Content by Michael Novinson

Microsoft Snags OpenAI's Sam Altman to Lead AI Research Team

Michael Novinson  •  November 20, 2023

OpenAI co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman will lead a new advanced AI research team at Microsoft after OpenAI's board decided not to bring them back, Satya Nadella said. The nonprofit behind ChatGPT opted instead to name longtime Twitch CEO Emmett Shear as its new interim leader Sunday night.

Industry Reels From Sam Altman Firing; OpenAI Return Rumored

Michael Novinson  •  November 18, 2023

Technology investors and executives are reeling from OpenAI's shocking firing of co-founder and CEO Sam Altman, though there's a chance the split may be short-lived. 'Whatever offense Altman committed, it would have to be tremendous for the board to make this move,' said Rain Capital's Chenxi Wang.

OpenAI Fires CEO Sam Altman for Lying to Board of Directors

Michael Novinson  •  November 17, 2023

The organization behind ChatGPT carried out a shocking firing of its high-profile chief executive for being "not consistently candid in his communications with the board." OpenAI's board said Friday that it "no longer had confidence" in Sam Altman's ability to continue leading the AI juggernaut.

Feds Will Make SVB Depositors Whole, Avoiding Payroll Crisis

Michael Novinson  •  March 12, 2023

Silicon Valley Bank's sudden and unexpected demise left numerous cybersecurity startups facing insolvency. But their crisis has been averted: U.S. government officials announced that beginning Monday, insured and uninsured Silicon Valley Bank depositors will have access to all of their money.

Arctic Wolf CEO on Incident Response, M&A, Cyber Insurance

Michael Novinson  •  March 7, 2023

Arctic Wolf has expanded its security operations platform into threat intelligence, incident response and cyber insurance, says CEO Nick Schneider. The company has focused on putting businesses in the best possible position to answer questions from insurance carriers following a security incident.

Intel 471 Promotes Jason Passwaters to CEO to Land Prospects

Michael Novinson  •  February 24, 2023

Intel 471 has promoted second-in-command Jason Passwaters to CEO and tasked him with onboarding less-mature security organizations for narrower use cases. The company plans to land more threat intelligence customers by focusing on areas such as vulnerability management and patch prioritization.

The Security Perks and Perils of OpenAI on Microsoft Bing

Michael Novinson  •  February 23, 2023

Embedding OpenAI technology in Microsoft Bing will help both hackers and cyber defenders. The AI tool could make it easier for hackers to drive traffic to malicious sites, avoid search engine blocking and distribute malware, but it could also help security teams with code analysis and threat intel.

Imperva CEO on Maximizing Visibility Into Unstructured Data

Michael Novinson  •  February 20, 2023

The adoption of new technologies, multi-cloud architectures and multiple data storage sites has resulted in data residing in more places than ever before. That's why enterprises need a single pane of glass to know who's touching their data and why, says Imperva CEO Pam Murphy.

Accenture Acquires Morphus to Take on Cyber Fraud in Brazil

Michael Novinson  •  February 16, 2023

Accenture has bought Morphus to get more intelligence around fraud and other cybercrimes Brazilian criminals are perpetuating in the digital world. The Morphus acquisition will help Accenture customers take on financially motivated cyber fraud and insider threats that are pervasive in Brazil.

CEO Faitelson on How Varonis' SaaS Migration Helps Customers

Michael Novinson  •  February 3, 2023

Varonis has dedicated most of its engineering resources to SaaS since the onset of COVID-19 to provide more automation to customers, says CEO Yaki Faitelson. The company has focused on delivering robust data protection to customers without them having to dedicate hardware or personnel to the task.

Splunk CEO on Enriching the SIEM With UEBA and Threat Intel

Michael Novinson  •  February 2, 2023

Splunk has infused its SIEM with user behavior analytics and threat intelligence to better identify anomalies and understand what's going on in a customer's environment, says CEO Gary Steele. Adding UEBA to the SIEM makes it easier for organizations to identify, detect and remediate anomalies.

Lacework CEO on How to Prioritize Cloud Infrastructure Risks

Michael Novinson  •  February 2, 2023

Lacework has debuted an attack path analysis tool to help organizations understand the havoc specific threats could wreak within their cloud infrastructure, says CEO Jay Parikh. The company helps customers prioritize which risk elements inside their infrastructure should be addressed first.

Okta Exec Sagnik Nandy on Protecting the Extended Workforce

Michael Novinson  •  January 31, 2023

The guardrails organizations use to protect employee identities are often ineffective for contractors, business partners or vendors since they bring their own devices. Many businesses struggle to implement identity safeguards in a setting that's more heterogeneous and offers fewer controls.

Rapid7 CEO Corey Thomas on Targeting Phishing Infrastructure

Michael Novinson  •  January 16, 2023

The IntSights deal has allowed Rapid7 to offer more visibility into the threat landscape and target the phishing infrastructure used by hackers. The deal has helped Rapid7 determine the spoofed domains and the employees and social media accounts that adversaries have targeted, CEO Corey Thomas says.

Contrast CEO on Why It's Tough to Guard Open-Source Software

Michael Novinson  •  January 13, 2023

Organizations must grapple with software development happening at a faster pace than ever as well as an exponential increase in attacks on the software layer. Contrast Security has therefore developed new technology to secure code that's deployed quickly to the cloud, CEO Alan Naumann says.