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IBM Report: Half of Breached Organizations Unwilling to Increase Security Spend Despite Soaring Breach Costs

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AI/Automation cut breach lifecycles by 108 days; $470,000 in extra costs for ransomware victims that avoid law enforcement; Only one third-of organizations detected the breach themselves

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 24, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — IBM (NYSE: IBM) Security today released its annual Cost of a Data Breach Report,1 showing the global average cost of a data breach reached $4.45 million in 2023 – an all-time high for the report and a 15% increase over the last 3 years. Detection and escalation costs jumped 42% over this same time frame, representing the highest portion of breach costs, and indicating a shift towards more complex breach investigations.

According to the 2023 IBM report, businesses are divided in how they plan to handle the increasing cost and frequency of data breaches. The study found that while 95% of studied organizations have experienced more than one breach, breached organizations were more likely to pass incident costs onto consumers (57%) than to increase security investments (51%).

The 2023 Cost of a Data Breach Report is based on in-depth analysis of real-world data breaches experienced by 553 organizations globally between March 2022 and March 2023. The research, sponsored and analyzed by IBM Security, was conducted by Ponemon Institute and has been published for 18 consecutive years. Some key findings in the 2023 IBM report include:

AI Picks Up Speed – AI and automation had the biggest impact on speed of breach identification and containment for studied organizations. Organizations with extensive use of both AI and automation experienced a data breach lifecycle that was 108 days shorter compared to studied organizations that have not deployed these technologies (214 days versus 322 days).The Cost of Silence – Ransomware victims in the study that involved law enforcement saved $470,000 in average costs of a breach compared to those that chose not to involve law enforcement. Despite these potential savings, 37% of ransomware victims studied did not involve law enforcement in a ransomware attack.Detection Gaps – Only one third of studied breaches were detected by an organization’s own security team, compared to 27% that were disclosed by an attacker. Data breaches disclosed by the attacker cost nearly $1 million more on average compared to studied organizations that identified the breach themselves.

“Time is the new currency in cybersecurity both for the defenders and the attackers. As the report shows, early detection and fast response can significantly reduce the impact of a breach,” said Chris McCurdy, General Manager, Worldwide IBM Security Services. “Security teams must focus on where adversaries are the most successful and concentrate their efforts on stopping them before they achieve their goals. Investments in threat detection and response approaches that accelerate defenders speed and efficiency – such as AI and automation – are crucial to shifting this balance.”

Every Second Costs 
According to the 2023 report, studied organizations that fully deploy security AI and automation saw 108-day shorter breach lifecycles on average compared to organizations not deploying these technologies – and experienced significantly lower incident costs. In fact, studied organizations that deployed security AI and automation extensively saw, on average, nearly $1.8 million lower data breach costs than organizations that didn’t deploy these technologies – the biggest cost saver identified in the report.

At the same time, adversaries have reduced the average time to complete a ransomware attack. And with nearly 40% of studied organizations not yet deploying security AI and automation, there is still considerable opportunity for organizations to boost detection and response speeds.

Ransomware ‘Discount Code’
Some studied organizations remain apprehensive to engage law enforcement during a ransomware attack due to the perception that it will only complicate the situation. For the first time this year, the IBM report looked closer at this issue and found evidence to the contrary. Participating organizations that did not involve law enforcement experienced breach lifecycles that were 33-days longer on average than those that did involve law enforcement – and that silence came with a price. Ransomware victims studied that didn’t bring in law enforcement paid on average $470,000 higher breach costs than those that did.

Despite ongoing efforts by law enforcement to collaborate with ransomware victims, 37% of respondents still opted not to bring them in. Add to that, nearly half (47%) of studied ransomware victims reportedly paid the ransom. It’s clear that organizations should abandon these misconceptions around ransomware. Paying a ransom, and avoiding law enforcement, may only drive-up incident costs, and slow the response.

Security Teams Rarely Discover Breaches Themselves
Threat detection and response has seen some progress. According to IBM’s 2023 Threat Intelligence Index, defenders were able to halt a higher proportion of ransomware attacks last year. However, adversaries are still finding ways to slip through the cracks of defense. The report found that only one in three studied breaches were detected by the organization’s own security teams or tools, while 27% of such breaches were disclosed by an attacker, and 40% were disclosed by a neutral third party such as law enforcement.

