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Clearbanc and Pencil partner to help ecommerce businesses grow using creative AI

Stockwood Strategy

Creative AI company Pencil has partnered with the world’s largest e-commerce investor Clearbanc to provide their customers with the latest innovation in online video advertising, Machine Generated Creative (MGC). These ads can be created in minutes and consistently double return on ad spend for brands. It is anticipated that companies using the Pencil platform will be able to unlock new audiences on Facebook and Instagram and grow revenue faster. MGC online video ads are generated by artificial intelligence (AI), while learning what resonates with audiences, in order to systematically deliver better results for brands. Using historic ad performance data, Pencil is able to understand what in the ad is resonating with customers. It can then generate new batches of ad ideas which are new and distinct, but which share winning characteristics with past winners. In this way Pencil learns what works while continuously exploring new ideas that could resonate with audiences. Pencil analysed over 100 campaigns that used MGC video ads and found the best MGC ads delivered an average return on ad spend (ROAS) 2x that of other ads the brands were running. One brand’s MGC campaign delivered 7x higher ROAS. Will Hanschell, CEO and co-founder of Pencil commented: “This partnership with Clearbanc underlines the success we’ve had with our Machine Generated Creative ads for brands around the world. These ads are helping ecommerce brands and agencies grow, and I am confident we can help them scale further.” This partnership announcement comes hot o n the heels of Pencil joining as a creative partner in Facebook Marketing Partners, a program that connects businesses to an ecosystem of specialists. More than 200 million businesses worldwide use Facebook’s apps to connect with customers and grow, and over 10 million of them run advertising campaigns each month. Pencil customer James Harding, Head of Growth at Lyka Pet Food commented: "Pencil gives us the ability to generate ads quickly and more importantly, come up with ideas we might not have otherwise. It's been a massive win for us essentially." Pencil leverages proprietary technology to generate ad video, derive insights and make predictions, as well as integrating the OpenAI API to generate ad copy. The OpenAI API provides access to GPT-3, one of the world’s most powerful language models. Pencil is among the first companies approved to use it commercially. This approval requires strict criteria in AI safety and ethics. Daniel Rodic, Head of Market Development commented: “Clearbanc was created to help Founders grow their businesses by using our non-dilutive capital to invest in predictable and repeatable expenses like marketing spend. Pencil’s technology offers a simple solution for brands in our portfolio to improve their return on ad spend and ultimately maximize the effectiveness of the capital they deploy.” Clearbanc has deployed over US$1.6b to more than 4,000 ecommerce and SaaS businesses. EndS Notes to the editor About Pencil Pencil is a Creative AI company on a mission to generate unexpected ideas that get results. Pencil generates ads that learn to perform, delivering the return on ad spend that helps brands scale their businesses. Pencil invented Machine Generated Creative (MGC), a new way of making ads that algorithmically optimises for creative novelty, brand relevance and return on advertising spend. It always starts from a human brief and it always involves total human editorial control. Pencil’s MGC platform generates ads in minutes and has been shown to generate ads that double returns for brands. Pencil was founded in 2018 with a team from Google, Facebook and Uber and is backed by Sequoia Capital India, Wavemaker Partners, Singapore Innovate and Entrepreneur First. About Clearbanc Founded in 2015 by Michele Romanow (Canada’s Shark Tank), Andrew D’Souza, Ivan Gritsiniak, Charlie Feng, and Tanay Delima, Clearbanc is changing the way companies raise money by providing fast, affordable capital to online brands and B2B SaaS companies. Clearbanc’s data-driven algorithm has invested in 4,000+ companies across 50 states and backed 8x more female-founders than traditional VC. Clearbanc customers span small businesses across the United States, Canada, and the UK to some of the fastest-growing consumer brands today, like Le Tote, Leesa Sleep, Farmgirl Flowers, and Public Goods. For more information visit Clearbanc.com Contact Details Bilal Mahmood +44 7714 007257 press@trypencil.com Company Website https://www.trypencil.com/

