Unlike their older counterparts, Gen Z consumers are significantly more likely to stay loyal, spend more, recommend and join the loyalty programs among online businesses they trust most, according to “The Age of Online Trust,” a new survey from virtual waiting room provider Queue-it. Trust also trumps cost for a majority of Gen Z shoppers. Specifically, 90% reported they would buy a product from a trustworthy business even if it costs 10% more (88% of their older counterparts agree). A majority of these younger shoppers (68%) not only expect more from retailers than they did last year, they place more value on trust in online businesses. For example, 70% are likely to spend more at trustworthy retailers compared to 60% of millennials and Gen X. Meanwhile, 69% are likely to be more loyal vs. 63% of their older counterparts. More than three-quarters (76%) of these digitally-native shoppers are more likely to recommend trustworthy retailers, and 68% are more likely to join their loyalty program, the report said. To gain Gen Z’s trust, retailers need to emphasize reliability and transparency. For example, 88% of Gen Z shoppers prefer an online queue to an error page or crashed website. This drops to 84% among millennials and Gen X. Almost three-quarters of Gen Z shoppers (73%) are more likely to trust businesses that block bots and 65% are more likely to trust businesses that ensure fair access during limited-inventory sales or registrations. This is important to 54% of older counterparts.
New wave of injection attacks exploits input manipulation, bypassing traditional checks; as a result liveness detection is no longer a value-added feature — it is now an essential component of security
Jumio warns about the rise of injection attacks as one of the most sophisticated and difficult-to-detect threats in identity verification processes. Unlike conventional identity spoofing methods —injection attacks bypass traditional fraud detection methods by manipulating the input channel itself. Instead of presenting an image or video in front of the camera, attackers alter the system at its source, compromising the integrity of the digital process. Their effectiveness can result in financial fraud, creation of fake identities, evasion of regulatory controls, and loss of user trust and strategic partner confidence. Given this scenario, liveness detection is no longer a value-added feature — it is now an essential component of security. To combat injection attacks, systems must be able to distinguish between a real person in front of a camera and a manipulated video source. Effective identity verification technologies against injection attacks should: Differentiate between a legitimate source and an emulated one, identifying whether the video comes from a real camera or software emulator. Accurately match the presented face with the ID document, ensuring biometric consistency. Detect invisible clues such as synthetic artifacts, repetitions, or inconsistencies in lighting, textures, and depth. Recognize suspicious patterns, like reused backgrounds in multiple attempts or pre-recorded videos presented as live input.
SonicWall launches Generation 8 firewalls with unified cloud management, embedded zero trust access, real-time co-managed security, and industry-first cyber warranty for MSP scalability
Cybersecurity firm SonicWall launched new firewalls as part of its Generation 8 portfolio, positioning the company as a go-to platform for managed service providers and managed security service providers. SonicWall’s platform is anchored by its Unified Management system, a single cloud console that streamlines the management of firewalls, network policies, access controls and accounts to reduce operational complexity. Every firewall in the portfolio includes built-in Zero Trust Network Access licenses, enabling secure remote access that is easy to deploy and well-suited for modern cloud environments. To further support partners, SonicWall offers SonicSentry Co-Managed Security, providing optional 24/7 monitoring, patching and monthly reporting from its team of experts. Each managed firewall also comes with an industry-first embedded cyber warranty, delivering $200,000 in coverage through the Managed Protection Security Suite for added peace of mind. SonicWall’s Generation 8 release features eight new firewall models, ranging from the ultra-compact TZ280 to the high-performance NSa 5800. Each is engineered, the company claims, to deliver best-in-class security, performance, and scalability for small offices, distributed environments and midsized enterprises. Each model includes cloud-native management that has been built for service providers through SonicWall Unified Management, built-in zero trust capabilities, the latest SonicOS enhancements and is protected by SonicWall’s embedded cyber warranty. The entire Generation 8 lineup can also be purchased with MPSS, enabling co-managed security services delivered by the SonicSentry team of security professionals. SonicWall’s platform is built to address real-world MSP challenges, supporting everything from cloud-first organizations and remote workforces to distributed enterprises. The platform delivers small to medium-sized businesses and midmarket security firms with embedded zero trust, allows for centralized oversight in multitenant environments, and offers compliance-friendly co-management with built-in monthly health reports.