Responding organizations that discovered the breach themselves experienced nearly $1 million less in breach costs than those disclosed by an attacker ($5.23 million vs. $4.3 million). Breaches disclosed by an attacker also had a lifecycle nearly 80 days longer (320 vs. 241) compared to those who identified the breach internally. The significant cost and time savings that come with early detection show that investing in these strategies can pay off in the long run.

Additional findings in the 2023 IBM report include:

Breaching Data Across Environments – Nearly 40% of data breaches studied resulted in the loss of data across multiple environments including public cloud, private cloud, and on-prem—showing that attackers were able to compromise multiple environments while avoiding detection. Data breaches studied that impacted multiple environments also led to higher breach costs ($4.75 million on average).Costs of Healthcare Breaches Continue to Soar – The average costs of a studied breach in healthcare reached nearly $11 million in 2023 – a 53% price increase since 2020. Cybercriminals have started making stolen data more accessible to downstream victims, according to the 2023 X-Force Threat Intelligence Report. With medical records as leverage, threat actors amplify pressure on breached organizations to pay a ransom. In fact, across all industries studied, customer personally identifiable information was the most commonly breached record type and the costliest.The DevSecOps Advantage – Studied organizations across all industries with a high level of DevSecOps saw a global average cost of a data breach nearly $1.7 million lower than those studied with a low level/no use of a DevSecOps approach.Critical Infrastructure Breach Costs Break $5 Million – Critical infrastructure organizations studied experienced a 4.5% jump in the average costs of a breach compared to last year – increasing from $4.82 million to $5.04 million – $590K higher than the global average.

Additional Sources

To download a copy of the 2023 Cost of a Data Breach Report, please visit: https://www.ibm.com/security/data-breach.Read more about the report’s top findings in this IBM Security Intelligence blog.Sign up for the 2023 IBM Security Cost of a Data Breach webinar on Tuesday, August 1, 2023, at 11:00 a.m. ET here.Connect with the IBM Security X-Force team for a personalized review of the findings: https://ibm.biz/book-a-consult.For a closer look at the report recommendations visit: Cost of a Data breach Action Guide.

About IBM Security

IBM Security helps secure the world’s largest enterprises and governments with an integrated portfolio of security products and services, infused with dynamic AI and automation capabilities. The portfolio, supported by world-renowned IBM Security X-Force® research, enables organizations to predict threats, protect data as it moves, and respond with speed and precision without holding back business innovation. IBM is trusted by thousands of organizations as their partner to assess, strategize, implement, and manage security transformations. IBM operates one of the world’s broadest security research, development, and delivery organizations, monitors 150 billion+ security events per day in more than 130 countries, and has been granted more than 10,000 security patents worldwide.

Media Contact:
Cassy Lalan
IBM Communications, Security
cllalan@us.ibm.com | Chicago

1 The 2023 Cost of a Data Breach Report ,conducted by Ponemon Institute, is sponsored and analyzed by IBM Security.

 

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Cyber Enviro-Tech Positions AirPower Technology Agreement to Support U.S. Energy Independence Following April 2026 Presidential Actions

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April 21, 2026

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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., April 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Cyber Enviro-Tech, Inc. (OTCQB: CETI), an environmental technology company advancing water treatment and clean energy solutions, today highlighted the strategic alignment of its AirPower compressed air energy platform with the April 20, 2026 Presidential Actions focused on strengthening U.S. energy infrastructure, enhancing grid resilience, and reducing long-term reliance on traditional fossil fuels.

The Presidential Actions announced yesterday, as outlined by the White House (https://www.whitehouse.gov/news/), underscore the growing national focus on modernizing energy infrastructure, improving grid reliability, and expanding access to scalable, domestically deployable energy solutions capable of supporting both grid-connected and off-grid environments.

Building on its recently announced exclusive manufacturing and distribution agreement with AirPower USA, CETI is expanding its focus on scalable energy infrastructure solutions designed to support both domestic and international markets where reliability, cost efficiency, and sustainability are critical.

AirPower’s patented compressed air technology provides a zero-emission energy generation and storage solution designed to address these evolving energy priorities through mechanically driven systems that reduce dependence on traditional fuels and complex battery supply chains.

