RLC Pro Hardened and Ascender Pro together give federal teams kernel exploitation detection as it happens and CVE remediation before it wipes out an entire fleet

RENO, Nev., July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — CIQ, the founding commercial sponsor of Rocky Linux, today announced the launch of an RLC Pro Hardened and Ascender Pro deployment that gives federal agencies real-time kernel exploit detection, audit-ready compliance, and automated remediation in a single deployment. The pairing gives federal teams a stronger position inside the three-day remediation window Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 26-04 sets for the highest-risk vulnerabilities on federal systems.

On June 10, 2026, CISA issued BOD 26-04, and the three-day clock starts when a flaw enters the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, not when a patch ships. For the most dangerous vulnerabilities, the exploit often arrives before the patch does, leaving agencies with a compliance deadline and no fix to apply yet. Non-compliance penalties can include a range of administrative consequences, including greater regulatory oversight and asset disconnection.

RLC Pro Hardened, CIQ’s federal-ready Enterprise Linux distribution, answers that gap. It is the first Enterprise Linux distribution to ship runtime kernel exploitation detection enabled and supported by default, giving agencies a record of what happened during the window before a fix shipped. CIQ delivered that capability well before BOD 26-04 put federal agencies on a three-day clock.

“A single critical vulnerability can impact an entire federal fleet before it’s even confirmed as a CVE,” said Gregory Kurtzer, founder and CEO of CIQ. “RLC Pro Hardened’s LKRG catches the exploit behavior at the kernel the moment it happens, patch or no patch. Once remediation is required, Ascender Pro orchestrates it across the entire fleet and proves it happened, system by system. Agencies get both sides covered without rebuilding their infrastructure.”

RLC Pro Hardened ships with Linux Kernel Runtime Guard (LKRG), which validates kernel integrity continuously and records kernel-level exploitation as it happens. The distribution also arrives audit-ready, with FIPS 140-3 validated cryptography and CIQ-engineered lockdown playbooks for DISA STIG, CIS and NIST 800-171.

Ascender Pro adds Reaqt, an event-driven engine that watches fleet logs, matches them against rule sets, and fires the right Ansible playbook automatically. Across a fleet, that closes issues faster than manual, ticket-driven review.

More About BOD 26-04

BOD 26-04 replaced the severity-score deadlines of BOD 22-01 and BOD 19-02 with a risk model. It scores each vulnerability on four factors: public exposure, presence in the KEV catalog, exploit automation and technical impact. A vulnerability that meets all four carries a three-calendar-day remediation deadline, the shortest CISA has set in a Binding Operational Directive. Agency remediation policies must support the directive by August 7, 2026.

About CIQ

CIQ is the founding support and services partner for Rocky Linux and a leading provider of enterprise Linux infrastructure. CIQ delivers commercially supported Linux offerings, high-performance computing solutions and AI infrastructure to enterprises, government agencies, research institutions and supercomputing centers worldwide. CIQ’s products include the Rocky Linux from CIQ (RLC Pro) family of operating systems, Ascender Pro for IT automation, Fuzzball job-based container orchestration, Warewulf cluster provisioning and Apptainer, the leading container system for high-performance computing. For more information, visit ciq.com.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Cristin Connelly
Cathey Communications for CIQ
cristin@cathey.co

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SOURCE CIQ

Vice President of HPC, and Crunchbits founder, appointed to lead Synteq’s next phase of growth.

WILMINGTON, Del., July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Synteq, a rapidly scaling provider of cloud services and infrastructure, today announces the appointment of Eric Yingling as Chief Executive Officer, effective July 1, 2026. Eric succeeds Taras Kulyk, Synteq’s co-founder, who has transitioned into the role of Chief Development Officer. Additionally, as part of his new role, Eric has also been appointed to Synteq’s Board of Directors.

Eric most recently served as Synteq’s Vice President of HPC, where he led the company’s cloud compute division. He joined Synteq through its acquisition of Crunchbits, the cloud infrastructure company he founded in 2017 and scaled into a respected name in the VPS, dedicated server, and GPU compute market. Crunchbits’ IP stack and operational expertise have materially expanded since the acquisition and now form the backbone of Synteq’s cloud compute services offering.

“From the moment we acquired Crunchbits, it was clear Eric was shaping the future of the entire business. Trusting him with the reins, as our new CEO and board member, is one of the most important decisions we’ve made to date,” said Taras Kulyk, Chief Development Officer of Synteq. “Eric is a phenomenal leader with a clear vision for where this industry is heading. His hardware, cloud deployment and engineering expertise is the exact mix of skills Synteq needs to become a trusted market leader in the enterprise cloud compute sector.”

“As part of this leadership transition, the board’s mandate was to identify a leader who could take Synteq from a fast-growing hardware and infrastructure company to a category-defining enterprise cloud platform. Through that process, Eric emerged as the clear choice. He has built and operated cloud infrastructure at every layer, he commands the trust of our team and customers, and he brings the operational and performance discipline this next phase demands,” said Jaime Leverton, Chair of Synteq’s Board of Directors.

