Technology

HITRUST Announces Continuous Assurance through the Proven HITRUST Ecosystem

Published

2 years ago

October 1, 2024

Releases 2025 Vision to Increase Security Sustainability and Outcomes through Continuous Control Monitoring

FRISCO, Texas, Oct. 1, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — HITRUST, the leading provider of information risk management, security, and compliance assurance, today announces HITRUST Continuous Assurance – the latest strategic evolution based on the proven HITRUST ecosystem. As organizations continue to balance the cost and complexity of security and compliance monitoring with the need to achieve security outcomes, a systematic and efficient approach for continuous assurance is essential. Security threats are not static and the need to efficiently reduce evidence decay and continually ensure that security requirements remain relevant and reliable is vital given the evolving threat landscape.

HITRUST Announces Continuous Assurance through the Proven HITRUST Ecosystem

“The traditional overhead and a growing number of new, proprietary and inefficient approaches trying to speed up outdated practices must fall to the side to improve cybersecurity outcomes without burdening vital services across multiple industries,” said Robert Booker, Chief Strategy Officer, HITRUST during his keynote at HITRUST Collaborate conference. “Approaches that prioritize compliance over security are understandable in highly regulated industries but are unfortunately short-sighted and part of the problem and not the solution.”

Legacy approaches do not build on a proven foundation of relevant controls, do not keep up with cyber threats, do not enable cybersecurity insurance risk underwriting as they lack provable security outcomes and validation, or assurance based on quality, transparency, and integrity. The advent of transformative technologies such as generative AI make this an even more challenging problem with new threats and vulnerabilities to overcome.

Evidence decay has always been a problem for governance systems based solely on auditing and HITRUST has largely mitigated that risk through its comprehensive and centralized quality system, rapid-recertification requirements, and the validation of policies and procedures that underpin security outcomes. In addition, the HITRUST system is built on a maturity model that encourages organizations to seek higher levels of security maturity including measurement and management of security requirements.

Continuous Assurance is possible on top of the proven HITRUST ecosystem that has successfully validated and certified thousands of systems serving multiple industries. After 15 years, HITRUST continues to demonstrate high levels of success as show by the 2024 HITRUST Trust Report where 99.4% of current HITRUST certifications, including organizations of varying sizes in many industries, did not report a breach over the past two-year period (2022 and 2023) while operating in one of the most aggressive cyber-attack environments in history. This success is enabled by the combination of the HITRUST CSF alongside a required methodology that assesses control maturity using an innovative PRISMA-based control scoring model and backed by thousands of qualified and independent assessors globally – all monitored by the centralized HITRUST quality assurance system.

“HITRUST certification at the r2 level requires a solid foundation of policy, procedures and controls implementation which provides a higher level of assurance based upon direct rather than circumstantial evidence”, said Bimal Sheth, EVP of Standards Development and Assurance Operations, HITRUST. “HITRUST is building on this proven framework as the foundation for Continuous Assurance.”

Continuous Assurance Elements:

Continuous Assurance goes the last mile – enabling integration with technologies that provide security control measurement and management. The result is unprecedented levels of assurance by minimizing evidence decay through monitoring of key assurance evidence and security telemetry on a continuous basis – all designed to detect or avoid drift in an organization’s control posture. Multiple existing and planned capabilities make Continuous Assurance possible:

Continuous Monitoring Taxonomy through the Next Generation HITRUST CSF: Control requirements require different approaches to continuous assurance to ensure relevancy and reliability of security maturity oversight. The identification of control requirements categories suitable for continuous assurance will be supported in the Next Generation of the HITRUST CSF, rolling out in phases beginning in 2025, starting with HITRUST CSF v12.Continuous Monitoring Workflow Enhancements: The HITRUST MyCSF will contain new workflow capabilities that allow assessed entities to publish evidence updates and seek validation of evidence of continued control sustainability. Inspection and approval will vary by control category and the system will support the relationships and workflow needed to analyze submitted evidence and confirm that it is both suitable for the control requirement and the underlying scope of the certification. Depending on the rigor and importance of different control requirements, External Assessors will be needed to examine and validate security outcomes and will be vital contributors to Continuous Assurance outcomes.Automated Evidence Collection: HITRUST’s existing Automated Evidence Collection capability supports integration with assessed entities existing technology and compliance frameworks. These services provide an important foundation by providing the baseline of evidence used for security and compliance assurance while reducing cost and complexity.Continuous Outcome Inspection: New HITRUST services will be available beginning in late 2025 that allow qualified service providers and technology suppliers to demonstrate proven fidelity, integrity and sufficient integration capabilities to HITRUST that inform security maturity scores and prove that security requirements remain achieved through their systems. Selected, qualified, and leading cloud service providers and security technology providers will provide these services all delivered on top of the robust and existing shared responsibility and inheritance capabilities provided by HITRUST.Results Distribution System: HITRUST’s existing digital platform enables the seamless distribution and integration of assessment and certification results, corrective action plans (CAPS), and status updates – eliminating reliance on PDF reports and allowing for electronic examination of security outcomes plus analysis of individual maturity metrics, and monitoring of remediation commitments on demand and with higher fidelity.Governance, Risk and Compliance Integration: HITRUST assessment results and assurance outcomes may now be integrated directly into supporting third-party risk management and GRC systems, ensuring faster and more accurate analysis, quicker remediation, and increased transparency, including vital Third-Party Risk Management, workflow support with improvements in efficiency, and clear and traceable documentation.