AirPower systems are designed to:

Deliver zero-emission power generationProvide long-duration energy storage without battery degradationReduce dependence on critical minerals and battery supply chainsOperate in remote, off-grid, and infrastructure-constrained environmentsSupport industrial, municipal, and energy infrastructure applications

Aligned Leadership Perspective
“These policy priorities reinforce the accelerating shift toward resilient, distributed, and diversified energy systems,” said Kim D. Southworth, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cyber Enviro-Tech. “We believe our AirPower platform is well aligned with these trends and positions CETI to participate in emerging opportunities tied to infrastructure modernization, grid stability, and long-term energy transition.”

“Compressed air energy systems offer a practical and scalable pathway to deliver clean, reliable energy across a wide range of applications,” said Brianna Stoecklein, Chief Executive Officer of AirPower USA. “As energy policy and infrastructure priorities increasingly focus on resilience, independence, and long-duration storage, we believe AirPower’s technology is well positioned to support critical infrastructure applications and emerging deployment opportunities as demand for reliable, scalable energy solutions continues to accelerate.”

Expanding Energy Infrastructure Opportunity
CETI’s integration of AirPower technology represents a strategic expansion of its environmental platform into energy infrastructure applications, particularly where reliable power is essential to water treatment, industrial remediation, and critical operations.

The Company has begun advancing a pipeline of commercial opportunities, including a previously announced early-stage inquiry representing a potential $200 million deployment opportunity in Africa. CETI continues to evaluate additional opportunities across regions and sectors where energy access, infrastructure resilience, and cost efficiency are key drivers.
CETI is currently engaged in discussions with industry participants, infrastructure developers, and potential partners to evaluate deployment opportunities for AirPower systems across applications including:

Grid support and peak load managementRemote and off-grid power generationIndustrial and municipal infrastructureEnergy support for water treatment and environmental systems

Positioned for Long-Term Energy Transition Trends
As both policy direction and market demand increasingly emphasize energy independence, resilience, and sustainability, CETI believes compressed air energy systems may serve as a complementary solution within a diversified energy mix, particularly in applications where traditional electrification or battery storage may be limited.
The Company believes its combined environmental and energy platform positions CETI to pursue opportunities aligned with long-term trends in infrastructure investment, distributed energy deployment, and sustainable industrial operations.

Advancing Toward Commercial Execution
CETI’s recent strategic initiatives—including its AirPower licensing agreement, leadership expansion, and growing project pipeline—reflect the Company’s continued transition toward execution-focused operations and revenue-oriented opportunities.
“We are focused on advancing opportunities that have the potential to translate into commercial activity,” Southworth added. “Our objective is to align CETI’s platform with areas of increasing demand while maintaining a disciplined approach to execution and growth.”

About Cyber Enviro-Tech, Inc. (OTCQB: CETI)
Cyber Enviro-Tech, Inc. (CETI) is an environmental technology company focused on sustainable solutions across water treatment, remediation, and emerging energy systems. The Company develops and deploys technologies designed to address industrial wastewater, hazardous waste, and environmental sustainability challenges across global markets.

About AirPower USA
AirPower USA develops patented compressed air energy storage and power generation systems designed to deliver clean, efficient, and scalable energy solutions for industrial, municipal, and off-grid applications.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding technology deployment, project development, commercial opportunities, and business strategy. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, including the ability to convert opportunities into revenue, technical performance, regulatory requirements, customer adoption, and market conditions. Actual results may differ materially. CETI undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements except as required by law.

Contact:
Winston McKellar
Director of IR / PR
Cyber Enviro-Tech, Inc.
6991 E. Camelback Rd., Suite D-300
Scottsdale, AZ 85251
Phone: 866.687.6856
Website: www.cyberenviro.tech

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Ellucian Announces 2026 Experience Idol Winners Celebrating Innovation and Excellence in Higher Education

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April 21, 2026

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Key Highlights:

Six winners — three higher education institutions and three partners — recognized for innovative use of the Ellucian Platform capabilities to solve real campus challenges.Institutional winners receive a Student Experience Scholarship, professional services support and design consultation to accelerate continued innovation.Submissions highlighted creative use of capabilities including central workspace, business process automation, low-code integrations, and AI-driven experiences.

RESTON, Va., April 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Ellucian, the leading higher education technology solutions provider, announced the 2026 Experience Idol winners on the mainstage at Ellucian Live, the industry’s premier global technology conference. Experience Idol is an annual program celebrating institutions and partner organizations using the Ellucian Platform and SaaS-native capabilities to deliver innovative, data-driven experiences that improve outcomes for students, faculty, and staff across the higher education lifecycle.

