ThetaRay acquires Screena, enhancing its AI-powered financial crime detection platform to offer comprehensive screening and compliance solutions. (Image source: Adobe Stock)

ThetaRay, a leader in AI-powered financial crime detection technology, has announced its acquisition of the European screening company Screena

This acquisition highlights ThetaRay's ongoing investment in proprietary technology and underscores its commitment to helping banks, fintechs, and regulators detect financial crimes using cutting-edge AI solutions.

Screena provides financial institutions with tools to identify malicious actors without impacting legitimate parties. It screens individuals, companies, or other entities against various sanctioned party lists, ensuring compliance with international laws and regulations. This enhances global trade, safeguards reputations, and promotes financial security.

ThetaRay operates in over 40 countries across six continents and is transitioning from a leader in AI-powered Transaction Monitoring solutions to a cloud-based, comprehensive financial crime detection platform. This platform is utilized by over 100 financial institutions, including Santander, Payoneer, and Travelex. The acquisition of Screena integrates its advanced, cloud-based AI-driven screening capabilities into ThetaRay's product suite, offering financial institutions an unparalleled, holistic view of transactional and customer screening risks.

ThetaRay enables the detection of various financial crimes, including money laundering, terrorist financing, and drug trafficking. Recently, Santander UK collaborated with ThetaRay to implement advanced technology to identify human trafficking in financial transactions. This partnership was recognised at the Digital Transformation Awards in June 2024 for "Best Use of Data for Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery Detection."

ThetaRay's product suite helps financial institutions comply swiftly and effectively with complex regulatory requirements. It also facilitates smooth customer onboarding and transaction processes, allowing companies to scale quickly and seize business opportunities while promoting growth across different business lines.

"The acquisition of Screena is a significant milestone for ThetaRay as we continue our mission to power the global fight against financial crime by enhancing our offerings with the most advanced AI capabilities. It furthers our commitment to delivering an end-to-end platform that enables banks, fintechs, and regulators to effectively identify financial crime – vital capabilities to grow and operate a financial institution today," stated Peter Reynolds, CEO of ThetaRay. "The recent launch of our Customer Risk Assessment (CRA) product this year and the mass adoption of our leading Transaction Monitoring offering demonstrates both a clear need in the market and our proven ability to build pioneering solutions. We are delighted to have closed our first acquisition, bringing key capabilities and further establishing our already rapidly growing presence in Europe."

Erel Margalit, chairman of ThetaRay and founder and chairman of JVP, commented, "The need for international, cross-border payments, and business corridors between Europe and Africa, South America and the US, and many locations around the world requires the use of AI and advanced technology to make sure that the transactions are trusted, and that the people behind them are trusted. ThetaRay’s AI also establishes a highway for the good actors that require an international payment network to do their business. The acquisition of Screena advances the ability to identify bad actors, whether it’s money laundering, drug trafficking, or terrorist financing in a much more pointed way. This move is a testament to ThetaRay’s mission of thwarting financial crime and continuously enhancing capabilities to win this critical fight on our journey to becoming a category leader."

Cédric Iggiotti, CEO of Screena, said, "Integrating with ThetaRay has been a game-changer for us at Screena, revealing the true potential of combining Transaction Monitoring, Screening, and Customer Risk Assessment. For too long, screening was siloed from other critical financial crime detection tools. Our partnership with ThetaRay not only meets stringent regulatory demands but also significantly enhances our crime detection capabilities, as evidenced by our recent successes with major financial institutions. Looking ahead, we are excited to push the boundaries of what’s possible in building a more trustworthy financial ecosystem."

VOX Solutions partners with Orange Burkina Faso to combat messaging fraud and artificial traffic inflation through secure A2P message transmission and the VOX-3. (Image source: Adobe Stock)

VOX Solutions, a leader in comprehensive A2P voice and messaging monetisation solutions, has announced partnership with Orange, the largest mobile operator in Burkina Faso to combat messaging fraud and artificial traffic inflation through secure A2P message transmission and the VOX-360 platform

This partnership between VOX Solutions and Orange Burkina Faso establishes an exclusive direct connectivity alliance, ensuring the secure and reliable transmission of A2P messages to clients in Burkina Faso and international enterprises. The shared goal is to protect mobile interactions from the rising threats of messaging fraud and artificial traffic inflation (AIT).

Artificial traffic inflation (AIT) is a growing issue in the digital landscape, artificially increasing traffic volumes, thus raising costs for enterprises and threatening revenues for mobile network operators. Likewise, messaging fraud, which involves the unauthorised or deceptive dissemination of messages, poses significant risks to user privacy and security.

Ehsan Ahmadi, CEO & founder of VOX Solutions, expressed, “Our fundamental mission is to support mobile operators such as Orange Burkina Faso in sustaining consistent revenue growth and fostering innovation. Addressing messaging fraud and AIT are central to the challenges we are eager to confront. We are privileged to commence this journey and remain steadfast in aiding our partners in achieving their business goals. This collaboration represents a significant step toward improved communication experiences and lasting success.”

