Welcome back to our Evolution of Scalper Bots series. In part one, the Origins of Scalping, we started our journey through scalping’s long history. We saw that it is far from a new concept: people have been reselling high-demand items for centuries, from as far back as 325 BCE! We’ll continue our journey at the turn of the 21st Century. With the advent of online ticketing, a new frontier had just been opened for scalpers, and things would never be the same again.

In 1968, a killer supercomputer named HAL 9000 gripped imaginations in the sci-fi thriller “2001: A Space Odyssey.” The dark side of artificial intelligence (AI) was intriguing, entertaining and completely far-fetched. Audiences were hooked, and numerous blockbusters followed, from “The Terminator” in 1984 to “The Matrix” in 1999, each exploring AI’s extreme possibilities and potential consequences.

Check out the highlights from our most recent update, Platform Release 698. This release contains 449 items including new features, improvements, and bug fixes. See the highlights below. For a full rundown, check out the complete Release Notes here.

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) for email systems helps organizations prevent sensitive data within email from being lost, leaked, or accessed by unauthorized individuals, be it an insider risk or malicious behavior from outside. Solutions for email DLP monitor inbound and outbound messages, searching for loss risks like content or attachments that are sensitive, confidential, or protected by regulation. Email DLP systems can flag, block, or delete an email based on custom policy.

An MSI (Microsoft Installer) installer is a file format and technology that Microsoft developed for installing, maintaining, and removing software on the Windows operating system. MSI installers are the usual tools for software deployment in companies and for software distribution to users. MSI installers’ main characteristics are the structure’s packaging, the possibility of installation customization, rollback, silent installation, patch management, and digital signing.

Remote Code Execution (RCE) is an attack technique where an attacker can execute remote code on a target system or device while smiling from ear to ear without physical access. In this attack, a hacker exploits system weaknesses such as software, operating systems, or network protocols to gain unauthorized access and execute malware onto the target system.

Businesses are under an ever-increasing pressure to maintain exceptional experiences for their customers, making seamless connectivity across tools a must. This is true for industries like financial services that need to provide enhanced digital payments, or for healthcare organizations that need to share critical data across systems quickly. The need for connected infrastructures has become the norm.

Last month, my colleague Arzu Ozbek Akay shared some insights about the impact that Bitsight Groma, our next-generation scanner, is already having on our products. Today, I’m going to follow that up with an update on the momentum we’re seeing with the second core component of our data engine: Bitsight Graph of Internet Assets (GIA). As a quick refresher, GIA uses advanced graph technology and AI models to map assets to specific organizations and build Ratings Trees at a global scale.

Due to the increased network attacks, hacks, and breaches, the demand for secure services, protocols, and employees in cyber security is higher than ever for businesses, healthcare, education, and any other institute dealing with personal information. This demand is reflected in businesses' advertisements for cybersecurity professionals, and the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts a 32% increase in cybersecurity jobs from 2022 to 2032.

This blog is part of the ongoing “I&O Perspectives” series, which features insights from industry experts about the impact of current threats, networking, and other cybersecurity trends. As I embark on a new role with the Netskope Platform Engineering team, I am eager to explore how our company’s vision shapes the evolution of enterprise networking security.