March 17, 2021 12:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time

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Industrial Defender and aeCyberSolutions Join Forces to Elevate OT Cybersecurity Assessments for Energy and Maritime Companies

Industrial Defender

Industrial Defender, an operational technology (OT) security pioneer and aeCyberSolutions, a recognized leader in industrial control system (ICS) cybersecurity services, announced today that they will team up to offer complete cyber risk assessments for critical infrastructure organizations. Combining OT network and device analysis from Industrial Defender’s Automation Systems Manager ® with aeCyberSolutions’ aeCyberPHA ® ICS risk assessment methodology delivers the most technically comprehensive, risk-based OT cybersecurity assessment available for energy, maritime and other critical industries. “The winning combination of aeCyberSolutions’ impressive engineering expertise and our powerful OT network and device data platform will equip stakeholders in the energy and maritime industries with the most thorough evaluations available to understand how to best secure their control and safety systems,” said Jim Crowley, CEO of Industrial Defender. The partnership agreement provides aeSolutions with a license to use Industrial Defender’s powerful tools to aid aeSolutions experts in the analysis of control system data to discover ICS assets and vulnerabilities. The use of this technology improves efficiency as well as the quality of the information available to the risk assessment team and the client. “An accurate OT cybersecurity risk assessment requires a proven methodology, knowledgeable subject matter experts and accurate information about the system(s) under consideration”, says John Cusimano, VP Industrial Cybersecurity of aeCyberSolutions. “Incorporating Industrial Defender’s tools with our methodologies and experience will provide clients with the most realistic and defendable representation of OT cyber risk available”. To learn more about the partnership, contact aeCyberSolutions at www.aeCyberSolutions.com or Industrial Defender at www.industrialdefender.com. About Industrial Defender Since 2006, Industrial Defender has been solving the challenge of safely collecting, monitoring, and managing OT asset data at scale, while providing cross-functional teams with a unified view of security. Their specialized solution is tailored to complex industrial control system environments by engineers with decades of hands-on OT experience. Easy integrations into the broader security and enterprise ecosystem empower IT teams with the same visibility, access, and situational awareness that they’re accustomed to on corporate networks. Learn more at www.industrialdefender.com. About aeCyberSolutions™ aeCyberSolutions, the Industrial Cybersecurity division of aeSolutions, exclusively provides industrial cybersecurity services including risk assessments, program development, implementation, support, and training to clients in oil and gas, chemicals, maritime, water, industrial gases, and other process industries. A leader in the intersection of cybersecurity and process safety, aeCyberSolutions helps clients identify and address cybersecurity risks in a manner that is consistent with the engineering methods already in place for process safety risk management.  They do so by leveraging existing information and practices while presenting a single, consistent expression of risk to senior management. The aeCyberSolutions team is exclusively staffed with personnel who have strong industrial automation backgrounds and general IT and IT security backgrounds and credentials.  This combination of IT and Operational Technology (OT) expertise is essential for working in the field of industrial cybersecurity. aeCyberSolutions is based in Greenville, SC. For more information, visit www.aeCyberSolutions.com or follow @aesolns. Contact Details Industrial Defender Erin Anderson +1 617-675-4206 eanderson@industrialdefender.com For aeCyberSolutions Kari Walker (617)-675-4206 Kari@redironpr.com Company Website https://www.industrialdefender.com

