Information & Communication Technology (ICT)

Syracuse, N.Y. – September 29, 2026 -- Leslie Jemiolo, Director of Partner Marketing at MarketDesign Consulting Inc., has been named a finalist for CRN's 2026 Women of the Year Awards in the Solution Provider category.

CRN recognizes Jemiolo for building partner ecosystems across telecom, solution provider and manufacturing sectors.

Her nomination cites decades of channel experience translating vendor-partner relationships into measurable business growth, according to the announcement from MarketDesign Consulting Inc.

NEW YORK – September 29, 2026 -- Software Experts has named CorelDRAW Graphics Suite a leading AI vector generation tool, citing Text-to-Vector capabilities introduced in the September 2026 Update.

Editable output separates CorelDRAW from single-shot AI generators

Software Experts highlighted editability as the deciding factor in its recognition. Text-to-Vector converts written prompts or existing artwork into scalable vector graphics while keeping shapes, curves, colors, and individual objects open for further manual adjustment after generation.

The tool addresses a recurring production bottleneck: AI-generated artwork is typically a starting point, not a finished asset. Logos often need resizing, apparel graphics require color swaps, and icons need reshaping before reaching final production.

Austin, Texas – September 29, 2026 -- CyberRatings.org has published new Cloud Network Firewall (CNFW) test results showing security effectiveness among nine evaluated products ranging from 0% to 99.95%, with only four earning a Recommended rating.

Four vendors clear the bar with 99.7% or higher security effectiveness

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall, HPE Juniper Networking vSRX Next Generation Firewall, Palo Alto Networks VM-Series Next-Generation Firewall, and Versa Networks Next Generation Firewall each achieved 99.7% or higher in Security Effectiveness, earning Recommended ratings. Tests were conducted by NSS Labs, CyberRatings' official testing partner, using the Cloud Network Firewall Test Methodology v4.1.

London – September 28, 2026 -- UK-based AI platform company askelie has launched askVERA, an AI-powered service that converts complex documents and communications into Plain English and Easy Read formats for consumers and businesses.

askVERA launches in two versions targeting individuals and organisations

The consumer (B2C) version allows individuals to upload or paste documents such as tenancy agreements, insurance policies or official letters to receive an instant simplified version. The business (B2B) version integrates into an organisation's existing workflows, enabling companies to simplify customer-facing content at scale and reduce queries caused by unclear communication.

Cornwall Council already piloted the technology before wider rollout

Ahead of the public launch, askVERA had already been deployed with organisations including Cornwall Council to make official documents more accessible.

St. Louis – September 28, 2026 -- Balto Software has launched Kodi, an AI coworker for contact center leaders that moves beyond generating insights to directly executing approved changes across the tools teams use to run daily operations.

Kodi investigates problems and implements fixes without manual handoffs

Kodi can investigate underlying customer interactions, identify factors driving a given outcome, and present evidence before recommending a course of action. Once a leader reviews and approves the recommendation, Kodi executes it directly within Balto's platform through Agent Assist, coaching modules, QA scorecards, compliance scorecards, Notes, dynamic prompts, checklists, dashboards, and data fields.

Kyle Jones, VP of Product at Balto, said most insights tools stop at identifying a problem, while Kodi is designed to carry the process through to execution inside the platform.

Dallas – September 28, 2026 -- Conifers has been named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Standalone AI SOC Platforms 2026 Vendor Assessment (doc # US54127026, September 2026), the company announced.

Conifers' CognitiveSOC platform unifies fragmented security operations into one adaptive system

The recognition arrives as security operations centers confront autonomous agents built on frontier models capable of discovering vulnerabilities and moving across systems at machine speed. Conifers built its CognitiveSOCTM platform to connect threat intelligence, threat hunting, detection engineering, investigation, and remediation into a single continuously adapting operating layer, replacing disconnected tools and manual handoffs. Every CognitiveSOC decision includes a reasoning trace analysts can inspect, with machine-speed actions constrained by permissions, policies, and approval thresholds set by security teams.

McLean, Va. – September 28, 2026 -- ID.me, the digital identity wallet serving over 170 million users, has appointed Susannah Stroud Wright as Chief Legal Officer and Darragh Whelan as Executive Vice President of Engineering, expanding its executive team as the company scales AI-driven identity verification across federal and state agencies.

Shanghai – September 28, 2026 -- The9 Limited (Nasdaq: NCTY) said its mobile simulation title "The Greed of Man《大時代》" reached No. 1 in the Simulation Games category on both the Hong Kong Apple App Store and Google Play following its September 24, 2026 launch.

Game built in eight months versus industry-standard two to three years

The title was produced on the9bit, The9's proprietary AI game production platform that orchestrates multiple AI models across development rather than relying on a single foundation model. The platform converts a natural-language or image-based idea into a structured production blueprint, then coordinates content generation, debugging, asset creation and integration across the pipeline. An AI-native editing environment allows creators to refine gameplay elements, parameters and visuals through further natural-language instructions.

ZURICH – – September 28, 2026 -- A UK family would need 83 hours, or 10.4 eight-hour working days, to read all the privacy and terms documents tied to one ordinary day of digital activity, a new Web3 Foundation White Paper finds.

Modelled household scenario totals 257 documents and 1,184,835 words

The figure exceeds the 884,647 words in William Shakespeare's complete works by 34%. Researchers mapped six model households across the UK and US, identifying 1,195 relevant consumer privacy and terms documents totaling more than 5.38 million words across 143 companies and institutions.

83% of documents permit personal data use for marketing or advertising

The analysis found 80% of documents allow combining user data with other information, while 71% permit sharing with commercial partners. At least 24% of documents state user data may be used to train or improve AI or machine-learning systems.

New York – September 28, 2026 -- Noma Security has expanded its AI and agent security platform to cover autonomous agents, MCP servers, and skills running directly on employee laptops, closing what the company calls one of the largest blind spots in enterprise AI security.

Agents on employee machines inherit full user credentials without oversight

Coding agents such as Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and Windsurf, along with productivity agents like Claude Cowork, already operate on employee devices with the same permissions and credentials as the humans who installed them. MCP servers and skills extend that access into databases, repositories, and internal systems, often chaining actions across a session without requiring approval at each step.