum products and services now and in the future. This one-stop portal enables customers to easily manage their products and contracts end-to-end including product registration, updating to latest product versions, requesting support and managing cases, downloading trials, demos, and purchases, and renewing contracts. Customers subscribing to fully managed services such as these Object Storage Services will access their Customer Dashboard summarizing account activity and system statistics.

“Large enterprises and web-based service providers are looking for greater agility, more financial flexibility, and greater leverage from outsourced services to accelerate transformative digital initiatives,” said Rick Valentine, senior vice president and chief customer officer, Quantum. “Quantum Object Storage Services is the industry’s first and only as-a-service solution for on-prem and hybrid active archiving and cold storage. Customers will realize lower costs and greater control of their data, and can pursue data enrichment, monetization, and value creation projects that were previously not possible due to cost constraints.”

“We continue to see a huge uptick in demand for infrastructure, a move from legacy systems to innovative technology, a journey ViON began over two decades ago when we introduced ViON Storage Services,” says Ray McCay, vice president, Solution Sales for ViON. “Adopting this new offering from Quantum is the next logical step in that journey, and we’re delighted to now be able to offer cold storage services to our clients. With Quantum, our customers benefit from both best in-class-technology and an unbeatable ViON industry and implementation expertise.”

ActiveScale Cold Storage and Quantum’s new Object Storage Services will be generally available in the first quarter of 2022.

Discover more:

https://www.quantum.com/cold-data-storage

https://www.quantum.com/object-storage-services

https://www.quantum.com/object-storage

Mandiant Launches Mandiant Academy Providing Security Teams with Training from Frontline Cyber Experts

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Mandiant Cyber Defense Summit – Oct. 6, 2021 – Mandiant, Inc., (NASDAQ: MNDT), the leader in dynamic cyber defense and response, today announced its new training program – Mandiant Academy. Leveraging Mandiant’s leading threat intelligence and cyber security expertise, the program provides education courses, incident response and threat intelligence analysis certifications, and operational skills training to meet the shifting needs of security teams today. Delivered by frontline industry experts, Mandiant Academy is designed to help close the cyber security skills gap by maturing security teams’ on-the-job capabilities and improving their ability to prevent, detect and respond to today’s evolving threat actors.

Closing the cyber security skills gap through trainings​ and certifications

An estimated nearly half a million cyber security jobs remain open. This skills gap is compounded by the fact that cyber criminals’ tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) have become more advanced and unpredictable. Organizations need to implement strategies that involve training their security teams to develop and grow their problem-solving and critical thinking skills to defeat threats at hand. With flexible delivery options to meet specific organizational needs, Mandiant Academy helps ensure that cyber security practitioners are equipped with the right skillsets and latest knowledge on the attacker landscape to be even greater assets to their organizations before, during, and after an incident.

To further the impact of Mandiant’s training program, the company is collaborating with VetSec, Inc., a non-profit organization that helps veterans enter careers in cyber security, to offer 33 VetSec, Inc. members complimentary access to Mandiant Academy’s On-Demand Cyber Threat Intelligence Training courses.

“We’re thrilled to provide a subset of our members this robust program and access to in-depth training from the cyber security experts fighting sophisticated attackers every day,” said Tom Marsland, Board Chairman at VetSec, Inc. “At VetSec, Inc., we work with veterans to help them continue to excel or transition out of the military and secure careers in IT and cyber security. This includes providing the best, free resources like Mandiant Academy.”

More on the work Mandiant and VetSec, Inc. are doing together can be found here: https://mndt.info/3uDJwBK

The On-Demand Cyber Threat Intelligence Training courses provide security practitioners with professional-grade classes to learn critical security skills, including best practice threat intelligence frameworks, attacker tradecraft, RFI analysis and more.

In addition to these courses, Mandiant Academy gives organizations a range of tailored education options, including:

A proctor-based certifications program designed to test security teams’ incident response capabilities and threat intelligence knowledge against real-world cyber threats.

Courses that are instructor-led, dedicated to one organization or delivered remotely to individual security professionals.

