Onqlave: An August Snapshot
Welcome to the Onqlave newsletter!
This is our first edition. To begin with, we will use this space for product announcements, industry insights and recent news, as well as upcoming events and other info.
The format will evolve. Please therefore share your feedback. We love to hear how we can better help you, as we aim to improve data privacy and protection together.
Product Announcements
July was a BIG month at Onqlave. Months of hard work, countless pull requests and thousands of lines of code culminated in two key milestones.
1. Alpha product launch
Following a testing period with a select user base, we have launched our alpha product open to the public. Users get full access to the Onqlave Encryption Engine (OE2) and ready-built SDKs for Go, Node.JS and Java, with imminent releases for Python and other programming languages.
You can get started for free, in minutes. If you have not already, then get access here or learn more from our documentation.
2. Publishing our new website
We published our new website to accompany the Alpha launch. With better messaging, better graphics, and … well, better everything … we’re hoping to more meaningfully connect with our target audience of developers.
Data Privacy & Protection Insights
See below for our recent content pieces diving into data privacy and protection.
What are the risks of handling PII?
- The major risk is a data breach. IBM estimated that the average cost of a breach was $4.4m (USD) in 2022. But, this figure can exceed $10m (USD) depending on factors such as industry and geography.
- We explore the various cost drivers and share a handy tool to estimate the cost of a breach to your business.
Data Breaches: The Rising Threat to Our Sensitive Data
- There were an alarming 4,100 publicly disclosed breaches in 2001. Yet the threat is still on the rise with attackers becoming increasingly sophisticated.
- We explored common attack vectors, factors that amplify the damage, and investigate five headline-grabbing breaches from within the last 12 months.
An APRA Audit of Australia’s Financial Institutions Revealed Key Weaknesses in their Cyber Defences
- An APRA (CPS 234) audit found financial institutions struggle to meet cybersecurity expectations, and many are yet to implement the core requirements introduced in 2019.
- We discuss the six identified critical areas of weakness, including a summary of the gaps and APRA recommendations, as well as why these findings are important for the finance sector and beyond.
Industry News
In case you missed them, below are some of the big headlines from the past month:
- The EU Commission approved the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. The deal allows trans-Atlantic data flows, ending years of uncertainty after Privacy Shield was ruled invalid in 2020, but the agreement will face immediate legal challenge (source)
- The U.S. is on track for a record number of data breaches in 2023, beating the previous record in 2021 (source)
- The U.S. SEC will require publicly listed companies to disclose cyberattacks within 4 days (source)
- June witnessed a record number of ransom attacks following the MOVEit breach (+38% from May, +179% YoY) (source)
- Meta launched Threads to rival Twitter. Research revealed how much data Threads will collect on each user, and, it’s a lot, covering a range of sensitive information (source)
- TSMC, the largest chip manufacturer in the world, confirmed a data breach after a cyberattack on a third-party supplier. LockBit demanded $70m as ransom (source)
August Events
We have the following upcoming events in our diaries:
- Kubernetes Australia Meetup (Melbourne) - 15th August
- GoLang August Meetup (Melbourne) - 24th August
- DataEngBytes Conference (Melbourne) - 31st August
- Thoughtworks XConf 2023 - 28th August to 1st September (select events)
We would love to see you there. Please let us know if we will cross paths or if you have other recommendations to add to our calendar
Company News
We're launching our newsletter, new blog and increasing our online presence this month. Please follow each of us (Simon, Matt and Onqlave) on LinkedIn to receive our latest updates.
We would be extremely grateful for comments and reposts on each piece of content. A simple click, or a couple of words, makes a world of difference towards expanding our reach and accelerating our growth.
Many thanks for your continued support. If you have any feedback or words of wisdom then our ears and inboxes are always open.
Best wishes,
Simon, Matt, and the team at Onqlave