March 17, 2021 09:08 AM Eastern Daylight Time

CMMC Center of Excellence Announces Engagement Agreement with DRAGOS

Interoperability Clearinghouse

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Center of Excellence ( CMMC COE ), hosted by the Information Technology Acquisition Advisory Council (IT-AAC), a public-private partnership serving the public and private sectors for more than 15 years is excited to announce a partnership with Dragos, Inc., the global leader in cybersecurity for industrial controls systems (ICS)/operational technology (OT) environments. This unique partnership will extend efforts to identify and include proven capabilities within the CMMC COE Marketplace to improve cybersecurity protection and resilience for the global defense industrial base network of contractors, vendors, and suppliers. Far too often, the cybersecurity protection and resilience discussion fails to include any true focus on industrial control systems or operational technology. Dragos has a deep bench of expert ICS/OT cybersecurity practitioners committed to helping its customers detect, prevent, investigate and respond to attacks from threat actors. “This is exciting opportunity for us”, said Mr. John Weiler, Chairman of the Board at CMMC Center of Excellence, “This new partnership will further help advance the goals and objectives for improving the supply chain security and resilience of the US Department of Defense (DoD)”. “Dragos believes the adoption of the CMMC model for ICS / OT cybersecurity is a critical step in our mission to safeguard civilization,” said Steve Applegate, Chief Information Security Officer, Dragos, Inc. “We are excited to join the CMMC COE Global Cyber Policy & Governance Working Group and lend our expertise to this vital initiative.” The executed Engagement Agreement establishes a collaborative engagement between Dragos and the CMMC COE to partner in the furthering of their respective and complementary missions and objectives regarding the adoption, use, and expansion of CMMC-based cybersecurity practices, risk management, and compliance for the DIB contractor, vendor, and supplier community of providers creating a broader CMMC ecosystem globally to improve security and resilience. Specific actions will include: Co-sponsor symposiums, training programs and podcasts leveraging their combined cyber and IT expertise. Host regular working groups, with other partners, to enable collaboration and communications. Work across industry, government, and academia to build on CMMC requirements to include and focus on attention to security and resilience of industrial control systems and operational technology. The CMMC-COE and Dragos partnership will focus on bringing together the many disparate cyber and national security communities of interest to reduce complexity, improve awareness, and accelerate industry effort to become more cyber resilient against the growing threats from nation states and criminal enterprises. The CMMC-COE establishes both a Market Place and Knowledge Clearinghouse that will include resources that support the overall effort, including white papers; tutorials; recorded webcasts; presentations; and more that will help reduce the cost and burden on small and medium size contractors already struggling from the impact of COVID. For more information on the CMMC COE, please visit http://cmmc-coe.org email info@cmmc-coe.org or call 703-863-3766 About Dragos, Inc Dragos has a global mission: to safeguard civilization from those trying to disrupt the industrial infrastructure we depend on every day. The practitioners who founded Dragos were drawn to this mission through decades of government and private sector experience. Dragos codifies the knowledge of our cybersecurity experts into an integrated software platform that provides customers critical visibility into ICS and OT networks so that threats are identified and can be addressed before they become significant events. Our solutions protect organizations across a range of industries, including electric and water utilities, energy, and manufacturing, and are optimized for emerging applications like the Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT). Dragos is privately held and headquartered in the Washington, DC area with regional presence around the world, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and the Middle East. For more information on Dragos, please visit https://www.dragos.com/ About Us ---------- CMMC-COE.ORG is a unique non-profit public-private partnership, with a vision to accelerate Cybersecurity Maturity Model (CMM) adoption, and reduce time & cost for security compliance for our partners by leveraging commercial best practices, CMMC standards, and innovative solutions for a measurable success. Our mission, focused on DOD mission objectives, cost containment and expeditious CMMC compliance, is to help the DIB improve cyber posture and resilience, and simplify its acquisition. The CMMC-COE is hosted by the Information Technology Acquisition Advisory Council (IT-AAC), a public/private partnership (P3) chartered in 2007 as an honest broker to reach outside the confines of the Federal IT advisories that lack dynamic reach into the Global IT Market, and dedicated to the adoption of commercial IT management standards of practice and innovations emanating from the Global IT market. Team IT-AAC has already demonstrated the value of its decade long investment, and provides a unique value to agencies seeking to achieve accelerate the transformation of legacy processes and systems. Our Just-in-Time SMEs apply an innovative suite of Technology Business Management and Agile Acquisition Processes needed to assure the business value of commercial IT. The Interoperability Clearinghouse (ICH), is the managing partner that make up the 24 NGO/SDO organizations that make up the IT-AAC. ICH provides the contract vehicles, clearances, and critical resources proven to guide sustainable, measurable and repeatable processes needed to drive better investment decisions as the speed of mission need, while aligning existing processes, methods and workforce with IT reform mandates contained in Clinger Cohen Act, FITARA, IT MGT Act, EO13838. Contact Details Bob Dix +1 703-975-6633 bob.dix@it-aac.org Company Website https://cmmc-coe.org