On-demand sessions that can be taken from the comfort of a student’s home or other desired space, at their convenience.

Immersive, hands-on experiences customized to validate a team’s capabilities with real-world scenarios in Mandiant’s ThreatSpace cyber range, a three-day cyber simulation exercise that emulates real-world threats.

Security Expertise and Incident Response courses taught by active security practitioners. Leveraging Mandiant’s extensive incident response experience on the frontlines, these instructors offer first-hand knowledge of attacker TTPs, tools and malware to apply on-the-job.

Get started with access to several free Mandiant Academy preview videos: www.mandiant.com/advantage/academy

Introducing the “The Defender’s Advantage” Guidebook

Mandiant is also introducing a new book, “The Defender’s Advantage”, for cyber security professionals and organization leaders as an educational resource. “The Defender’s Advantage” provides expert insights on activating cyber defenses and employing accelerators to gain an advantage in the evolving cyber security landscape. The book includes advice on building security teams with the right people, right processes, and right capabilities to hunt for threats and manage incidents, as well as expertise from leaders in the field including Mandiant’s Threat Intelligence and Strategic Consulting Teams.

Nick Bennett, Vice President of Mandiant Consulting, added, “Most cyber security organizations are hyper-focused on equipping their Security Operation Centers (SOC) with the latest tools to defend against cyber attacks within their own environment. Creating a strong cyber security team goes beyond implementing the latest tools and solutions. It is about finding and developing the right people to cultivate a high-performance team equipped to navigate the rapidly changing cyber landscape. As such, our team of experts felt it was our duty to educate and bring together the cyber security community by creating a guidebook. Together we can all work to improve cyber defense capabilities and close the industry-wide cyber security skills gap.”

Mandiant Cyber Defense Summit 2021 attendees can pick up their hard copy of “The Defender’s Advantage” at the event. A digital copy may also be downloaded here: www.mandiant.com/defenders-advantage

Cadence Accelerates System Innovation with Breakthrough Integrity 3D-IC Platform

New Delhi, India, October 7, 2021—Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CDNS) today announced the delivery of the CadenceÒ IntegrityÔ 3D-IC platform, the industry’s first comprehensive, high-capacity 3D-IC platform that integrates 3D design planning, implementation and system analysis in a single, unified cockpit. The Integrity 3D-IC platform underpins Cadence’s third-generation 3D-IC solution, providing customers with system-driven power, performance and area (PPA) for individual chiplets through integrated thermal, power and static timing analysis capabilities.

Chip designers creating hyperscale computing, consumer, 5G communications, mobile and automotive applications can achieve greater productivity with the Integrity 3D-IC platform versus a disjointed die-by-die implementation approach. The platform uniquely provides system planning, integrated electrothermal, static timing analysis (STA) and physical verification flows, enabling faster, high-quality 3D design closure. It also incorporates 3D exploration flows, which take 2D design netlists to create multiple 3D stacking scenarios based on user input, automatically selecting the optimal, final 3D stacked configuration. Furthermore, the platform database supports all 3D design types, letting engineers create designs at multiple process nodes simultaneously and perform seamless co-design with package design teams and outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) companies that use Cadence Allegro® packaging technologies. For more information on the Integrity 3D-IC platform, please visit www.cadence.com/go/integrity.

Customers using the Integrity 3D-IC platform have access to the following features and benefits:

• Common cockpit and database: Lets SoC and package design teams co-optimize the complete system concurrently, allowing system-level feedback to be incorporated efficiently.
• Complete planning system: Incorporates a complete 3D-IC stack planning system for all types of 3D designs, enabling customers to manage and implement native 3D stacking.
• Seamless implementation tool integration: Provides ease of use through direct script-based integration with the Cadence InnovusÔ Implementation System for high-capacity digital designs with 3D die partitioning, optimization and timing flows.
• Integrated system-level analysis capabilities: Enables robust 3D-IC design through early electrothermal and cross-die STA, which allows early system-level feedback for system-driven PPA.
• Co-design with the VirtuosoÒ Design Environment and Allegro packaging technologies: Allows engineers to seamlessly move design data from Cadence analog and packaging environments to different parts of the system through the hierarchical database, enabling faster design closure and improved productivity.
• Easy-to-use interface: Includes a powerful user cockpit with a flow manager that provides designers with a uniform, interactive way to run relevant system-level 3D system analysis flows.

