A study published by cybersecurity firm, Proofpoint, shows an increase in email-based phishing attacks used to deliver ransomware over the last few months. According to the report, first-stage deployments of ransomware are reportedly on the rise and have mostly been targeting the United States, France, Germany, Greece, and Italy. The attacks appear to be capitalizing on the influx of people now working from home amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Research additionally indicates that the ransom demands are very low compared to the amounts usually seen in these attacks. Lower than average ransoms A ransomware application called “Mr. Robot” has mostly targeted …

SIA, a European payment services business, and U.K.-based technology company Quant Network successfully tested cross-blockchain interoperability between different protocols, SIA said. SIA and Quant Network first announced their partnership on June 5. Their aim is to work on cross-platform applications and services for banks and financial institutions. The partnership aims to integrate Quant Network’s blockchain operating system Overledger into SIA’s SIAchain infrastructure and enable interoperability. It hopes to bring solutions to challenges that financial institutions are facing with blockchain integration. Both firms were able to integrate Overledger technology within SIAchain and bridge permissioned blockchain activities. SIA said this allows for …

A crypto exchange says it is focused on offering the best experience possible in the European market. Cryptocurrency exchange EXMO now offers trading pairs that combine popular cryptocurrencies with the British pound and the euro — a refreshing change from many rival platforms that focus on dollars. Users are given the freedom to make deposits and withdrawals, using familiar methods, including Visa and Mastercard, as well as SEPA and SWIFT transfers. British traders can also benefit from Faster Payments, and as the name suggests, this allows transactions to be completed much quicker than conventional methods. Although the company acknowledges that …

Peer-to-peer, or P2P, crypto-powered wireless network Helium announced its expansion to Europe after launching in North America. According to a June 18 announcement shared with Cointelegraph, Helium will start shipping its network’s Hotspots to Europe in July. The announcement also notes that the firm just launched Helium Tabs. Helium Tabs are devices that leverage the decentralized network for tracking purposes. According to the official website, they have a battery duration of over 6 months. The hotspots are both low-power wireless access points accessible from up to 10 miles away and nodes on the Helium blockchain. Node operation is rewarded using …

A Fidelity survey of 774 institutional investors found that more than one-third of firms worldwide have invested in digital assets or derivatives. While 36% of institutions own crypto globally, multinational financial services company Fidelity found that only 27% of the 441 U.S. institutions surveyed are exposed to crypto — although that’s up from 22% last year. Close to half of European institutions are long on virtual assets. Bitcoin (BTC) is the most popular cryptocurrency investment, with more than a quarter of respondents holding BTC, while 11% of firms own Ether (ETH). Fidelity commissioned Greenwich Associates to conduct the survey from …

Equigy, a blockchain platform for managing batteries connected to the electric grid, is expanding its operations in the European Union. Ecologic technology news outlet, Green Tech Media, reported on May 29 that three major European Union’s electricity transmission system operators, or TSOs, joined Equigy’s platform. More precisely, TSO with operations in Germany and the Netherlands TenneT, Swiss TSO Swissgrid and Italian TSO Terna all joined the network. According to company data website Owler, TenneT has an estimated annual revenue of $1 billion, while Terna $2.3 billion. Furthermore, Energinet — a Danish TSO with an estimated annual revenue of $8.6 million …

Ontology recently partnered with German digital identity and cloud wallet provider, Spherity, to collaborate on expediting development on digital identity solutions for products and enterprises. The partnership will see Spherity’s Cloud-Edge wallet integrate with Ontology’s (ONT) blockchain, and allow Ontology to use Spheriy’s Decentralized Digital Identity solutions. The two firms will work together on creating proof-of-concept pilots demonstrating applications for digital identity within the context of supply chain, mobility, and pharmaceuticals — leveraging Spherity’s existing customer base. Ontology and Spherity will also collaborate on research and marketing initiatives. Identity solutions target the supply chain Spherity CEO, Dr. Carsten Stöcker, told …

While global jurisdictions are progressing with central bank digital currencies, private institutions also work on digitizing national currencies. Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI), a major Austrian bank, is working on a new form of national currency tokenization using blockchain technology. RBI is extending its collaboration with Polish-British fintech firm, Billon, following a successful test of end-to-end digitized national currency transfers. RBI Coin is designed to speed up cross-border transactions As announced on May 18, RBI and Billon are working on initial stages of an RBI tokenization platform, currently dubbed RBI Coin. The pilot is planned to be conducted until late 2020 …

Technology has always been one of the main drivers that has boosted social changes. Of course, there have been other reasons: wars, natural cataclysms and disasters, plague pandemics and more. Speaking of such, the current COVID-19 situation, being a once-in-a-century type of pandemic, has come at an inconvenient time. But the time is never right. However, what happened in late 2019 made an impact on various industries to a level that can hardly be estimated at the current moment. The losses and negative aftermaths are imminent, and the use of cutting-edge technology may shine some light during this period of …

Last year, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) asked global jurisdictions to adopt its anti-money laundering, or AML, guidelines for crypto. As the apparent deadline is just a few weeks away, some regulation experts believe that the deadline is not the case, while the actual adoption is a matter of years. On May 12, global legal and regulatory experts alongside executives in the crypto industry gathered at a Consensus: Distributed panel to discuss the FATF’s crypto guidelines. Travel rule’s June 2020 deadline “is a bit of a myth” At the virtual event, Siân Jones, a convener of the Joint Working …

A number of countries such as China and Sweden are already experimenting with central bank digital currencies, which are also referred to as CBDCs. The implementation of this new type of money requires a number of aspects including technology advancement and specific regulation. According to a key official at the European Central Bank, the main challenge of CBDC is philosophical rather than technological. Yves Mersch, an executive board member at the ECB, has again discussed CBDC issues at an "ask me anything" session hosted by Consensus: Distributed on Monday. At the session, the ECB executive reiterated that the central bank …

By spring 2020, it became inescapable that we now live in a world with an unraveling future. The once-imminent shift, now fueled by the coronavirus outbreak, has accelerated the pace of technological adoption, and the financial field was among the first industries to accept it. The shift from a cash-based culture to card payments in many conservative European countries became even more notable, alongside a growing interest in cryptocurrencies and stablecoins in particular. What once might have required a few more years of crypto maturity became urgent as physical cash became a potential virus transmission vector, while new levels of …