Author: Karapet Navasardian

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” If he were still with us today, I’d wager that Mr. Dickens would have included ‘email’ somewhere in the famous words that follow this opening paragraph found in ‘A Tale of Two Cities’.

For all the benefits ‘le courriel’ offers, it’s also the bedrock of cybercriminal activity. While only 2.9% of employees may actually click on a phishing link, when you consider the 300+ billion emails sent daily, that’s still a staggering statistic. 

Aiming to stay one step ahead of these bad actors is Armenian-founded EasyDMARC, which has raised $2.3 million in a seed funding round led by the CEE, CIS, and Baltics region specialist Acrobator Ventures. The fresh filling of the inbox is expected to aid the company in expanding its global reach as it continues to develop more headache-inducing problems for cyber criminals and better sleeping patterns for IT managers.

At its core, EasyDMARC is the first line of defense for corporate email infrastructures. The cloud-based system specifically monitors any and all email-based threats including phishing, spoofing, and spam, and puts a halt to any financial, data, and ultimately, customer loss.

Like many a startup, EasyDMARC’s genesis can be found in personal experience. While working as an information security consultant back in 2016, Co-founder and CEO Gerasim Hovhannisyan, was brought in to investigate a severe email phishing attack that resulted in a financial fleecing of his client. While a number of DMARC protocol solutions were readily available, London’s Red Sift, specifically its OnDMARC product, for example, Hovhannisyan concluded they were all a bit too complex for the “average” business to implement.

And thus, the Easy in EasyDMARC.

According to the company, since 2017 it has prevented over 82 million cybersecurity attacks, is currently analysing more than 9 billion data points per month, and is trusted by the likes of Ferrari, Panasonic, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, SimilarWeb, and 30,000+ other institutions in over 130 countries around the globe.

“Cyberattacks have an increasing toll on our lives privately, commercially, and at the government level,” commented Acrobator Ventures’ Joachim Laqueur. “With over 300 billion emails sent every day, email is the most exposed security lapse. DMARC puts a layer of security in place but is hard to implement well. Growing at almost 3x the market growth rate, this team from Armenia is doing something special.”

In addition to Acrobator Ventures lead, EasyDMARC’s $2.3 million seed round saw the participation of Formula VC. The company is also backed by Crosspring at the pre-seed level.

https://tech.eu/2022/08/09/armenia-s-easydmarc-secures-2-3-million-in-seed-round-cybercriminals-weep/

The European Union (EU) on Wednesday called for an “immediate cessation of hostilities” after clashes reignited between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the disputed mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell’s spokesperson said in a statement, “It is essential to de-escalate, fully respect the ceasefire and return to the negotiating table to seek negotiated solutions.” 

“The European Union calls for an immediate cessation of the hostilities which have broken out between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces around the Lachin corridor and other places along the Line of Contact. Regrettably, these clashes already led to loss of life and injuries,” the statement also read.

The disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh has been a flashpoint for about 30 years between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been controlled by ethnic Armenian forces since the end of a war in 1994. In September 2020, Azerbaijan and Armenian forces fought a war over the mountainous region. At the time, Azerbaijan won back a part of the territory. Subsequently, a Russia-brokered ceasefire was also signed. 

However, violence flared in recent days, and both sides have accused each other of breaching the ceasefire. On Wednesday, Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry said that Armenia committed an act of sabotage and killed one of its soldiers breaching the agreement. Baku also said that it had to fight Armenia’s attempt to capture a hill in the disputed zone. It further demanded the disarmament of “illegal Armenian formations”. 

The United States expressed deep concern over reports of intensive fighting around the Nagorno-Karabakh region. In a statement, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said, “The United States is deeply concerned by and closely following reports of intensive fighting around Nagorno-Karabakh, including casualties and the loss of life.  We urge immediate steps to reduce tensions and avoid further escalation.”

“The recent increase in tensions underscores the need for a negotiated, comprehensive, and sustainable settlement of all remaining issues related to or resulting from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” he added.

Meanwhile, Russia accused the Azerbaijani Armed Forces of breaching the ceasefire in the mountainous zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In the report on the activities of Russian peacekeepers in the separatist region, the Russian Defence Ministry said that Azerbaijan’s forces violated the ceasefire in the area of the height of Sarybaba. Earlier, clashes were reported between Armenia and Azerbaijan leaving at least three soldiers dead as the decades-old conflict reignited. 

https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/rest-of-the-world-news/eu-calls-immediate-cessation-of-hostilities-as-armenia-azerbaijan-clashes-reignite-articleshow.html

Azerbaijan carried out retaliatory special operation Retribution in the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), a message posted on the website of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense said.

As a result of the special operation, the Azerbaijani army took control of a number of dominant heights, including Girkhgyz and Sarybaba.

“Currently, our units are conducting engineering work on the arrangement of new positions and the construction of access roads,” the Ministry of Defense said.

The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan demands the complete disarmament of the army of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) and the withdrawal of troops from those territories.

Two servicemen were killed and 14 more were injured in the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic as a result of an attack conducted by the forces of Azerbaijan, the Artsakh Defense Army (another second name of the NKR — ed.) said.

It was reported that two contractees were killed as the army of Azerbaijan attacked military positions of the army of Nagorno-Karabakh.

“Measures are being taken in cooperation with the command of the Russian troops carrying out a peacekeeping mission to stabilize the situation in the Republic of Artsakh. As of 18:00 (17:00 Moscow time), the operational and tactical situation was relatively stable,” the message said.

On August 2, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that Azerbaijan violated the ceasefire in Karabakh three times in one day. As a result of the shelling, one NKR serviceman was injured, later the number of victims increased to seven.

Baku announced that a serviceman of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces was killed as a result of the attack from Armenian positions in Karabakh. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic blamed the military and political leadership of Armenia.