“Cadence has historically offered customers strong 3D-IC packaging solutions through its leading digital, analog and package implementation product lines,” said Dr. Chin-Chi Teng, senior vice president and general manager in the Digital & Signoff Group at Cadence. “With recent developments in advanced packaging technologies, we saw a need to further build upon our successful 3D-IC foundation, providing a more tightly integrated platform that ties our implementation technology with system-level planning and analysis. As the industry continues to move toward different configurations of 3D stacked dies, the new Integrity 3D-IC platform lets customers achieve system-driven PPA, reduced design complexity and faster time to market.”

The Integrity 3D-IC platform is part of the broader Cadence 3D-IC solution portfolio, which goes beyond digital and includes system and verification and IP features. The broader solution provides hardware and software co-verification and power analysis of the full system via the Dynamic Duo, which consists of the PalladiumÒ Z2 and ProtiumÔ X2 platforms. It also provides connectivity via chiplet-based PHY IP with PPA optimized for latency, bandwidth and power. The Integrity 3D-IC platform offers co-design capabilities with the Virtuoso Design Environment and Allegro technologies, integrated IC signoff extraction and STA with the QuantusÔ Extraction Solution and Tempus™ Timing Signoff Solution, and integrated signal integrity/power integrity (SI/PI), electromagnetic interference (EMI) and thermal analysis with the SigrityÔ technology portfolio, ClarityÔ 3D Transient Solver and CelsiusÔ Thermal Solver. Both the new Integrity 3D-IC platform and the broader 3D-IC solution portfolio are built on a solid foundation of SoC design excellence and system-level innovation, supporting the company’s Intelligent System Design™ strategy. For more information on the Cadence 3D-IC solution, visit www.cadence.com/go/3DIC.

Endorsements

“With 3D-IC design continuing to gain momentum, there is an increased need to automate the planning and partitioning of a 3D stack die system more efficiently. As the world-leading research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies and through our longstanding collaboration with Cadence, we’ve successfully found automated ways to partition designs to build an optimal 3D stack with increased accessible memory bandwidth that pushes performance and lowers power in advanced-node designs. The integrated memory on the logic flow included in Cadence’s Integrity 3D-IC platform enables cross-die planning, implementation and multi-die STA, which our research teams demonstrated on a multi-core high-performance design.”

-Eric Beyne, senior fellow and program director, 3D System Integration, imec

“To push AI acceleration using optical computing, we’ve consistently leveraged all the latest, innovative trends in the chip design industry—a key innovation being multi-chiplet stacking. In order to build a heterogenous multi-chiplet stacked design, it is important to have a fully integrated planning and implementation system, which can represent multiple technology nodes in a single cockpit. The Cadence Integrity 3D-IC platform provides a unified database solution with implementation and early system-level analysis capabilities, including timing signoff and electrothermal analysis. It helps us deliver next-generation innovation using optical computing for AI acceleration.”

– Ph.D Yichen Shen, founder and CEO of Lightelligence Inc.

“There are increased requirements for building 2.5D/3D-IC designs with multiple chiplets like logic dies and high-bandwidth memories that are connected with silicon interposer technology. To meet our performance criteria, interposer routing needs automation to be correct-by-construction while taking into account location, shielding and system integrity requirements. The Cadence Integrity 3D-IC platform is well integrated for optimal interposer implementation and system analysis and offers fast, complete system analysis, enabling us to deliver designs that meet memory bandwidth demands for hyperscale computing and 5G communications.”

-Tuobei Sun, R&D head, Department of Packaging and Testing, SaneChips

About Cadence

Cadence is a pivotal leader in electronic design, building upon more than 30 years of computational software expertise. The company applies its underlying Intelligent System Design strategy to deliver software, hardware and IP that turn design concepts into reality. Cadence customers are the world’s most innovative companies, delivering extraordinary electronic products from chips to boards to systems for the most dynamic market applications, including consumer, hyperscale computing, 5G communications, automotive, mobile, aerospace, industrial and healthcare. For seven years in a row, Fortune magazine has named Cadence one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For. Learn more at cadence.com.