“I’m honored to take on this new challenge and grateful to Synteq’s founders, board of directors, and leadership team for their vision and contributions in building the company into what it is today,” said Eric Yingling, Chief Executive Officer. “We have an extraordinary team, a trusted brand, a proven platform, and a market demanding exactly what we’ve built. I’m excited to ship products our customers love and deliver value no one else can match.”

About Synteq

Synteq delivers compute, bare metal, and virtualized infrastructure to enterprises, researchers, and developers worldwide, operating its own network (AS400304) and infrastructure footprint across multiple sites. Built on the foundation of Crunchbits, Synteq combines enterprise-grade infrastructure with exceptional price-performance compute, storage and virtualization. Learn more at synteq.com.

Media Contact: pr@synteq.com, https://www.synteq.com

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SOURCE Synteq Digital

Litigation teams can now initiate, track, and complete service of process without ever leaving the SmartAdvocate case file.

DENVER, July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Proof Technology, Inc., the service of process and e-filing technology platform, and SmartAdvocate, the award-winning legal case management system, today announced a new integration that brings service of process in every jurisdiction directly into the SmartAdvocate platform.

The integration allows the 20,000+ legal professionals who manage their cases on SmartAdvocate to serve legal documents on anyone, at any time, anywhere in the United States—directly from the case file they’re already working in. No second login, no re-typing case data, no copy-and-pasted status updates, no unnecessary downloads, and no distracting emails.

Until now, managing service of process alongside a case management system has meant working outside of it: rekeying names, addresses, and document details into a separate serve request, chasing process servers for status updates over phone and email, pasting tracking notes into the case file, and downloading affidavits and invoices from one platform only to re-upload them into another. Every handoff is an opportunity for an error, a delay, or a missed deadline. This integration eliminates that entire loop—service of process becomes another step in the SmartAdvocate workflow instead of a separate errand.

The integration was designed around how SmartAdvocate law firms actually work. Rather than an additional tool that demands new training, Proof built the experience to fit directly into existing SmartAdvocate workflows:

Users initiate a serve from the Documents tab of any case, pulling documents and contact details already in the matter.Proof’s Autofill™ technology reads the uploaded document, identifies the party to be served, and pre-fills the serve request details automatically—while real-time address validation and duplicate-serve checks catch errors before the serve goes out.As service progresses, every status update appears in the SmartAdvocate case file, giving paralegals, case managers, and attorneys a shared, real-time view of every serve.When the job is complete, signed affidavits and invoices sync automatically into the SmartAdvocate case folders the firm designates, and invoices can post directly to the matter as disbursements—so nothing slips past accounting.

“Our clients expect technology that removes complexity—not adds to it. By bringing service of process directly into SmartAdvocate, we’re continuing to deliver on our promise of a truly connected litigation platform. Firms can now manage the entire service process without leaving SmartAdvocate, improving efficiency, increasing visibility, and reducing the risk of costly delays. This integration reflects our broader vision of providing law firms with the technology they need to operate smarter, move faster, and deliver exceptional results for their clients,” said Allison Rampolla, SVP of Sales and Marketing at SmartAdvocate.

“A lot of SmartAdvocate firms already use Proof—they’ve just had to run the two side by side,” said Dima Kovalev, Chief Product Officer at Proof. “Now serves start, track, and close out right inside the case file. The early feedback is some of the strongest we’ve had for any launch. Firms tell us it’s changed how the whole intake-to-serve process feels—and the word that keeps coming up is ‘effortless.'”

The integration is available now to SmartAdvocate firms. Existing Proof customers can contact their Account Manager to get started; firms new to Proof can visit proofserve.com/integrations/smartadvocate to learn more.

About Proof Technology, Inc.: Proof is a legal technology company that gives law firms and litigation practices a single platform for service of process in every jurisdiction, backed by 2,600+ rigorously vetted professional process servers. Founded in 2017 by veteran attorney Eric Voogt, Proof enables legal teams in every jurisdiction to create electronic serve requests, track attempts in real time, and receive court-ready, notarized affidavits complete with photos and location data. The platform is used by thousands of law firms and government agencies across the United States to digitize and streamline service of process and e-filing. For more information, visit https://www.proofserve.com/.

About SmartAdvocate: SmartAdvocate is a fully customizable, award-winning case management software used by more than 20,000 legal professionals. Built for today’s litigation firms, the platform helps attorneys and legal staff manage cases, documents, communications, reporting, and firm operations in a single, unified system. At the core of SmartAdvocate’s innovation strategy is built-in SmartIntelligence™: AI-powered features that help firms improve intake, automate document-intensive processes, enhance communications, and gain deeper insight from case data. With more than 175 integrations and a responsive in-house team dedicated to client success, SmartAdvocate combines innovative technology with personal support to help law firms operate more efficiently and achieve stronger outcomes. For more information, visit https://www.smartadvocate.com/.

Media Contact

Nick Bhutani, Proof Technology, 1 (201) 701-1687, nick.bhutani@proofserve.com, https://www.proofserve.com/
SmartAdvocate: Mark Fliegelman, Mark@smartadvocate.com

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SOURCE Proof Technology