Cyble, the Y Combinator-backed leader in AI-powered global cyber threat intelligence, is proud to announce that it is now a credible source in the list of key contributors to VirusTotal's risk analysis. Being a part of VT's list of website/domain scanning engine contributors will allow Cyble to extend its threat research even beyond its client base and serve the entire cybersecurity fraternity at large.

Owned by Chronicle - a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. (Google), VirusTotal offers threat research insights and reputation data to foster the analysis of suspicious files, risky URLs, malicious domains, and IP addresses for the effective detection of potential cybersecurity threats. VirusTotal reports comprise crowdsourced details consolidated through the intelligence from multiple global security services.

This strategic integration with VirusTotal will help extend Cyble's SaaS-based enterprise solution – Cyble Vision – to the overall cybersecurity community. It will empower security researchers worldwide to access Cyble's unique threat indicators that it observes as part of its routine threat monitoring exercise. As a result of this partnership, Cyble's actionable threat intelligence, gathered from 200B+ darkweb records and 400M+ digital assets, will now be synchronized with VirusTotal's database, in turn allowing organizations to enrich their Threat Intelligence and Digital Risk Protection framework.

According to Dhanalakshmi Pk, Senior Director Malware and Intelligence Research at Cyble, "VirusTotal is one of the largest and most reputed repositories of malware scanning, trusted by millions of security analysts and researchers for data enrichment. Being integrated with VirusTotal is another milestone in Cyble's journey towards securing individuals, enterprises, governments, and Law enforcement agencies across the world. It will help the global infosec community to leverage Cyble's exclusive real-time threat intelligence repositories for protecting their digital assets from targeted cyberattacks. Additionally, Cyble's rich data set will enable users of VirusTotal to carry out the proactive identification and mitigation of a plethora of digital risks associated with critical severity vulnerabilities, supply chain compromise, Ransomware and APT attacks, and Phishing attacks, among others."

With a vision to democratize digital risk protection through a combination of automation, human analytics, and innovation, Cyble aims to continue to secure its clients and the global cybersecurity community at large with timely and actionable threat intel to pre-empt and avert potential future attacks. With proprietary threat hunting models based on a combination of big data, ML+AI, and state-of-the-art threat research, Cyble alerts its users with sufficient context to understand cyber risks and prioritize them through real-time alerts and meaningful threat intelligence.

This news comes just a few days after the company's recent announcement of launching a dedicated Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) Program to empower industry-leading MSSPs with enhanced controls to provide, configure, and monitor all services provided by Cyble Vision as a software suite to its end customers. Besides offering a converged view of Threat Intelligence, Digital Risk Protection Services, and Darkweb and Cybercrime Monitoring capabilities, Cyble is deeply invested in expanding visibility into the darkweb and upgrading its research models and technology to keep pace with the growing sophistication of cyber threats.

Beenu Arora, CEO, and Co-founder of Cyble says, "We're incredibly excited to join hands with VirusTotal. This gives us an opportunity to serve the cybersecurity industry globally. As part of such an extensive global threat information platform, we will continue to scale our tool to cater to a wider audience. This partnership will help us direct our efforts towards expanding our threat intelligence capabilities in lockstep with the growing security needs of the industry. Furthermore, being integrated into VirusTotal's list of credible sources portrays our credibility as a trusted and reliable cybersecurity leader and cybercrime mitigation partner."

Cyble is a global threat intelligence SaaS provider that helps enterprises protect themselves from cybercrimes and exposure on the Surface web, Deepweb, and Darkweb. Its prime focus is to provide organizations with real-time visibility into their digital risk footprint. Backed by Blackbird Ventures, Xoogler, and Y Combinator as part of the 2021 winter cohort, Cyble has also been recognized by Forbes as one of the top 20 Best Cybersecurity Start-ups, along with several other industry recognitions. Headquartered in Georgia, United States, and with offices in Dubai, Australia, Singapore, and India, Cyble has a global presence.

2022 Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Science Honors Three Scientists for Developing COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines. After the 2014 and 2016 winners for the Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Sciences were crowned the Nobel Prize in 2018 and 2020 respectively, this category has continued to garner much attention worldwide. After much waiting, names of the latest winners were finally announced at ten (GMT+8) in the morning of June 19. This year's award went to three scientists who played a critical role in the development of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines: Katalin Kariko, Drew Weissman, and Pieter Cullis, "for the discovery of key vaccinology concepts and approaches, leading to the successful development of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine," according to the selection committee's citation.