The HITRUST Continuous Assurance system, by design, will support both systemic control monitoring through Continuous Outcome Inspection and the collection of security artifacts with validation workflows that prove conformance with required policies and procedures. Mature and complex systems will likely require a combination of automated and artifact-oriented forms of security monitoring to ensure that policies and procedures remain relevant.

Building on a Proven Ecosystem:

Continuous assurance is only achievable when delivered on top of a proven ecosystem. Over the past 15 years, HITRUST has built the ecosystem ready to deliver Continuous Assurance including:

Broad Assessment Portfolio: HITRUST offers a comprehensive range of assessment options that cover varying levels of assurance. This allows organizations and relying parties to align their risk management efforts with Threat and Adaptive Control Selection that is continuously updated as threats evolve.Cyber Threat Adaptive Controls: The HITRUST CSF is continuously updated as new cyber threats are identified and in response to active threats. This ensures organizations are continually considering the changes needed to manage their risks and sustain the required protections from the security system. Assurances only remain valid if they are implementing the correct security requirements to address present threats.Assurance Quality Management: a centralized, proven and transparent approach to quality assurance that includes examination, testing, and validation of security evidence by trained and qualified external assessors. Quality standards are published and are appropriately measured, tested, and validated first by external assessors and then by HITRUST. This ensures that the security outcomes and the resulting certification are transparent, scalable, consistent, accurate and demonstrate the integrity required by relying parties including regulators.Inheritance and Shared Responsibility: In many cases, security controls may be inherited from service providers such as Cloud Service Providers and now AI Service Providers. This capability allows assessed entities to rely on those service providers to provide components of the security fabric based upon the validation and certification of their services or to share responsibility for controls. Continuous Assurance will support the inheritance and shared responsibility of controls in appropriate use cases.

HITRUST Continuous Assurance is building on an expanding network of integration capabilities from recognized platform and service providers. These integrations will streamline the process of managing information and cybersecurity risks and allow customers of the HITRUST ecosystem to integrate Continuous Assurance capabilities from multiple suppliers as available.

Delivering Proven Outcomes:

HITRUST Continuous Assurance delivers on top of a rich and proven maturity model. However, breaches and disruptions to services from cyber events still occur and Continuous Assurance will provide even higher security outcomes and greater levels of assurance. “The information obtained from monitoring controls in a continuous manner can help organizations continually assess the state of their information security controls and subsequently the amount of additional residual risk the organization may be incurring. Introducing more continuous, or ongoing approaches over point-in-time assessments and control gap analysis increases the fidelity of ongoing, risk-based decisions and improves cybersecurity outcomes”, said Dr. Bryan Cline, Chief Research Officer, HITRUST.

Stay Informed:

Stay informed about Continuous Assurance here

About HITRUST

HITRUST, the leader in enterprise risk management, information security, and compliance assurances, offers a certification system for the application and validation of security, privacy, and AI controls, informed by over 50 standards and frameworks. The company’s threat-adaptive approach delivers the most relevant and reliable solution, including multiple selectable and traversable control sets, over 100 independent assessment firms, centralized quality reviews and certification, and a powerful SaaS platform enabling its program and ecosystem. For over 17 years, HITRUST has led the assurance industry and today is widely recognized as the most trusted solution to establish, maintain, and demonstrate security capabilities for risks management and compliance.

To learn more about HITRUST, go to: www.hitrustalliance.net

For media inquiries, please contact:
Leslie Kesselring
Kesselring Communications for HITRUST
leslie@kesscomm.com
503-358-1012

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SOURCE HITRUST Services Corp.

Technology

Hisense Celebrates Earth Day: The Quiet Green Shift Happening Inside Households Through Smarter Appliances

Published

23 minutes ago

April 22, 2026

DUBAI, UAE, April 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — There’s something futuristic about a refrigerator that thinks for itself. Not in a science-fiction, take-over-the-world kind of way, but in the everyday miracle of a 620-litre side-by-side unit deciding, on its own, that 3am is the perfect time to run its compressor at minimal power because nobody’s opening the door anyway.