March 15, 2021 08:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Cyvatar Brings Home the Gold in the 2021 Cybersecurity Excellence Awards

Cyvatar

Cyvatar today has been recognized as the gold award winner of the Cybersecurity Excellence Awards for best cybersecurity-as-a-service (CSaaS). Such prestigious recognition is a testament to the company’s unparalleled innovation as the de facto operating system for all of its members’ security programs. Cyvatar’s all-in-one platform delivers the industry’s first-of-its-kind cybersecurity-as-a-service (CSaaS) offering. Cyvatar offers the perfect blend of technology, people, and processes so that organizations actually achieve better protection and resilience from their investments, rather than throwing more and more tools at their security problems, hoping one of them will work. “We are proud to be recognized for our revolutionary work in bringing the membership economy to cybersecurity,” said Cyvatar Founder and Chief Executive Corey White. “Today’s organizations have an average of 108 cybersecurity solutions and when breaches happen they buy even more. But buying the best lock available doesn’t make a home truly safe, and the same is true for security. Technology alone can’t deliver the results organizations need, but the right mix of technology, human capital, and proven processes can, and that’s what our CSaaS offering brings to the table.” Cyvatar’s exclusive ICARM approach adds expert advisers and successful processes to best-of-breed security tools for superior compliance and cyber-attack protection. This proprietary five-step method guarantees proper installation, configuration, assessment, remediation, and maintenance for every Cyvatar technology solution so that organizations actually achieve better protection and resilience from their investments. And because Cyvatar’s method is continuous, it protects against attack vectors that haven’t even surfaced yet. "Congratulations to Cyvatar for being recognized as the gold award winner in the highly competitive 2021 Cybersecurity Excellence Awards," said Holger Schulze, CEO of Cybersecurity Insiders and founder of the 400,000-member Information Security Community on LinkedIn that jointly produce the awards program. "With over 500 entries in more than 90 award categories, the 2021 awards reflect the very best in today's cybersecurity industry." Cyvatar was selected from organizations around the world that vied for top honors. Its disruptive, game-changing platform delivers fast, affordable, fully managed security programs for any size business; processes designed to provide outcomes, continuous remediation, and ongoing solution maintenance; and the ability for all of its members to execute their security strategies at speed and scale. Let us revolutionize your cybersecurity. Become a free member today and get a monthly vulnerability scan for your business at cyvatar.ai! About Cyvatar Cyvatar is committed to cybersecurity for everyone. As the industry’s first subscription-based, cybersecurity-as-a-service (CSaaS) company, it’s our mission to transform the way the security industry builds, sells, and supports cyber solutions. We empower our members to achieve successful outcomes by providing expert advisors, proven technologies, and a strategic process roadmap to guarantee results that map to their business drivers. Our approach is rooted in proprietary ICARM (installation, configuration, assessment, remediation, maintenance) methodology that delivers smarter, measurable security solutions for superior compliance and cyber-attack protection faster and more efficiently, all at a fixed monthly price. And because we’re a subscription, members can cancel anytime. Cyvatar is headquartered in Irvine, California with locations around the world. Begin your journey to security confidence at https://cyvatar.ai/ and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. Contact Details Cyvatar KC Higgins +1 303-434-8163 kc@cyvatar.ai Company Website https://cyvatar.ai/