Worldpay teams with Trulioo to integrate dynamic KYC and real-time risk monitoring, enabling secure agent-enabled transactions and protecting businesses in automated agentic commerce environments
Worldpay is partnering with Trulioo to introduce new safeguards for AI-powered agent-led commerce. At the core of this collaborative effort is the Know Your Agent (KYA) framework, powered by a Digital Agent Passport. This tamper-proof credential bundle will enable merchants to assess whether an AI agent is legitimate, authorized and acting with proper consent. The KYA framework will lay out structured guidelines for verification of the developer’s identity, code integrity, user consent and the ongoing trustworthiness of the agent in real time. Worldpay will empower merchants to leverage the KYA framework, enabling them to trust shopping agents by validating consumer intent and the authority granted to those agents. This innovation can help merchants grow sales while safeguarding against fraud and unauthorized purchases. The collaboration will help merchants and platforms unlock new experiences, from smarter checkout flows to real-time fraud detection, without sacrificing safety or visibility. Instead of blocking AI agents by default, the partnership will introduce smart controls where verified agents gain access, unknown agents encounter friction, and malicious bots are blocked. This approach will deliver measurable benefits across the entire ecosystem, including reduced fraud, smarter agent detection, and improved checkout conversion for merchants. Consumers will gain confidence that their AI assistants are acting with proper permission, while the broader commerce landscape will benefit from a shared, interoperable layer of trust that supports ongoing innovation and meets regulatory and evolving risk standards.
YeeldPay, a plug-and-play, compliance-driven payment page automates surcharge rules—accelerating cash flow and facilitating branded, surcharged payments for non-technical merchants.
Yeeld official launch of YeeldPay, a no-code payment page built specifically for businesses that want to recover credit card processing fees through a solution designed for compliant surcharging. Built for businesses who lack in-house developers or custom checkout flows, YeeldPay offers a solution to start accepting surcharged payments – without compromising on branding or customer experience. Key Features: No-Code Setup: Launch a hosted payment page – no engineering support required; Automated Surcharging: Built-in logic automatically aligns with the latest state laws, card brand policies, and funding source restrictions; Stripe-Integrated: Seamless onboarding and processing for Stripe merchants; Accelerated Cash Flow: Reduce time-to-cash and eliminate manual reconciliation; White-Labeled Experience: Keep your brand front and center – no Yeeld branding. YeeldPay is tailored for: Businesses using invoicing, ERPs, Salesforce, or email-based payment flows; Merchants who need a fast, low-effort way to recoup credit card processing costs.
Google’s tiny AI model brings advanced, quantization-ready AI that fits on smartphones—empowering efficient, on-device reasoning and quick adaptation to enable private, offline AI for specialized and enterprise tasks
Google’s DeepMind AI research team has unveiled a new open source AI model, Gemma 3 270M — far smaller than the 70 billion or more parameters of many frontier LLMs (parameters being the number of internal settings governing the model’s behavior). While more parameters generally translates to a larger and more powerful model, Google’s focus with this is nearly the opposite: high-efficiency, giving developers a model small enough to run directly on smartphones and locally, without an internet connection, as shown in internal tests on a Pixel 9 Pro SoC. Yet, the model is still capable of handling complex, domain-specific tasks and can be quickly fine-tuned in mere minutes to fit an enterprise or indie developer’s needs. Google DeepMind Staff AI Developer Relations Engineer Omar Sanseviero added that it Gemma 3 270M can also run directly in a user’s web browser, on a Raspberry Pi, and “in your toaster,” underscoring its ability to operate on very lightweight hardware. Gemma 3 270M combines 170 million embedding parameters — thanks to a large 256k vocabulary capable of handling rare and specific tokens — with 100 million transformer block parameters. According to Google, the architecture supports strong performance on instruction-following tasks right out of the box while staying small enough for rapid fine-tuning and deployment on devices with limited resources, including mobile hardware. One of the model’s defining strengths is its energy efficiency. In internal tests using the INT4-quantized model on a Pixel 9 Pro SoC, 25 conversations consumed just 0.75% of the device’s battery. This makes Gemma 3 270M a practical choice for on-device AI, particularly in cases where privacy and offline functionality are important. The release includes both a pretrained and an instruction-tuned model, giving developers immediate utility for general instruction-following tasks. Quantization-Aware Trained (QAT) checkpoints are also available, enabling INT4 precision with minimal performance loss and making the model production-ready for resource-constrained environments. Google frames Gemma 3 270M as part of a broader philosophy of choosing the right tool for the job rather than relying on raw model size. For functions like sentiment analysis, entity extraction, query routing, structured text generation, compliance checks, and creative writing, the company says a fine-tuned small model can deliver faster, more cost-effective results than a large general-purpose one. By fine-tuning a Gemma 3 4B model for multilingual content moderation, the team outperformed much larger proprietary systems. Gemma 3 270M is designed to enable similar success at an even smaller scale, supporting fleets of specialized models tailored to individual tasks.