The VOX-360 platform is distinguished as a comprehensive and unique solution in the market, incorporating anti-fraud functionalities, flash call authentication, A2P SMS monetization, and mobile identity capabilities. This platform enables mobile operators to detect and prevent spam and fraudulent traffic, proactively protecting end-users and enhancing the overall customer experience. Additionally, it equips operators with the tools to optimize their network monetization efforts.

As a result of this partnership, customers of Orange Burkina Faso and its global partners can expect secure and reliable A2P message delivery. Moreover, Orange will enhance its ability to monitor all A2P SMS traffic, including one-time passwords and customer notifications.

Successfully implementing VOX-360 in the networks of numerous prominent mobile operators globally, VOX Solutions remains committed to driving transformation and innovation in mobile communications. This collaboration reinforces VOX Solutions’ commitment to providing telecom operators and enterprises with high-quality strategies, advanced technology, essential data, educational resources, and skilled professionals. This significant development further strengthens their unwavering efforts in combating fraudulent traffic.

Kaspersky enhances incident response with digital forensics. (Image source: Adobe Stock)

Kaspersky has introduced a crucial resource for cybersecurity professionals: the 'Windows Digital Forensics' course, aimed at enhancing incident response capabilities with essential skills in threat detection and digital forensics

In 2023, more than 20% of cyberattacks persisted for over a month, highlighting the urgency for businesses to reduce "detection-to-resolution" times. Addressing the challenge of a skills shortage, Kaspersky has introduced a training course focusing on a critical aspect of incident response.

The 'Windows Digital Forensics' course aims to equip professionals with essential skills in digital forensics, providing comprehensive understanding and practical experience. Detecting digital traces of attack development is crucial, especially when preventive measures fail.

Participants will learn methods for acquiring diverse digital evidence, identifying traces of malicious activity, and using timestamps from Windows artifacts to reconstruct incident scenarios. The course covers analysing browser and email histories, incident scoping, evidence acquisition, log file and network analysis, creation of Indicators of Compromise (IoCs), and memory forensics.

Developed by Ayman Shaaban, digital forensics and incident response group manager at Kaspersky, the training leverages his extensive cybersecurity expertise. Participants will apply their knowledge in a secure virtual lab designed to assess and enhance practical skills.

This course is part of a series focused on incident response, allowing professionals to customise their educational journey in this critical field. It benefits companies enhancing their incident response teams and individuals seeking to elevate their technical analysis skills in digital forensics.

“To achieve cyber-resilience, organisations must be prepared for incidents by managing logs centrally, retaining them for extended periods, and safeguarding them against tampering, malicious access, or accidental loss. They also need the ability to conduct forensic investigations promptly when necessary. During this training course, you will get acquainting with digital forensics as an important part of the incident response process and will be equipped with useful knowledge that help you to swiftly handle, contain, understand and recover from cyber-attacks and effectively minimise their impact in the quickest way possible”, commented Ayman Shaaban.

remarked Anna Collard, senior vice-president content strategy & evangelist Africa at KnowBe4. (Image source: KnowBe4)

KnowBe4, the provider of the world’s largest security awareness training and simulated phishing platform, has released its 2024 Phishing by Industry Benchmarking Report 

The report measures an organisation’s Phish-prone Percentage (PPP), indicating how many employees are susceptible to phishing or social engineering attacks

This year’s report reveals that untrained employees in Africa have a higher PPP at 36.7% compared to the global average of 34.3%. This suggests that employees in African countries are more likely to fall for phishing attempts. The increase from the previous year’s figures highlights the significant linguistic, cultural, and economic diversity across the continent and the substantial cybersecurity challenges faced by African countries.

KnowBe4’s analysis covered 54 million simulated phishing tests involving nearly 12 million users across 55,675 organisations in 19 different industries. The study established a baseline PPP, indicating the click rates on phishing tests by employees who had not received KnowBe4 security awareness training.

While PPP rates varied significantly across different sectors and countries within Africa, the report demonstrates the effectiveness of combining simulated phishing tests with security awareness training. African organisations that consistently implemented training and testing saw a marked reduction in their average PPP to 22% within the first 90 days, and further down to 5.9% after one year of continuous efforts.

These improvements are slightly higher than the global average, which saw a reduction to 18.9% after 90 days and 4.6% after one year of consistent training and testing. This indicates that, at least theoretically, employees in African countries are more prone to cyber threats, underscoring the importance of focusing on mitigating human risks to bolster cybersecurity.

Transforming cybersecurity culture

Despite the challenges faced by African countries and their organisations, the significant decrease in PPP over three and twelve months shows notable progress. This improvement demonstrates that changing cybersecurity culture involves breaking old habits and adopting more secure practices. As employees internalise these new behaviors, they become ingrained, evolving into standard practices that shape organisational culture and create a workforce that naturally prioritises security.

"Cybersecurity challenges in Africa require a combination of regulation, guidelines and security awareness training. Particular focus is needed on threats like deepfakes used for political manipulation, especially ahead of major elections in various African countries," remarked Anna Collard, senior vice-president content strategy & evangelist Africa at KnowBe4. "More public-private partnerships are essential to build capacity, address the skills shortage, and improve resilience in the digital world. Investing in Africa’s youth and providing cybersecurity training opportunities can fill the skills gap and also address youth unemployment."