This is the green revolution that nobody talks about at climate summits. While world leaders debate carbon credits and industrial emissions, a quieter transformation is unfolding in kitchens, utility rooms, and living spaces across the UAE and beyond. It happens every time a washing machine calculates the precise amount of water needed for that half-load of towels, or when an air conditioner’s inverter technology throttles down instead of cycling on and off like an energy-guzzling metronome.

Earth Day, falling on 22 April this year, typically conjures images of tree-planting ceremonies and beach clean-ups. Worthy endeavours, certainly. But the environmental impact of what sits in your home, running twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year, rarely gets the attention it deserves.

On average, washing machines use 19 gallons of water per load, and the average household runs between 5 and 6 loads per week. Based on those figures, most washers use up to 5,605 gallons of water annually . Swap that for a modern front-load unit with AI wash programs, like Hisense’s models, and that figure can drop by up to 50 percent. Multiply this across the roughly 500,000 households in Dubai alone, and we’re suddenly talking about water savings that would make a desalination plant executive weep with joy.

The same logic applies to electricity consumption, a particularly pressing concern in a region where summer temperatures regularly exceed 45°C and air conditioning is a necessity. The difference between a conventional split AC unit and one equipped with inverter technology isn’t marginal, it’s substantial enough to show up on utility bills within the first month of operation.

Intelligence as an Environmental Strategy

What makes the current generation of home appliances genuinely different isn’t just improved efficiency ratings or eco-labelling. It’s the integration of AI into the very fabric of how these machines operate.

Hisense, a brand that has positioned itself at this intersection of technology and sustainability, describes its approach as a “dual-track strategy of intelligence plus green development.” Its ConnectLife ecosystem, available on select refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers, and air conditioners, monitors energy consumption in real-time, learns household patterns, and makes AI-driven recommendations that, over time, compound into meaningful resource savings.

A Hisense 14-place setting dishwasher with auto-wash technology, for instance, doesn’t simply run the same cycle regardless of load. It assesses soil levels and adjusts water temperature and duration accordingly. A half-load mode means running appliances at appropriate capacity rather than wasting resources on unnecessary full cycles.

Multi-airflow cooling systems that reduce temperature fluctuation and preserve food longer. No-frost technology that eliminates the energy waste of ice buildup. Inverter compressors that modulate power consumption rather than running at full throttle constantly. These technologies have existed in various forms for years. What’s changed is their integration into accessible price points and mainstream product lines, making efficient living achievable for households beyond the ultra-premium market.

The Gulf region presents a fascinating case study for domestic sustainability. Per capita energy consumption ranks among the highest globally, driven by climate control requirements, water desalination dependencies, and historically subsidised utility costs. Yet the UAE has simultaneously positioned itself as a regional leader in renewable energy investment and sustainability commitments.

This creates a unique environment where smart appliance adoption carries amplified significance. A 1.5-ton inverter split AC running across a typical Abu Dhabi summer doesn’t just save its owner money, it reduces the load on an electrical grid increasingly powered by solar and nuclear generation. The connection between individual choices and collective outcomes becomes tangible in ways that might seem abstract in milder climates.

The rise of connected appliances adds another dimension. Remote diagnostics can extend product lifespans by identifying minor issues before they become terminal failures. Software updates can improve efficiency algorithms years after purchase. Energy monitoring creates accountability loops that encourage conscious consumption patterns.

Steam wash functions on modern washing machines reduce the need for hot-water cycles while improving allergen removal. Anti-bacterial filters in air conditioning units address both health and environmental concerns simultaneously. These convergences suggest that the old tension between convenience and conscience may be resolving itself through engineering rather than requiring consumers to choose sides.

The Household as Climate Actor

There’s something democratic about domestic sustainability. Industrial emissions reductions require policy negotiations, capital investments, and coordination across complex stakeholder ecosystems. Choosing a more efficient refrigerator requires a trip to the appliance store and perhaps a slightly higher upfront cost that will recoup itself over the product’s operational lifetime.

This isn’t to diminish the necessity of systemic change, individual action cannot substitute for structural transformation. But the two approaches complement rather than compete. Households equipped with intelligent appliances consume fewer resources, place less strain on infrastructure, and model consumption patterns that cascade through communities.

The quiet green shift happening inside households won’t make headlines the way renewable energy megaprojects or electric vehicle adoption rates do. But every time that dishwasher calculates optimal water usage, every time that inverter compressor modulates instead of cycles, every time that smart refrigerator adjusts its cooling schedule based on door-opening patterns, something meaningful happens. Millions of these moments, aggregated across millions of households, compound into impact that rivals any single infrastructure project.

