Tech Update: Cybersecurity, Financial Advisement & Auto Lending

A new roundup of announcements from technology suppliers focused on new tools and services for artificial intelligence-powered security, help for financial advisors, security-company investments, employee awareness training, and auto lending.

Sunnyvale, Calif. -based Cequence Security, announced it expanded the capabilities of its Application Security Platform with a new module, CQ appFirewall, which leverages the intelligence of CQAI, an analytics engine within the platform. According to the company, it automatically detects and defend against attacks exploiting known and unknown application vulnerabilities, and even eliminates the need for web application firewall signatures.

Ameya Talwalkar, chief product officer and co-founder, Cequence Security, said. “With CQ appFirewall, we have significantly extended the platform’s value with innovations that overcome the inherent security limitations of traditional WAFs. When customers deploy both security modules, the platform will not only prevent attacks targeting their web, mobile, and API-based applications, it will also help eliminate unwanted application traffic on their network.”

Cybersecurity firm CybeReady, entered the North American market with what it calls “a next-generation security awareness training platform.” CybeReady uses data science to create an autonomous, fully-managed personal training program for every employee. Combined with advanced automation, it trains employees continuously to guarantee significant change in their behavior towards phishing attacks.

Followed by four years of self-funded operations in Europe, CybeReady also announced the closing of a $5 million venture capital financing round led by Baseline Ventures, an investment fund that made early investments in companies such as Twitter, Instagram and Stitch Fix.

“Vendors ignore the disturbing fact that the majority of data breaches start with emails and keep promoting solutions that do not change employee behavior. CybeReady is the only solution that guarantees behavioral change by leveraging data science and machine learning to train the entire workforce on a monthly basis throughout the year,” Shlomi Gian, CEO, CybeReady, said.

Brookfield, Wis. based fintech powerhouse Fiserv is enabling financial advisors to assist clients with retirement income planning and risk mitigation through the use of annuities, life, and long-term care insurance. According to Fiserv, new tools and an enhanced user interface incorporated into its Financial Advice Management, a suite of interactive, goals-based and comprehensive financial planning technologies, Financial Advice Management includes financial planning, proposal generation and retirement cash flow and income analysis solutions designed to automate advisor workflow.

“Advisors’ ability to offer goals-based advice to clients on how to mitigate retirement risk through modeling various ‘what-if’ scenarios offers tremendous value to the practice of financial planning,” Cheryl Nash, president, Investment Services, Fiserv, said. “Through real-time collaboration with clients, advisors will be able to compare and contrast life scenarios side-by-side to identify and illustrate the best solution.”

The Tampa Bay, Fla.-based KnowBe4, which provides security awareness training and a simulated phishing platform, announced it will receive a $300 million investment led by global investment firm KKR, with significant participation from existing investors Elephant and TenEleven Ventures. This new infusion of funds, valuing the company at $1 billion, builds upon KKR and TenEleven Venture’s initial investment in early 2019.

Stu Sjouwerman, CEO of KnowBe4, said. “Threats like phishing, ransomware and other forms of social engineering continue to plague organizations of all sizes, meaning the market for our security awareness training is growing at a rapid pace. This new round enables KnowBe4 to continue to focus on helping our clients build a human shield against cyber threats, while also accelerating KnowBe4’s rollout in new markets.”

Arizona-based Phoenix Financial Solutions, Inc., a provider of loan servicing and debt collection services to auto dealers, announced an integration with payment technology and services provider BillingTree and auto dealer management specialist Car-Ware to provide advanced loan servicing facilities to Buy-Here-Pay-Here Financing dealers in Ohio.

Car-Ware integrated the BillingTree Payrazr payment solution suite in May last year. By leveraging this integration, Phoenix indicated it can offer its customers a convenient, flexible and all-encompassing loan servicing experience, giving dealers the freedom to concentrate on selling cars and leaving the Payrazr platform to handle day-to-day collections as well as late notices, insurance lapse demands and repossession/auction coordination through the term of the loan.

“The level of integration that we have achieved has been the result of working closely with both BillingTree and Car-Ware. Both companies have been great to work with in terms of the customization we require as a loan servicer and to offer the products we need to run the company efficiently,” Trisha Keiser, President of Phoenix Financial Solutions said.

Emeryville, Calif.-based National Mortgage Insurance Corporation, a subsidiary of NMI Holdings, Inc., integrated with the Englewood Cliffs, N.J.-based Blue Sage Digital Lending Platform, a cloud-built, browser-based, end-to-end mortgage platform.

The integration brings National MI’s real-time, risk-based mortgage insurance pricing to Blue Sage, a comprehensive platform that handles all mortgage channels—retail, wholesale, correspondent, and consumer direct. Mike Dirrane, chief sales officer and senior managing director with National MI, said.  “Lenders can now see National MI’s rate, and choose the quote that is best for them. Having access to our Rate GPS risk-based pricing through the Blue Sage platform will save lenders time and streamline the origination process. Joe Langner, CEO of Blue Sage, said. “One of the many distinctive aspects to this direct, system-to-system integration is that Blue Sage automatically alerts users if changes in the loan file require mortgage insurance to be reordered or repriced.”