Since November 2019 when the pandemic began, COVID-19 has been disrupting everyone's life for more than two years, posing a grave threat to human health and life, and causing severe damage to the global economy. The World Health Organization's statistics show that up to the moment, more than 530 million COVID infections and about 6.3 million deaths have been recorded around the world. Fortunately, it took Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna less than 12 months to successfully develop vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. As a result, millions of lives have been saved, to which the groundbreaking contributions made by these three laureates cannot be ignored. While Dr. Kariko and Dr. Weissman found a way to reduce the immunogenicity of mRNA, Dr. Cullis is credited with designing lipid nanoparticles for the delivery of mRNA vaccines.

There are two major challenges when it comes to delivering RNA into the human body. First, RNA triggers innate immune responses. Second, it is easily degradable, and hence difficult to reach the target cells or organs. The new platform developed by these three scientists is a nucleoside-modified mRNA-based vaccine that can evade the immune system, thus preventing the severe inflammation which occurs when in vitro-transcribed mRNA is recognized by immune cells. These mRNA molecules are encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles and delivered effectively into the cells. They then instruct the cell's machinery to produce harmless pieces of spike protein found on the surface of the coronavirus and initiate a series of adaptive immune responses such as triggering B cells to produce antibodies and training T cells to attack infected cells.

The breakthrough discoveries of the three laureates and the ingenious approaches they pioneered are key to the rapid and successful development of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. These techniques not only revolutionized vaccinology but also signaled a paradigm shift in protein therapy. They represent the advent of a new era of RNA-based therapies. Unlike traditional methods that take a long time and a lot of money to develop vaccines, these new mRNA techniques turn cells into factories where proteins that serve as antigens or therapeutic molecules can be produced. Mass-manufacturing vaccines at relatively low cost became possible. Moreover, they can be applied to tackle a variety of diseases, such as to the development of vaccines against other viruses, of tailored-made vaccines against cancer, of vaccines against HIV, or even of vaccines against allergic diseases.

About the Tang Prize. Since the advent of globalization, mankind has been able to enjoy the convenience brought forth by the advancement of human civilization and science. Yet a multitude of challenges, such as climate change, the emergence of new infectious diseases, wealth gap, and moral degradation, have surfaced along the way. Against this backdrop, Dr. Samuel Yin established the Tang Prize in December 2012. It consists of four award categories, namely Sustainable Development, Biopharmaceutical Science, Sinology, and Rule of Law. Every other year, four independent and professional selection committees, comprising many internationally renowned experts, scholars, and Nobel winners, choose as Tang Prize laureates people who have influenced and made substantive contributions to the world, regardless of ethnicity, nationality or gender. A cash prize of NT$50 million (approx. US$1.7 million) is allocated to each category, with NT$10 million (approx. US$ 0.35 million) of it being a research grant intended to encourage professionals in every field to examine mankind's most urgent needs in the 21st century, and become leading forces in the development of human society through their outstanding research outcomes and active civic engagement.

Nearly 1 million children in Malawi, Kenya, and Ghana have now gotten one or more doses of the globe's first malaria vaccine as part of a test program administered by WHO. In April 2019, the Malawian government started malaria vaccine pilots, demonstrating that the RTS, S/AS01 (RTS) vaccine is simple to administer and safe to use. It greatly reduces the risk of severe fatal malaria. This outcome paved the path for the historic WHO proposal to enhance the use of RTS in regions with relatively high malaria transmission in October 2021. According to WHO, if widely utilized, the vaccine might just save the lives of approximately 80,000 youngsters in Africa each year.

The Vaccine Alliance, known as Gavi, has given more than US$ 155 million to aid with the launch, procurement, and distribution of the malaria vaccine in Gavi-eligible Sub-Saharan African countries. RTS, a first-generation vaccine, may be complemented with other vaccines with equivalent or better efficiency in the future. The World Health Organization recognizes the progress in the early clinical trials of R21/Matrix-M and other malaria vaccine candidates. The conclusion of clinical trials for these vaccines will be essential in assessing their effectiveness and safety. WHO also commends BioNTech, the manufacturer of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, for announcing intentions to develop a malaria vaccine using mRNA technology.

A number of revolutionary control strategy tools and technologies have been submitted to WHO for approval. If they are beneficial in combating the sickness, WHO will introduce additional recommendations or amend existing ones to encourage their use. New insecticide-treated nets, spatial mosquito repellents, gene-drive approaches, and sugar baits to attract and kill Anopheles mosquitoes are among them. New drugs are also being developed. WHO commends the approval by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration of dispersible tablets of single-dose tafenoquine for the prevention of P. vivax malaria in kids. Similarly, Tafenoquine has been approved for use in adults by drug regulatory bodies in Brazil, Peru, and Thailand, as well as the US Food and Drug Administration. Tafenoquine, administered as a single dose, is expected to enhance patient adherence to medication. The current standard of care is a seven- to fourteen-day dose of antibiotics.

