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Differentiating between legitimate and malicious AI agents can be a full-time job and traditional security measures don't work. Arkose Labs CEO lays out a plan. And after CISA's interim chief drew unwanted attention after feeding sensitive government documents into a public version of ChatGPT questions have arisen over human decision-making at the agency.
Q&A: Arkose Labs CEO Lays Out Steps for Managing AI Agents
Organizations already struggle to differentiate between legitimate and malicious AI agents, and the situation is only going to get worse as non-human identities (NHIs) proliferate. Yet, despite the growing danger, only a small fraction of executives actually have a strategy for managing NHIs. Arkose Labs CEO Kevin Gosschalk explains why traditional security measures don’t work against malicious AI agents and the steps organizations should take immediately to protect against those agents while still preserving the benefits for legitimate AI agents.
UK Court Clears the Way for Caps on Cross-border Card Fees
The High Court in London recently ruled that the UK’s Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has the legal authority to impose cross-border interchange fees—rejecting a challenge backed by Visa, MasterCard, and Revolut. The three companies sought a judicial review after the regulator said it was considering capping fees for card transactions between the EEA and the UK. Both Visa and MasterCard previously increased their interchange fees for online transactions in 2021 and 2022, where debit card fees rose from 0.2% to 1.15% and credit card fees from 0.3% to 1.5%. The PSR is now determining the level and timing for the fee caps, which are estimated to have cost British businesses and consumers an additional £150 to £200 million in transaction fees since Brexit. While the ruling will come as good news to businesses and consumers, its implications are relevant in the global sphere as well—particularly for the fintech sector, where transaction fees and interchange-linked economics are central to many business models.
The ChatGPT Incident That Put Trump’s Cyber Chief Under Scrutiny
In what has become a disturbingly common error among AI users, the acting head of America’s cyber defense agency last summer uploaded sensitive government documents into a public version of ChatGPT. Madhu Gottumukkala, interim director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), uploaded contracting documents marked “For Official Use Only” into ChatGPT last summer. At the time, ChatGPT was blocked for most DHS employees. Gottumukkala requested and received a special exception shortly after arriving at CISA. Uploading sensitive operational material to them creates a data-exposure risk that agencies have spent years warning about. And CISA’s internal sensors quickly detected the uploads. Alerts fired within days. Senior officials across DHS, including legal and information security leadership, reviewed the scope and potential impact of the exposure. From a technical standpoint, the system functioned as intended. Detection worked. Escalation worked. The failure occurred at the point of human decision-making.
German Green Fintech Cloover Secures $1.22 Billion in Home Clean Energy Bid
When Berlin-based green fintech startup Cloover announced it had secured €1.04 billion ($1.22 billion) in funding in one of the largest financing packages for a European climate fintech to date, the news signals a rebound of investor interest in green finance following more than a year of waning investor interest. Cloover, founded in 2022, describes itself as an “AI operating system for the energy sector” by targeting the ongoing bottleneck in the bloc’s push for residential clean energy solutions—the fragmented and underfinanced network of local installers. The company’s platform has also been described as “Shopify for Energy,” because it brings together everything that small renewable energy installers need, such as financing, workflow management, procurement, and energy optimization tools.
Dutch Neobank Files for a US De Novo Banking License
Europe’s second largest neobank bunq has formally filed for a US de novo banking license with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The Dutch-based firm had previously applied for a banking license with the FDIC in April 2023, but later withdrew its initial application due to a misalignment in supervisory expectations between US and Dutch regulators in early 2024. Bunq says that its U.S. offering, like its EU one, will focus on "digital nomads and global citizens with ties to both Europe and the U.S." Should the OCC approve its application, bunq plans to launch first in areas with large expat communities to allow expats to open and manage both US and EU accounts in one app.