Mandiant Accelerates Operational Use of its Leading Threat Intelligence with First-of-their-kind SaaS Offerings

India – Oct. 7, 2021 – Mandiant, Inc. (NASDAQ: MNDT), the leader in dynamic cyber defense and response, today announced two new, first-of-their-kind SaaS offerings – Active Breach & Intel Monitoring and Ransomware Defense Validation. The new products bolster the multi-vendor Extended Detection and Response (XDR) capabilities of the Mandiant Advantage platform by accelerating operational use of Mandiant’s leading up-to-the-minute threat intelligence and validating whether an organization’s security controls could alert, contain, or block prevalent ransomware attacks. These offerings are designed with organizations of all sizes in mind to improve their security effectiveness and confidence in their readiness to defend against cyber attacks. The two new offerings are expected to be generally available in January 2022.

Threat actors have continued to become more sophisticated – especially during the COVID-19 pandemic – and are targeting organizations of all sizes and industries. As organizations invest in talent and technology to stop these potential threats, they require solutions that quickly identify targeted attacks and gaps in security informed by up-to-date, relevant threat intelligence.

To address the growing need of organizations to protect themselves against cyber attacks, Mandiant is launching Active Breach & Intel Monitoring and Ransomware Defense Validation. Leveraging the most accurate and relevant threat intelligence, these SaaS-based solutions allow organizations to detect the presence of active Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) in their environment and test their readiness to withstand the latest ransomware attacks.

Active Breach & Intel Monitoring

Active Breach & Intel Monitoring, powered by insights gained from Mandiant’s global incident response engagements and comprehensive threat intelligence research, is designed to identify the presence of relevant Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) within organizations’ IT environments based on the latest information from real, active breach investigations performed worldwide. With this data, Active Breach & Intel Monitoring module searches customers’ data for IOC matches from the present to the previous 30+ days.

As a SaaS-based solution, Mandiant Active Breach & Intel Monitoring is easy to deploy and immediately begins detecting and prioritizing IOC matches. To help security teams and leaders focus on the highest priority alerts, the solution goes beyond simple matching, by analyzing and evaluating IOCs with a data science-based score and numerous contextual factors, such as direction of travel and indicator type. Security teams can then more efficiently address and respond to threat alerts.

With Active Breach & Intel Monitoring, security teams of all sizes can rapidly identify potential attacks that match IOCs for cyber attacks and reduce threat actor dwell time to reduce the impact of targeted attacks.

Ransomware Defense Validation

Ransomware Defense Validation tests organizations’ critical security controls against prevalent ransomware and informs security teams of capabilities that require immediate attention.

“Organizations of all sizes are struggling to answer basic questions as ransomware attacks are on the rise and they’re working to determine if they’re prepared or have been breached,” said Chris Key, Chief Product Officer, Mandiant. “With Ransomware Defense Validation, we are providing a solution that will arm organizations with the tools and Mandiant’s knowledge to measure and improve ransomware preparedness like never before. Organizations no matter their size can within hours test their defenses against ransomware attacks utilizing current and relevant threat intelligence.”

Powered by Mandiant frontline threat intelligence on active ransomware attackers and their tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), Ransomware Defense Validation tests an organization’s critical security controls and identifies changes required to be made to their defenses to block or contain modern and prevalent known ransomware attacks.

With Ransomware Defense Validation, security teams have 24×7 access to reports with quantitative data and readouts from Mandiant experts to inform key stakeholders of the organization’s state of readiness against the threat of ransomware.

Together, Ransomware Defense Validation and Active Breach & Intel Monitoring prepare organizations of all sizes to defend against the most sophisticated threats of today.

Mandiant Cyber Defense Summit 2021 attendees are invited to join Chief Product Officer Chris Key, livestreamed and in-person, during his keynote on Tuesday, October 5th at 10:05am E.T.