Google Wallet’s Nearby Passes uses location to surface relevant cards instantly, while allowing manual addition of unsupported loyalty passes for seamless, centralized access
While most wallet apps, like Samsung Wallet, let you store cards and even digital keys, Google Wallet offers features you don’t often see in other wallet apps. You can store your passport, various IDs, including your driver’s license, loyalty cards, and hotel keys, all within the Google Wallet app. While these features are already impressive, another feature completely changes how the app is used and it might be useful for you too. You can favorite frequently used cards and passes, but if you’re like me and use a mix of both, you’re still stuck hunting through the list. The Nearby Passes notification feature in Google Wallet uses your device’s location and the cards or passes in your wallet to surface the right one at the right time. For example, say you have a loyalty card for a coffee shop near your place. Google Wallet, using your device’s location, sends a notification to your phone’s lock screen so you can access that card instantly, without opening the app or scrolling through everything. The only catch is that it’s not always activated by default, particularly on devices that have had Google Wallet installed for a while or are running an older version of Android. Thankfully, you can activate it easily on your phone. In addition to the feature mentioned above, another Google Wallet feature I’ve been using a lot is the ability to create a loyalty card or pass, even for items that aren’t natively supported by the app. You can manually add unsupported passes to the app. So, if you need to access a card but don’t have your physical wallet on hand, this can be incredibly useful. It’s a lifesaver and allows you to create a centralized place to store all your passes.
Routable integrates FedNow for instant B2B payments, expanding 24/7 vendor payout access to 85% of US bank accounts—including regional banks—within its AP automation platform
Routable added the FedNow® Service to the instant payment capabilities accessible through its accounts payable automation platform. The FedNow Service expands the availability of instant payments for customers who transact with smaller or regional banks. Routable customers can now send instant payments to 85% of bank accounts via FedNow and the RTP® network’s real-time payments, which are already available on the platform. The platform displays which vendors can receive instant payments so that Routable customers can choose the best method for every payment. “By expanding access to instant payments, our customers have more control over when and how to pay their vendors and contractors,” Routable co-founder and CEO Omri Mor said. Instant payments are available through Routable 24/7/365 so companies can send funds in seconds – even on weekends and holidays. Routable displays which vendors are eligible to receive instant payments, enabling customers to choose the best method for every payment.
Quantum-Safe 360 Alliance publishes white paper, guiding enterprises through PQC migration with best practices, crypto-agile strategies, and expertise from Keyfactor, IBM, Thales, and Quantinuum
The Quantum-Safe 360 Alliance, including members Keyfactor, IBM Consulting, Thales, and Quantinuum, unveiled its first comprehensive guide to help organizations navigate the global transition to post-quantum cryptography (PQC). The white paper marks the formal debut of the Quantum-Safe 360 Alliance, an evolving collective of industry leaders with unparalleled expertise spanning cryptographic design and deployment, public key infrastructure (PKI) and certificate lifecycle management, crypto-agile development practices, and quantum-safe cryptography. Collaborating to help enterprises tackle the challenges of PQC transitions, the Alliance’s white paper signals a coordinated, public effort to provide clear guidance and accelerate preparedness for the quantum era. Drawing upon each Alliance member’s deep proficiency and diverse capabilities, the white paper highlights the urgency of quantum-safe preparedness and the risks of inaction and provides actionable guidance on building stronger crypto-agility and starting PQC transitions. Formed to promote a unified, cross-industry approach, the Alliance aims to provide coordinated expertise and interoperable solutions to help enterprises safeguard data in the quantum era. By pooling resources and knowledge, the Alliance aims to help enterprises navigate the quantum era, including supplying organizations with cybersecurity best practices and interoperable solutions designed to work cohesively across platforms and industries. Key topics the white paper addresses include: The necessity of cryptographic agility to adapt to evolving threats; The challenges enterprises face in securing internal buy-in for PQC and strategies to overcome them; Case studies highlighting the value of holistic post-quantum preparation guided by the expertise and skills of Alliance members; A strategic roadmap for enterprises to adopt cryptographic agility; and, Best practices and tools for implementing a quantum-safe infrastructure, including PKI management, key lifecycle strategies, and quantum-generated randomness for enhanced security.
Klarna to sell up to $26B in Pay in 4 US loans to Nelnet, enhancing funding flexibility ahead of IPO; structured forward-flow agreement offers predictable, off-balance-sheet funding
Klarna Group Plc agreed to sell as much as $26 billion of buy-now, pay-later loans to the student loan giant Nelnet Inc. as the fintech looks for ways to free up capital ahead of its public debut. The multi-year deal is structured as a so-called forward-flow agreement, where a buyer agrees to purchase loans before they have been originated. The agreement enables Klarna to sell newly originated, short-term, interest-free Pay in 4 receivables to Nelnet on a rolling basis. Over the life of the program, up to $26 billion in total payment volumes are expected to be sold. The transaction delivers scalable and efficient funding to power Klarna’s U.S. growth, while enhancing balance sheet flexibility and supporting long-term capital strategy. “This is a landmark transaction for Klarna in the U.S.” said Niclas Neglén, CFO at Klarna. “Our partnership with Nelnet allows us to scale a core product responsibly, while continuing to deliver smooth, interest-free payment experiences to millions of consumers.” The forward flow structure offers predictable, off-balance-sheet funding and underscores Klarna’s ability to structure and execute large-scale capital markets transactions. Klarna will continue to originate and service all receivables under the program, ensuring continuity and quality of experience for both consumers and merchant partners.