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Technology

Dreame Nebula NEXT Auto expands academic collaboration to accelerate AI-driven automotive innovation

Published

23 minutes ago

April 22, 2026

UC Berkeley engagement underscores long-term investment in autonomous systems, engineering depth and intelligent vehicle development

BERKELEY, Calif., April 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Dreame Nebula NEXT Auto has deepened its engagement with leading academic institutions, including the University of California, Berkeley, as it accelerates development of AI-defined vehicles and next-generation autonomous systems. The collaboration signals a long-term commitment to advancing core technologies that will shape the future of intelligent automotive motion.

The engagement brought Nebula NEXT engineers and leadership together with Berkeley researchers specialising in autonomous control systems, AI and intelligent transportation. The sessions focused on translating advanced research into real-world vehicle systems, with particular emphasis on safety, control and full-stack AI integration.

Jake Ma, Executive of Dreame Nebula NEXT Auto, said: “We aren’t building a car. We are building a new brain for the physical world. To us, the car is the only physical mothership capable of carrying the extreme compute required by large AI models today.”

The visit forms part of a broader strategy to anchor Nebula NEXT’s development in deep technical collaboration. By working closely with academic experts, the company is strengthening its approach to autonomous driving, vehicle intelligence and system-level engineering.

Nebula NEXT builds on Dreame Technology’s foundation in precision engineering and AI-driven innovation. This heritage underpins a shift from software-defined vehicles to AI-defined vehicles, where intelligence is embedded across the entire system, from perception and decision-making to chassis and powertrain control.

The company’s technical direction centres on integrating AI into the core dynamics of how vehicles operate. This includes continuous learning systems, multi-agent architectures and high-performance computing platforms designed to support real-time decision-making in complex driving environments.

Nebula NEXT first drew global attention at CES 2026 with the debut of the Nebula NEXT 01, a four-door electric hyper-sedan concept. The vehicle delivers 1.8-second acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h, more than 2,000 horsepower and a lightweight structure built from proprietary Blue Carbon Fiber.

Momentum continued with a high-profile appearance during the Super Bowl LVIII broadcast, extending the brand’s reach across North America and reinforcing its position as an emerging force in automotive technology.

Alongside performance, the company continues to prioritise foundational innovation. Its architecture combines AI-native operating systems, zonal electrical design and high-density computing platforms to enable scalable, intelligent vehicle systems.

Nebula NEXT is now entering a phase focused on system execution, engineering depth and scalable technology development. The company will present further advances at an upcoming Silicon Valley event on 27 April 2026, where it will unveil new products and core technologies.

By combining global market momentum, academic collaboration and a focus on engineering fundamentals, Dreame Nebula NEXT is positioning itself at the centre of the transition to AI-defined mobility.

Media contact:
Li Tong, Dreame Nebula Next Auto PR head, litong2@dreame.tech
Website: https://www.dreametech.com

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Technology

Sucden Financial Enables Client Trading in Shanghai Nickel Futures

Published

24 minutes ago

April 22, 2026

LONDON, April 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Sucden Financial, the multi-asset execution, clearing and liquidity provider, announces that clients can now trade nickel futures and options on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE), following today’s opening of the contract to international participants.

Sucden Financial offers access to SHFE through its Overseas Intermediary status and established Chinese banking relationships. Clients can manage exposure across SHFE, the London Metal Exchange (LME) and more than 20 other global commodities markets through a single account.

In addition to SHFE nickel contracts, Sucden Financial’s clients can access the following Chinese exchanges: the Shanghai International Energy Exchange, the Dalian Commodity Exchange and the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange.

Lucy Wainman, Head of Sales (China) at Sucden Financial, said:

“We are pleased to offer clients the opportunity to trade Shanghai nickel futures and options contracts, further broadening our access to Chinese markets. This milestone reflects the hard work of our team and the long-standing relationships we have built in China. We would like to thank SHFE and Chinese regulators for their support and constructive engagement.”

Marc Bailey, CEO of Sucden Financial, said:

“Expanding our global exchange coverage to include access to onshore mainland Chinese markets supports our organic growth strategy. By adding access to SHFE, we provide clients with an extended global reach through a single account. Continued investment in technology underpins our long-term commitment to our clients, enabling them to respond quickly to changing market dynamics and capture emerging opportunities.”

About Sucden Financial

With a history and heritage in commodity futures and options trading, Sucden Financial has evolved and diversified to become a leading global multi-asset execution, clearing and liquidity provider across FX, fixed income, and commodities.

Sucden Financial has a proven track record of over 50 years in financial markets. Since its foundation in 1973, it has been supported by its parent, Sucden, one of the world’s leading soft commodity trading groups, while remaining fully independent in its day-to-day trading operations.

Sucden Financial Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

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