March 11, 2021 11:45 AM Eastern Standard Time

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Rand McNally Selects Industrial Defender to Secure Its Industrial Internet of Things

Industrial Defender

Industrial Defender, a pioneer in operational technology (OT) security, today announced that Rand McNally has chosen their Automation Systems Manager® (ASM) platform as their IIoT cybersecurity solution. Rand McNally will layer the ASM into their enterprise security ecosystem, creating a Defense-in-Depth strategy to better protect their cyber-physical systems from threats. The ASM platform will provide the in-depth asset data the company needs to strengthen its overall corporate risk management strategy and also help the security team reduce the mean time to respond (MTTR) to a potential intrusion within their OT systems. “Industrial Defender’s third layer of protection on Rand McNally’s corporate network helps ensure that we are effective in battling the growing threats of hacking and unwanted intrusions,” said Joseph Roark, Chairman of Rand McNally. “With the recent uptick in cyber threat activity, manufacturing companies should be prioritizing cybersecurity, and Rand McNally is leading the pack,” said Jim Crowley, CEO at Industrial Defender, “We’re honored to partner with them to secure their Industrial Internet of Things.” Rand McNally selected Industrial Defender because of its comprehensive asset management and threat detection capabilities, flexible service packages, proven pedigree in the OT security space, and commitment to supply chain security for their customers. Industrial Defender develops 100% of its software in the United States and enforces stringent cybersecurity standards for its development team. To learn more about how Industrial Defender safely collects, monitors, and manages OT security data at scale, visit https://www.industrialdefender.com/. About Industrial Defender Since 2006, Industrial Defender has been solving the challenge of safely collecting, monitoring, and managing OT asset data at scale, while providing cross-functional teams with a unified view of security. Their specialized solution is tailored to complex industrial control system environments by engineers with decades of hands-on OT experience. Easy integrations into the broader security and enterprise ecosystem empower IT teams with the same visibility, access, and situational awareness that they’re accustomed to on corporate networks. Learn more at www.industrialdefender.com. About Rand McNally Chicago-based Rand McNally has been transforming travel and transportation for 165 years. Today, Rand McNally provides innovative fleet management and commercial transportation solutions, connected vehicle technology, and consumer travel and education products. Learn more at randmcnally.com and fleet.randmcnally.com Contact Details Industrial Defender Erin Anderson +1 617-675-4206 eanderson@industrialdefender.com Company Website https://www.industrialdefender.com

March 10, 2021 09:18 AM Eastern Standard Time

SFAA Strongly Supports Bill Providing Essential Protections on All Federally Financed Projects Receiving TIFIA Funds

The Surety & Fidelity Association of America

The Surety & Fidelity Association of America (SFAA) commends Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD), Congressman Stephen Lynch (D-MA) and Congressman Troy Balderson (R-OH) for the introduction of the “Promoting Infrastructure by Protecting Our Subcontractors and Taxpayers Act.” This legislation provides essential protections for workers, suppliers and contractors by requiring payment protection on federally financed infrastructure projects receiving Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loans, including public-private projects (P3s). “Bonding TIFIA-financed P3 projects will protect taxpayers’ dollars, ensure project completion, protect local small business contractors and workers, and promote economic growth,” said Lee Covington, president and CEO of the Surety and Fidelity Association of America. “TIFIA should be modernized to include the same payment and performance requirements that protect all other federally funded infrastructure projects.” P3 projects have increased in popularity over the years, however the lack of clarity for requiring payment and performance protections on P3 projects can force taxpayers to absorb additional costs of rebidding a project, and subcontractors and workers are often left unpaid for extended periods of time if the contractor defaults. By ensuring a bond requirement, P3 projects will offer the same payment and performance protections that have been in place on public infrastructure projects, protecting our nation’s construction industry and taxpayers alike. “Construction is a risky business, and for over 100 years, the federal and state Miller Acts have protected against the risk of loss by requiring payment and performance bonds,” continued Covington. “SFAA looks forward to working with Congress, on a bipartisan basis, for the passage of this essential bill.” A list of co-sponsors organizations and additional information can be found here. ### The Surety & Fidelity Association of America (SFAA) is a trade association of more than 425 insurance companies that write 98 percent of surety and fidelity bonds in the U.S. SFAA is licensed as a rating or advisory organization in all states and it has been designated by state insurance departments as a statistical agent for the reporting of fidelity and surety experience. www.surety.org Contact Details SFAA Peter Roth +1 703-401-0676 proth@surety.org Company Website https://www.surety.org/