Apart from drug resistance, WHO has disclosed other pressing threats to malaria control, and these threats include the occurrence of insecticide-resistant mosquitos, an invasive malaria vector that thrives in both rural and urban areas, and the rise and spread of mutated P. falciparum parasites, which are compromising the effectiveness of rapid diagnostic tests. To minimize these concerns, tool and method innovation, as well as more strategic use of the resources that are now accessible, will be critical.

Global progress in lowering malaria incidence and death has slowed or stalled in recent years, according to the World Malaria Report 2021. This has particularly been seen in the disease's worst-affected nations. The report stresses the significance of continued innovation in new instrument research and development if the globe is to fulfil the WHO malaria strategy's 2030 targets. To achieve global malaria targets, adjustments in how currently available instruments are used would be required. The WHO and the RBM Partnership to End Malaria devised the "High burden to high impact" technique in 2018 to gather and analyze malaria data in order to better comprehend the disease's geographical spread. Rather than employing the same malaria management strategy across the board, they are looking into the possible benefits of individualized intervention packages directed by local data and disease context. These assessments will assist governments in achieving better, more efficient, and equitable use of available funds.

WHO is working with collaborators to increase supply by expanding RTS production capacity and encouraging the development of additional first-generation and next-generation malaria vaccines. WHO is overseeing the creation of a system for allocating the limited malaria supply, which will determine where the first doses of the vaccine will be deployed; the goal is to target areas with the greatest need and has a high malaria occurrence until supply equals demand.

The RTS trial program is made possible by astounding collaboration between in-country and international partners, including Kenyan, Ghanaian, and Malawian Ministries of Health; in-country assessment associates such as GSK, PATH, UNICEF, and others; and donors such as the Global Fund, Unitaid, and Gavi. GSK spent 30 years researching and developing the RTS malaria vaccine in partnership with PATH and with the aid of a network of African research institutes.

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) today announces the launch of Wanna Get Away Plus™, a new fare product that adds more flexibility, options, and rewards to the carrier's fare lineup. Customers can now book a Wanna Get Away Plus fare for all travel on Southwest.com and the Southwest Airlines app.

"As travelers increasingly return to the sky, we know that added flexibility and greater choice is more important to our Customers than ever before," said Jonathan Clarkson, Vice President of Marketing, Loyalty, & Products for Southwest Airlines. "With Wanna Get Away Plus, we're thrilled to offer a new low-fare product that enhances Southwest's fare lineup and provides more options for our Customers, while maintaining all of the benefits our Customers know and love about our existing fares, and even adding some new ones."

More Flexibility

In addition to the benefits offered on all Southwest fares, including two free checked bags1, no change fees2, and free TV/movies/messaging3, Wanna Get Away Plus offers transferable flight credit, a new benefit that enables Customers to transfer an eligible unused flight credit to another traveler for future use.4

Wanna Get Away Plus provides more flexibility through same-day confirmed change and same-day standby5, allowing Customers to make same-day changes to a flight with no price difference in the base fare. Additionally, Customers have more earning power than Wanna Get Away fares with 8X Rapid Rewards® points.

More Perks

Southwest is also enhancing benefits to its Anytime and Business Select® fares. These fares now have the same transferable flight credit benefit as Wanna Get Away Plus, and Anytime fares now gain EarlyBird Check-In6, Priority Lane7, and Express Lane8 benefits. Tier Members (A-List /A-List Preferred Customers) now receive same-day confirmed change in addition to same-day standby9.

And that's not all. Customers who previously purchased tickets for travel on or after May 17, 2022, experience the new benefits too. This means all Business Select and Anytime tickets automatically receive these perks, and Wanna Get Away® ticket holders can now upgrade to Wanna Get Away Plus10.

Southwest Airlines Co. operates one of the world's most admired and awarded airlines, offering its one-of-a-kind value and Hospitality at 121 airports across 11 countries. In its 50th Anniversary in 2021, Southwest took flight in 1971 to democratize the sky through friendly, reliable, and low-cost air travel and now carries more air travelers flying nonstop within the United States than any other airline1. Based in Dallas and famous for an Employee-first corporate Culture, Southwest maintains an unprecedented record of no involuntary furloughs or layoffs in its history. By empowering its nearly 59,000 2 People to deliver unparalleled Hospitality, the maverick airline cherishes a passionate loyalty among as many as 130 million Customers carried a year. That formula for success brought industry-leading prosperity and 47 consecutive years3 of profitability for Southwest Shareholders (NYSE: LUV). Southwest continues to develop tangible steps toward an environmental sustainability goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, including offering an opportunity for Customers to contribute toward helping Southwest offset its carbon emissions.