Advancing Innovation Across the Student Experience

“As we look across this year’s Experience Idol submissions, what stands out is not just creativity. It is how institutions and partners are applying Ellucian technology in practical, meaningful ways to improve the day-to-day experience across campus,” said Mike Wulff, Chief Product and Technology Officer, Ellucian. “These innovations show what becomes possible when data, automation, and intuitive experiences come together in ways that are built for how higher education actually works. From bringing clarity to complex workflows and enabling earlier, more targeted student support, to reducing friction for faculty and staff through more unified experiences, this year’s winners are setting a new standard for efficiency, impact, and better outcomes across higher education.”

Recognizing Innovation in Action

The Experience Idol program invites institutions and partners to design and deliver impactful solutions using capabilities within the Ellucian Platform, including central workspace, reporting & analytics, workflow automation, low-code integrations, and AI-powered experiences. Finalists are selected based on creativity, measurable impact, and effective use of platform capabilities to improve outcomes for students, faculty, and staff.

The 2026 Experience Idol higher education institution winners include:

Best Use of AI: recognizing innovative applications of AI-powered capabilities to deliver meaningful outcomes.

Anne Arundel Community College

Anne Arundel Community College used Ellucian’s business process automation and the AI Writing Assistant to improve its faculty contract workflow. The AI supports staff by generating precise, role-specific instructions and consistent email communications, reducing ambiguity and accelerating approvals. By improving clarity at each step, the institution minimizes errors, reduces delays, and enhances transparency across departments. This approach modernizes a high-volume, high-risk process while maintaining human oversight, resulting in a more efficient and trustworthy experience for faculty and administrators alike.

Best Use Case: highlighting impactful solutions that address key institutional challenges.

University of the Fraser Valley

The University of the Fraser Valley implemented a centralized emergency communication system within Ellucian’s central workspace to deliver fast, consistent messaging across multiple channels. Replacing a fragmented approach that required updates in several systems, the new solution enables staff to create a single message and distribute it simultaneously via email, SMS, workspace notifications, and more. A unified dashboard provides full visibility into active and past alerts, improving response time and coordination during critical events. This approach enhances trust, reduces confusion, and ensures students and staff receive timely, reliable information when it matters most.

Best Overall Dashboard: showcasing intuitive, persona-driven experiences within the central workspace.

Jacksonville University

Jacksonville University transformed its campus portal by replacing a fragmented SharePoint experience with a unified, mobile-friendly dashboard built within Ellucian’s central workspace. By introducing a consistent design system across 24 cards, the university created a cohesive, branded interface that makes it easy for students, faculty, and staff to find critical resources. Features like centralized financial aid information, one-tap campus security access, and a powerful search function for important forms significantly reduced help desk calls. The result is a streamlined, intuitive experience that improves usability and reinforces a stronger institutional identity.

Institutional winners received a Student Experience Scholarship, an Ellucian professional services package to support continued innovation, and a design session with Ellucian’s User Experience team.

The 2026 Experience Idol partner winners include:

Best in Extensibility: honoring solutions that demonstrate seamless integration through APIs, data pipelines, and platform interoperability.

ESM Solutions

ESM Solutions delivers a personalized procurement experience through purchase cards in Ellucian’s central workspace that brings purchasing, approvals, and budget insights together in a single interface. By integrating seamlessly with Ellucian systems, the solution provides real-time visibility into spending and ensures compliance through built-in validations and workflows. Users can manage transactions, track progress, and make informed decisions from one dashboard, reducing complexity and improving efficiency across finance and procurement teams.

Best Student Impact: celebrating solutions that deliver measurable improvements to the student experience.

Entrinsik

Entrinsik’s AI-powered card created for Ellucian’s central workspace delivers a personalized, conversational interface that enables students to access real-time information and take action directly from their dashboard. By leveraging low-code integrations and multiple system integrations, the assistant can surface holds, financial data, and academic information while allowing secure updates with user approval. This solution meets students where they are, providing immediate, context-aware support that improves engagement, reduces friction, and helps remove barriers to student success.

Student Wellness Challenge: recognizing innovative, data-informed approaches to addressing student wellness.