March 10, 2021 08:45 AM Eastern Standard Time

Fintech MarketFinance reaches profitability as it returns a record start to the year

Stockwood Strategy

Fintech business lender MarketFinance has kicked off 2021 with a significant increase in lending volumes. Year to date, MarketFinance has deployed over £64m in business loans and invoice finance to businesses across the UK. This is up 50% from the same period last year. As a CBILS accredited lender by the British Business Bank, MarketFinance has been at the forefront of supporting SME businesses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Profit landmark MarketFinance has played a pivotal role in supporting SMEs. It has provided over £2bn to the most underserved businesses, giving them access to the working capital they need. MarketFinance announced that it turned profitable in February 2021 and will continue to grow at pace as the business scales products and operations. Anil Stocker, CEO at MarketFinance said: “The pandemic has sped up digital adoption across large parts of our society. Business lending is no different. We are seeing a continuing need to provide fast, easy-to-access, digitally available funding solutions to SMEs across all sectors within the UK. Fintech lenders such as MarketFinance are well placed to help power the post-Covid economic recovery across the country.” Partnerships In reaching a wide range of businesses, MarketFinance has deepened its 2018 partnership with Barclays Bank helping more of their business banking customers with invoice finance funding. In September 2020 MarketFinance also partnered with fellow fintech Ebury to ensure SMEs across the UK were able to quickly access the emergency lending, offering loans and revolving credit facilities to Ebury’s UK SME base. Aligning with their £10m BCR commitments, MarketFinance is continuing to partner with high-street banks and business platforms to enable more businesses to access the right financial solutions for them. Anil Stocker added: “A key part of our strategy is partnering with organisations who want to improve access to finance for their business customers. Our mission has always been to give SMEs a fair playing field for them to get access to working capital. We’re now working with partners to embed our finance technology within their platforms, allowing their customers quicker and easier access to the working capital they need.” ENDS Notes to the Editor About MarketFinance MarketFinance is a busi ness finance company with offices in London and Manchester. The online platform enables businesses to access a range of flexible finance solutions - quickly and easily. This smart technology is backed by help from real people so business owners can save time and focus on growing their business. Since 2011, MarketFinance has cumulatively advanced over £3 billion to companies across a range of sizes and sectors, providing working capital and finance for everything from paying staff and suppliers to launching new products or services and accelerating growth. MarketFinance is backed by Barclays, Mouro Capital, European venture capital fund Northzone (invested in Klarna, iZettle and Trustpilot), and private equity group MCI Capital (also invested in iZettle, Azimo and Gett). Contact Details MarketFinance Bilal Mahmood +44 7714 007257 b.mahmood@marketfinance.com Company Website https://marketfinance.com/

March 10, 2021 05:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

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Agora Data’s Steve Burke Joins The Independent Dealer Podcast Showcasing Innovation in Auto Finance

