Upwind has added a feature to its cloud application detection and response (CADR) platform, allowing real-time detection of threats to application programming interfaces (APIs). The platform uses machine learning algorithms to collect telemetry data from Layers 3, 4, and 7 of the networking stack, enabling the identification of deviations and anomalous behavior in API traffic. The goal is to reduce the time required to investigate API security incidents by up to 10 times and mean time to response times by up to seven times. In the age of generative artificial intelligence (AI), there is a growing focus on API security. Many organizations are discovering that sensitive data is being shared inadvertently with AI models. Historically, responsibility for securing APIs has been unclear, with many cybersecurity teams assuming that application development teams are securing them as they are developed. However, this can lead to thousands of APIs that cybercriminals can exploit to exfiltrate data or modify business logic. Over the next 12-18 months, organizations plan to increase software security spend on APIs, DevOps toolchains, incident response, open source software, software bill of materials, and software composition analysis tools. Advancements in AI and eBPF technologies could simplify the entire software development lifecycle by streamlining the collection and analysis of telemetry data.
Data governance platform Relyance AI allows organizations to precisely detect bias by examining not just the immediate dataset used to train a model, but by tracing the potential bias to its source
Relyance AI, a data governance platform provider that secured $32.1 million in Series B funding last October, is launching a new solution aimed at solving one of the most pressing challenges in enterprise AI adoption: understanding exactly how data moves through complex systems. The company’s new Data Journeys platform addresses a critical blind spot for organizations implementing AI — tracking not just where data resides, but how and why it’s being used across applications, cloud services, and third-party systems. Data Journeys provides comprehensive view, showing the complete data lifecycle from original collection through every transformation and use case. The system starts with code analysis rather than simply connecting to data repositories, giving it context about why data is being processed in specific ways. Data Journeys delivers value in four critical areas: First, compliance and risk management: The platform enables organizations to prove the integrity of their data practices when facing regulatory scrutiny. Second, precise bias detection: Rather than just examining the immediate dataset used to train a model, companies can trace potential bias to its source. Third, explainability and accountability: For high-stakes AI decisions like loan approvals or medical diagnoses, understanding the complete data provenance becomes essential. Finally, regulatory compliance: The platform provides a “mathematical proof point” that companies are using data appropriately, helping them navigate increasingly complex global regulations. Customers have seen 70-80% time savings in compliance documentation and evidence gathering.
Alacriti’s next-gen ACH solution provides a unified payments infrastructure to process wires and real-time payments through multiple rails while allowing configurable exception handling, posting and settlement
Alacriti has launched its enhanced version of Orbipay Payments Hub for ACH, bringing automation-first design and intelligent processing to the ACH payment lifecycle. By incorporating automation, intelligent routing, and real-time insights, Orbipay Payments Hub for ACH helps financial institutions reduce processing costs, improve transaction accuracy, and enhance customer experiences while maintaining compliance with Nacha operating rules and regulatory standards. This modern ACH processing solution provides seamless integration with the Federal Reserve’s clearing systems, supporting a full range of ACH transactions, including consumer payments, corporate disbursements, bill payments, and Same Day ACH. Designed with advanced automation, configurable exception handling, and embedded compliance tools, Orbipay Payments Hub for ACH helps financial institutions modernize operations and gain full visibility of their ACH performance while keeping their existing core banking systems or without changing their other existing systems. Beyond ACH, Orbipay Payments Hub provides a unified payments infrastructure to process wires and real-time payments through the RTP® network, the FedNow Service, and Visa Direct. By bringing these payment rails together under a single platform, financial institutions can optimize, report, and manage their operations today while preparing for future payment innovations. Key Features and Benefits of Orbipay Payments Hub for ACH: Automated exception handling, Seamless ecosystem integration, Configurable posting and settlement , Advanced fraud prevention and compliance, and Unified reporting and analytics.
Affirm expands beyond Experian to begin reporting all its pay-over-time loans to TransUnion but transactions will not be factored into traditional credit scores nor visible to lenders in the near-term
Affirm is expanding the credit reporting of its pay-over-time products to TransUnion. All Affirm pay-over-time loans issued from May 1, 2025 onward, including Pay in 4 and longer-term monthly installments, will be reported to TransUnion. Consumers will see details about all Affirm transactions on their TransUnion credit files, though these transactions will not be factored into traditional credit scores nor visible to lenders in the near-term. As more pay-over-time providers report account information to the credit bureaus, lenders who request TransUnion credit reports will also be able to view consumers’ pay-over-time history. In the future, as new credit scoring models are developed, this information may factor into consumers’ scores, with the aim of supporting more informed lending decisions and helping consumers build their credit histories. TransUnion research found nearly 40% of consumers who haven’t used buy now, pay later are likely or very likely to use them in the future. Notably, a higher 53% of non-users would be likely or very likely to use them if it had the potential to have a positive impact on credit scores.