Ferrilli

Ferrilli’s Stress and Wellness card provides students with immediate access to mental health resources and proactive support directly within Ellucian’s central workspace. Features include guided stress-relief exercises, centralized resource hubs, and a “Stressed About Class” workflow that connects students with instructors and escalates concerns if needed. Built using Ellucian’s low-code integrations and business process automation, the solution ensures timely intervention and creates a structured support system that helps students feel seen, supported, and connected.

To learn more about Ellucian solutions, visit: https://www.ellucian.com/

WHAT IS ELLUCIAN
Ellucian powers innovation for higher education, partnering with approximately 3,000 customers across 50 countries, serving more than 21 million students. Ellucian’s AI-powered platform, trained on the richest dataset available in higher education, drives efficiency, personalized experiences, and strengthened engagement for all students, faculty and staff. Fueled by decades of experience with a singular focus on the unique needs of learning institutions, the Ellucian platform features best-in-class SaaS capabilities and delivers insights needed now and into the future. These solutions and services span the entire student lifecycle, including data-rich tools for student recruitment, enrolment, and retention to workforce analytics, fundraising, and alumni engagement. Ellucian’s innovative solutions, vast ecosystem of partners and user community of more than 45,000 provides best practices leading to greater institutional success and achieving better student outcomes.

Media Contacts
Greg Giangrande, Chief Marketing Officer
Greg.Giangrande@Ellucian.com

Jess Weston, Manager, Communications
Jess.Weston@Ellucian.com

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PaleBlueDot AI Launches PBD TokenRouter, a Unified Platform for Accessing AI Models

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14 minutes ago

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April 21, 2026

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Company also unveils premium credit program for builders, startups, and enterprises to accelerate growth

PALO ALTO, Calif., April 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — PaleBlueDot AI today announced the launch of PBD TokenRouter at tokenrouter.com, a new platform designed to make it easier and more affordable for organizations of every size to access and manage artificial intelligence models.

Built for business use from day one, PBD TokenRouter serves the full spectrum of builders in the AI era: builders, startups, and enterprises running mission-critical AI workloads. The platform provides a comprehensive, business-to-business solution that centralizes control over AI resources for teams scaling adoption while maintaining operational and cost discipline.

Leveraging the company’s Token Factory model and existing compute infrastructure, PBD TokenRouter expands into a full-stack intelligence solution that combines proprietary token production with an ecosystem-driven go-to-market approach. Through a single integration point, PBD TokenRouter consolidates frontier providers into a single API layer that powers any AI application with all token usage managed in one place.

“Our goal is simple: to deliver faster, better, and cheaper access to intelligence infrastructure for everyone,” said Stephen Watts, CEO of PaleBlueDot AI. “Builders shouldn’t have to re-architect their stack every time a model provider goes down or a better model ships. PBD TokenRouter handles orchestration, failover, and access management, so that builders, startups, and enterprises can focus on what they’re actually building.”

Unified AI Access with Enterprise-Grade Governance

PBD TokenRouter is designed to help organizations control and optimize AI spend while ensuring consistent performance by eliminating the need for individual account registrations, replacing fragmented workflows with streamlined administration across internal teams and projects to consolidate oversight of AI usage and costs.

Key capabilities include:

Smart Token Routing: A proprietary skill that analyzes each request and routes it to the model best suited for the task, optimizing performance and cost automatically.Multi-Channel Automatic Failover: PBD TokenRouter maintains connections across multiple upstream providers, direct model access, and PBD’s self-hosted inference cloud, enabling 99.95% uptime when any route degrades.Real-Time Cost Governance: Automated budget enforcement operates at the member, team, and department level across the full request lifecycle, replacing manual reconciliation with programmatic spend controls.Smart Caching: Intelligent request deduplication and result reuse reduce unnecessary token consumption without requiring application-level changes.

PaleBlueDot AI also unveiled its Premium Token Credit Program, which selects 100 builders, startups, and enterprises each month to receive free inference credits. The program is designed to connect PBD TokenRouter with developers, founders, and teams driving the most meaningful work in AI today. As part of the program, PBD TokenRouter will host and sponsor global hackathons, partner with organizations around the world on events and programs, and support broader AI research initiatives.

PBD TokenRouter is available now at tokenrouter.com.

Contact:
palebluedotAI@fgsglobal.com

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