Agora

Steve Burke, CEO of Agora Data, Inc., joined The Independent Dealer Podcast to talk about his firm’s recent industry-first crowdsourced securitization and the immense positive impact that future Agora crowdsourced securitizations will have on the auto industry and its consumers. During a recent episode, Burke joined the podcast’s hosts Jeff Watson of 4 Seasons Auto Sales and Luke Godwin of Godwin Motors for a 48-minute conversation on how Agora Data is changing the world of auto financing for Buy Here Pay Here auto dealers and smaller finance companies. Burke’s appearance on the show comes on the heels of Agora Data’s developing and executing the auto industry’s first-ever subprime crowdsourced securitization on December 29, 2020. This groundbreaking development in the world of structured finance provides Buy Here Pay Here auto dealers and small to mid-sized finance companies access to affordable capital markets funding. “There is a reason all the big dealers and banks are all in the capital markets,” Burke told Watson and Godwin on the podcast. “Enabling Joe’s Auto Sales with a $3 million portfolio to access the capital markets and be recognized adds an unbelievable number of intangibles and financial value to their dealership including significant growth. Now, the same exact capital that the big box dealers and finance companies have access to is available for Joe’s Auto Sales. AgoraCapital is bringing Wall Street to Main Street.” Prior to Agora, direct access to the capital markets with its more favorable financing terms was limited to only the largest institutional lenders and auto dealers. With Agora’s crowdsourced securitization program, subprime originators of all sizes now have a unique and viable financing option to obtain lower-cost capital with massively favorable terms thereby providing liquidity and fueling growth. In addition, Agora Data also recently announced its latest product offering – AgoraCredit. AgoraCredit was designed to transition originators from their current senior lender into interim credit lines that work in harmony with the AgoraCapital securitization program. AgoraCredit was created with the specific goal of not locking originators into expensive and risky lines of credit, but instead initiating the freedom of providing a smooth glidepath into the world of crowdsourced securitizations. Burke said, “The Independent Dealer Podcast by Jeff Watson and Luke Godwin is a source for independent used car dealers who want to get educated on how to improve their business and their life, and I applaud them for what they do for the dealer community.” Watson and Godwin talk to industry experts and dealers that are doing it right. Podcast #159 – Connecting Your Dealership To Wallstreet Money with Steve Burke is available on Apple, Spotify and where podcasts are found. About Agora Data, Inc Agora is re-inventing auto finance for Buy Here Pay Here dealers and finance companies with a crowdsourcing platform that bridges access to the capital market. Easy to use and analytically robust business tools empower the untapped and diverse portfolios of the BHPH auto market connecting dealers, sub-prime buyers, and capital market lenders with results-driven resources to enhance financial growth. Founded in 2017 by a best-in-class team of top professionals in auto finance and leading data scientists, the company has successfully combined billions in historical loan performance data to develop its AI-Infused predictive loan technology and machine learning models. www.agoradata.com. For more information, please contact Agora at (877) 592-4672 or contactus@agoradata.com. Contact Details Agora Data, Inc. Shelly Vandeven +1 682-282-4130 media@agoradata.com Company Website https://agoradata.com/

March 08, 2021 10:03 AM Eastern Standard Time

CMMC Center of Excellence Announces Engagement Agreement with HKA Technology Solutions