New Sequential Monte Carlo algo makes AI-generated codes more accurate by using incremental static and dynamic analysis and instructing the LLM to adhere to the rules of each language
Researchers from MIT, McGill University, ETH Zurich, Johns Hopkins University, Yale and the Mila-Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute have developed a new method for ensuring that AI-generated codes are more accurate and useful. In the paper, the researchers used Sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) to “tackle a number of challenging semantic parsing problems, guiding generation with incremental static and dynamic analysis.” Sequential Monte Carlo refers to a family of algorithms that help figure out solutions to filtering problems. This method spans various programming languages and instructs the LLM to adhere to the rules of each language. The group found that by adapting new sampling methods, AI models can be guided to follow programming language rules and even enhance the performance of small language models (SLMs), which are typically used for code generation, surpassing that of large language models. João Loula, co-lead writer of the paper, said that the method “could improve programming assistants, AI-powered data analysis and scientific discovery tools.” It can also cut compute costs and be more efficient than reranking methods. Key features of adapting SMC sampling to model generation include proposal distribution where the token-by-token sampling is guided by cheap constraints, important weights that correct for biases and resampling which reallocates compute effort towards partial generations.
HiddenLayer enhances explainability of AI models using Model Genealogy and AI Bill of Materials (AIBOM), that reveal lineage and pedigree to track how they were trained, fine-tuned, and modified
HiddenLayer released AISec Platform 2.0, the platform with the most context, intelligence, and data for securing AI systems across the entire development and deployment lifecycle. Tnew release includes Model Genealogy and AI Bill of Materials (AIBOM), expanding the platform’s observability and policy-driven threat management capabilities. With AISec Platform 2.0, HiddenLayer is establishing a new benchmark in AI security where rich context, actionable telemetry, and automation converge to enable continuous protection of AI assets from development to production. With AISec Platform 2.0, HiddenLayer empowers security teams to Accelerate model development, Gain full visibility, Automate model governance and enforcement and Deploy AI with confidence. AISec Platform 2.0 introduces: 1) Model Genealogy: Unveils the lineage and pedigree of AI models to track how they were trained, fine-tuned, and modified over time, enhancing explainability, compliance, and threat identification. 2) AI Bill of Materials (AIBOM): Automatically generated for every scanned model, AIBOM provides an auditable inventory of model components, datasets, and dependencies. Exported in an industry-standard format, it enables organizations to trace supply chain risk, enforce licensing policies, and meet regulatory compliance requirements. 3) Enhanced Threat Intelligence & Community Insights: Aggregates data from public sources like Hugging Face, enriched with expert analysis and community insights, to deliver actionable intelligence on emerging machine learning security risks. 4) Red Teaming & Telemetry Dashboards: Updated dashboards enable deeper runtime analysis and incident response across model environments, offering better visibility into prompt injection attempts, misuse patterns, and agentic behaviors.
TD Bank creates Consumer Index to track financial preparedness of Americans; 70% consider illness or an unwelcome visit to the Emergency Room as the most critical time to be financially prepared
Forty-four percent of Americans report they think about their financial preparedness every single day, yet 36% of Americans say they are not confident they have enough savings to cover unexpected bills. These significant findings are broken down in TD Bank’s inaugural Financial Preparedness Report, Consumer Index where more than 5,000 U.S. adults were surveyed to examine their financial challenges, saving habits, and the actions they are taking to improve their financial health. “With ongoing economic concerns top-of-mind for consumers, preparation is key to better ensure that you’re well-positioned in any climate,” said Allison Robinson, Head of Retail Distribution at TD Bank. “We aim to provide our customers with the guidance they need to help them achieve their financial goals, and the TD Consumer Index highlights some of the most pressing topics concerning consumers today.” Americans see illness or an unwelcome visit to the Emergency Room as the most critical time to be financially prepared, with seven in ten (70%) ranking it among their top three priorities for financial readiness. A majority (72%) of Americans have been impacted by unexpected bills, with 59% of these respondents having gone into debt as a result. Additionally, 33% had to reallocate part of their savings to cover costs. Despite acknowledging the significance of healthcare expenses, only half said they are prepared to cover those costs. Saving for retirement is important for an overwhelming majority of consumers (88% of respondents), yet almost half don’t feel ready for it (47%). That unease likely stems from respondents not setting aside monthly income for retirement (31%) or not using retirement accounts like a 401K or Roth IRA (56%), and shockingly, 15% do not have retirement savings at all. One-third of respondents who do not currently own a home have a negative outlook on their ability to purchase. Across all respondents, the top factors influencing homebuying decisions are affordability (55%), the cost of borrowing (32%), and concerns about economic uncertainty or job stability (29%).Eighty-one percent of Americans have taken steps to improve overall financial health, with the majority of respondents (55%) already reducing spending or creating a budget. Most (78%) indicated they use at least one resource to keep up with their budget, with banking and budgeting apps topping the list. Additionally, 41% of respondents either use or would consider using a financial planner or advisor to help with their financial preparedness. Those who currently work with an advisor are much more likely to feel prepared for unexpected car (72%) or home (69%) maintenance costs, as well as unforeseen medical expenses (66%). The Consumer Index covers a range of consumer behaviors including three standout categories: healthcare, retirement, and homeownership. In the coming weeks, the Financial Preparedness Report will release its Small Business Index.
