“We’re thrilled to add Gerald to the ActiveState team. With accelerating growth across our Fortune 1000 customer base, it’s critical that we build our team and our capabilities. Gerald brings deep expertise that’s grounded in a pragmatic and genuine mindset.”

Gerald Choung, ActiveState CRO, also commented:

“ActiveState’s secure software supply chain vision and offer are unique in the market. Our turnkey solution for enterprises and government agencies helps protect them and their customers from software supply chain attacks. I’m excited to further accelerate ActiveState’s upmarket growth and to help us secure critical software infrastructure around the globe.”

Gerald previously served as Vice President of Sales at cyber security vendor ESET and has provided leadership at Fortune 500 companies such as Oracle, Microsoft, and Qualcomm. Gerald will join ActiveState’s executive team and report directly to CEO Bart Copeland.

Citizen Lab has identified the group as a company called Candiru. Sourgum generally sells cyberweapons that enable its customers, often government agencies around the world, to hack into their targets’ computers, phones, network infrastructure and internet-connected devices. These agencies then choose who to target and run the actual operations themselves.

Microsoft initially started this work after receiving a tip from Citizen Lab about malware used by Sourgum. The Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) and Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) spent weeks examining the malware, documenting how it works and building protections that can detect and neutralize it. The malware is named DevilsTongue. Protections against DevilsTongue were built into their security products, and they’ve shared these protections with others in the security community so they can protect their customers.

By examining how Sourgum’s customers were delivering DevilsTongue to victim computers, Microsoft saw they were doing so through a chain of exploits that impacted popular browsers and their Windows operating system. Earlier this week, updates where released, which, when installed, protect Windows customers from two key Sourgum exploits.

These attacks have largely targeted consumer accounts, indicating Sourgum’s customers were pursuing particular individuals. The protections they issued this week will prevent Sourgum’s tools from working on computers that are already infected and prevent new infections on updated computers and those running Microsoft Defender Antivirus as well as those using Microsoft Defender for Endpoint.

This is part of broader legal, technical and advocacy work Microsoft are undertaking to address the dangers caused when PSOAs build and sell weapons. These companies increase the risk that weapons fall into the wrong hands and threaten human rights. That’s why, for example, Microsoft filed an amicus brief in a legal case brought by WhatsApp against another PSOA called NSO Group.

Microsoft will continue to identify them using the names given to trees and shrubs, as they’ve done with Sourgum. This is similar to how they use elements of the periodic table to name nation-state actor groups they have identified.

The partnership with Lead Ventures will expand CasperLabs’ footprint in the UAE and help bolster adoption of the Casper Network.

Lead Ventures is part of The Office of Sheikh Sultan Bin Abdulla Al Qasimi with a mandate to lead and pioneer the local market through strategic partners that seek to innovate in the UAE and beyond. With help of Lead Ventures, CasperLabs will enable government agencies, corporations, and other organizations to unlock tremendous value by creating new markets, ensure greater security, decrease costs, and provide liquid trading by digitizing existing assets and eliminating exchange friction.

The Casper Network has attracted a growing ecosystem of innovative Web3 firms, publicly traded companies, and developer organizations. Thanks to the support of CasperLabs, this growing community is introducing a new standard for blockchain technology that can be quickly integrated, scaled, and deployed in any enterprise setting.