Interoperability Clearinghouse

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Center of Excellence ( CMMC COE ), hosted by the Information Technology Acquisition Advisory Council (IT-AAC), a public-private partnership serving the public and private sectors for more than 15 years, is excited to announce a partnership with HKA Technology Solutions, an IT Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) consulting company providing a wealth of GRC solutions for clients from the U.S. Government to the private sector. This unique partnership will extend efforts to identify and include proven capabilities within the CMMC COE Marketplace to improve cybersecurity protection and resilience for the global defense industrial base network of contractors, vendors, and suppliers. By facilitating results that customers want to reduce costs and risks, HKA provides the CMMC subject matter expertise that creates business value co-creation to help the DIB contractor think critically about establishing, documenting, and testing their CMMC administrative, technical, and physical controls to support the nation’s warfighters. Furthermore, HKA uses a unique Service Value System (SVS) to ensure that within the CMMC Practices and Processes Lifecycle, DIB CMMC practices and processes continuously co-create value with all stakeholders. The executed Engagement Agreement establishes a collaborative engagement between HKA Technology Solutions and the CMMC COE to partner in the furthering of their respective and complementary missions and objectives regarding the adoption, use, and expansion of CMMC based cybersecurity practices, risk management, and compliance for the DIB contractor, vendor, and supplier community of providers creating a broader CMMC ecosystem globally to improve security and resilience. Specific actions will include: The co-development of CMMC advisory services, cyber training and education programs to accelerate CMMC certification, increase cyber adoption and improve cyber protection & resilience. Co-sponsor symposiums, training programs and podcasts leveraging their combined cyber and IT expertise. Host regular working groups, with other partners, to enable collaboration and communications. Establish an independent Industry Cyber Security Advisory Council with peer organizations to advise and educate leaders across government and industry on the continued evolution and effectiveness of CMMC. The CMMC-COE ( http://cmmc-coe.org ) and HKA Technology Solutions partnership will focus on bringing together the many disparate cyber and national security communities of interest to reduce complexity, improve awareness, and accelerate industry effort to become more cyber resilient against the growing threats from nation states and criminal enterprises. “This is exciting opportunity for us”, said Mr. John Weiler, Chairman of the Board at CMMC Center of Excellence, “This new partnership will further help advance the goals and objectives for improving the supply chain security and resilience of the US Department of Defense (DoD)”. "Through the partnership with the CMMC-COE, HKA Technology Solutions scopes, tailors, and publishes CMMC policies, procedures, and standards to safeguard data Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability for our Defense Industrial Base members who support our nation's warfighters." said Mr. Glenn Axelrod, President & CEO. The CMMC-COE establishes both a Market Place and Knowledge Clearinghouse that will include resources that support the overall effort, including white papers; tutorials; recorded webcasts; presentations; and more that will help reduce the cost and burden on small and medium size contractors already struggling from the impact of COVID. For more information on the CMMC COE, please visit http://cmmc-coe.org, email info@cmmc-coe.org or call 703-863-3766 For more information on HKA Technology Solutions, please visit https://www.hkatechnolgysolutions.com/ About Us ---------- CMMC-COE.ORG is a unique non-profit public-private partnership, with a vision to accelerate Cybersecurity Maturity Model (CMM) adoption, and reduce time & cost for security compliance for our partners by leveraging commercial best practices, CMMC standards, and innovative solutions for a measurable success. Our mission, focused on DOD mission objectives, cost containment and expeditious CMMC compliance, is to help the DIB improve cyber posture and resilience, and simplify its acquisition. The CMMC-COE is hosted by the Information Technology Acquisition Advisory Council (IT-AAC), a public/private partnership (P3) chartered in 2007 as an honest broker to reach outside the confines of the Federal IT advisories that lack dynamic reach into the Global IT Market, and dedicated to the adoption of commercial IT management standards of practice and innovations emanating from the Global IT market. Team IT-AAC has already demonstrated the value of its decade long investment, and provides a unique value to agencies seeking to achieve accelerate the transformation of legacy processes and systems. Our Just-in-Time SMEs apply an innovative suite of Technology Business Management and Agile Acquisition Processes needed to assure the business value of commercial IT. The Interoperability Clearinghouse (ICH), is the managing partner that make up the 24 NGO/SDO organizations that make up the IT-AAC. ICH provides the contract vehicles, clearances, and critical resources proven to guide sustainable, measurable and repeatable processes needed to drive better investment decisions as the speed of mission need, while aligning existing processes, methods and workforce with IT reform mandates contained in Clinger Cohen Act, FITARA, IT MGT Act, EO13838. Contact Details Bob Dix +1 703-975-6633 bob.dix@it-aac.org Company Website https://cmmc-coe.org

March 08, 2021 08:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

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