No-code IAM platform offers developers a secure, scalable way to connect AI agents to external tools without having to manually manage and store tokens, scopes, and permissions
Descope, the drag & drop external IAM platform, launched the Agentic Identity Hub, an industry-first platform that helps organizations solve authentication and authorization challenges for AI agents, systems, and workflows. The Descope no / low code external IAM platform helps organizations easily create, modify, and manage journeys for their consumers, business customers, partners, and APIs / AI agents using visual workflows. Capabilities announced include: 1) Inbound Apps, which provide every application an easy way to become its own identity provider using the OAuth standard. This allows AI agents to securely authenticate, access authorized user data, and take scoped actions on behalf of users with their explicit consent. 2) Outbound Apps, which provide every AI agent builder a secure, scalable way to connect AI agents to external tools without having to manually manage and store tokens, scopes, and permissions. Developers can choose from over 50 out-of-the-box tool integration templates including Gmail, HubSpot, GitHub, Snowflake, Slack, Notion, and Shopify. 3) MCP Auth SDKs and APIs that help developers building and managing remote MCP servers secure their systems with robust authorization controls as well as extend the MCP servers’ functionality by connecting them with multiple OAuth-based services.
CX platform for banks WaveCX, adapts to each bank’s policies, user roles and app structure, and transforms natural language requests into direct in-app action, instantly linking user intent to right screen, step or solution
WaveCX, provider of personalized, digital product engagement solutions for financial institutions, launched Curator Command, a major advancement in digital banking user experience (UX) that transforms natural language requests into direct in-app action. Built as an extension of the Curator platform, Curator Command expands on its AI-driven, semantic search capabilities, moving beyond simply understanding user intent to acting on it. Digital banking users often face friction when trying to complete basic tasks, including navigating complex menus, disconnected flows and overloaded support teams. Curator Command eliminates this friction by instantly connecting user intent to the right screen, step or solution, streamlining task completion and reducing reliance on manual navigation. The system enables customers and employees to type requests in plain language, understands the intent, reads app structure and real-time context, and activates the appropriate response. Curator Command adapts to each financial institution’s policies, user roles and app structure, rather than relying on prebuilt workflows or manually tagged flows. The platform reads the interface, understands user context and delivers accurate results from day one. Key benefits for financial institutions include: Reduced support volume and faster resolution; Increased adoption of digital tools and services; Faster onboarding and lower training costs; and A more responsive and intuitive user experience
PayPal to offer users a 3.7% annual rewards rate on holdings of the PayPal USD (PYUSD) stablecoin in their PayPal or Venmo wallets
PayPal Holdings will launch a rewards program this summer that will allow users to earn rewards on holdings of the PayPal USD (PYUSD) stablecoin in their PayPal or Venmo wallets. The company expects to offer a 3.7% annual rewards rate upon the launch of the program, although it can change the rate at any time. Users will be able to immediately use the rewards to send to other PayPal or Venmo users, fund international transfers, exchange for fiat, convert to other cryptocurrencies or make purchases at merchants with PayPal Checkout. “Consumers and businesses use PYUSD today for commerce, crypto, peer-to-peer transfers and B2B payments,” PayPal President and CEO Alex Chriss said. Michelle Gill, general manager of small business and financial services at PayPal, said the company expects to use the stablecoin to power a new B2B bill pay offering. “B2B bill pay is tapping into a $2 trillion market,” Gill said. “This is exciting not just for our merchants, but also for PayPal in that it opens up a brand-new network. … They now get to invite their vendors and their suppliers to join the PayPal ecosystem. … By the end of 2025, we hope to power all of this through PYUSD.”