InfoWatch

InfoWatch Acquires Web Control DC Team and Rebrands sPACE PAM as InfoWatch Privilege Control

InfoWatch has expanded its product portfolio by incorporating the Web Control DC development team and rebranding its flagship sPACE PAM solution. The new product, InfoWatch Privilege Control, is designed to manage and monitor privileged accounts belonging to system administrators, contractors, external specialists, and business users. These accounts provide access to servers, databases, network equipment, and critical applications, making them high-value targets for attackers. According to InfoWatch data, approximately 40% of critical information security incidents in Russia in 2025 were linked to the leakage or misuse of privileged credentials, while another 30% of confirmed cyberattacks occurred through compromised IT contractors. The solution enables time-limited privilege issuance, connection management, and detailed activity logging to prevent unauthorized actions. The original sPACE PAM product remains listed in the Russian software registry and holds FSTEC Russia certification at the fourth trust level, with compatibility for Astra Linux, Alt, and RED OS operating systems.

Building a Minimalist UI Test Framework with Playwright and Pytest

Vladislav Timashenkov from InfoWatch presents a practical approach to constructing a concise UI automation testing framework using Playwright. The article focuses on leveraging native Playwright features instead of creating additional abstraction layers. It covers launching a Chromium browser once per session, handling authentication via API calls to obtain cookies, and managing isolated BrowserContext instances for test independence. Readers learn how to implement Page Object models that rely on Playwright's built-in locators and auto-waiting mechanisms. The tutorial includes real code examples for fixtures, context factories, and a sample test for tag management functionality. This method reduces maintenance overhead while ensuring tests remain scalable across different environments.

InfoWatch Details ARMA Wall NGFW Development for Industrial Systems Under Russian Import Substitution Rules

InfoWatch has published the second part of its interview series describing the ongoing development of the ARMA Wall next-generation firewall for industrial control systems. The product prioritizes on-premise processing without cloud agents to meet strict customer security policies and certification requirements. Engineers combine proprietary detection feeds with external sources, including indicators from NKCKI, while maintaining hundreds of thousands of signatures without disabling legacy rules for older Siemens controllers. Migration support relies on manual pre-project audits rather than automated tools, and the company works closely with domestic SCADA vendors to embed NGFW capabilities inside long-lifecycle OT environments. ARMA Wall is positioned as a more flexible and cost-effective alternative to data diodes because it allows granular command-level filtering and can emulate one-way traffic when required. The solution is already deployed at Roscosmos subsidiary RKK Energia after full certification and categorization.

Bridging Manual and Automated Testing: InfoWatch Engineer Outlines Unified Quality Process

InfoWatch senior test engineer Mikhail Shalepo has published a detailed article describing how his team built a reproducible process that links manual and automated testing into a single quality system. The approach addresses the growing complexity of server-side products that undergo quarterly releases and require extensive matrix testing across multiple operating systems and installation scenarios. Shalepo explains that the regulation focuses on decision points rather than prescribing exact test volumes, ensuring that choices about automation candidates, smoke-test gates, failure ownership, and manual compensation are documented and visible to the entire team. The framework divides work into two main blocks—feature development and pre-release regression—each containing preparation, execution, and completion stages. Key outputs include linked artifacts in TMS Scale, explicit Definition of Done criteria, and traceable coverage data that prevents reliance on individual knowledge. The article also shares practical lessons, including why separate mind maps and tables failed to stay current and how the team now integrates automation status directly with test cases.

Thales Group Report Reveals Surge in AI Agent Adoption and Rising Cybersecurity Budgets Worldwide

Thales Group surveyed over 3,000 respondents across 20 countries and found that 34 percent of organizations already use AI agents while 73 percent plan to deploy them within the next year. The rapid growth of agentic AI applications has dramatically increased data volume and speed, forcing companies to allocate separate security budgets, with the share rising from 20 percent last year to 30 percent this year. More than half of respondents reported that their AI applications had been targeted in attacks aimed at stealing confidential data, and 48 percent suffered reputational damage from AI-generated disinformation including deepfakes. Cloud storage, SaaS applications, and cloud management infrastructure remain the top three attack targets. In parallel, the Russian BISA association surveyed local specialists and discovered that 89 percent view the transfer of sensitive data to public AI services as the most critical risk vector, with 46 percent already aware of leakage incidents linked to generative AI tools.

Natalia Kasperskaya Advises Against Mass Biometric Rollout in Russia Citing High Costs, Reliability Issues and Deepfake Threats

Natalia Kasperskaya, president of InfoWatch and chair of the Domestic Software association, has warned that widespread deployment of biometric authentication across Russia would be both prohibitively expensive and insufficiently reliable. She argued that systems such as face recognition, which rely on creating detailed digital models from tens of thousands of points, require enormous computing power and data storage when scaled nationally. Kasperskaya highlighted practical limitations including poor camera quality, inadequate lighting and low-resolution source images that can prevent accurate recognition, especially on older smartphones. A growing concern she raised is the rapid improvement of deepfakes, which are becoming increasingly difficult for both humans and systems to distinguish from genuine images, thereby opening new avenues for fraud. She recommended using biometrics only in limited, high-value scenarios as a supplementary verification method rather than a universal replacement for other authentication techniques. The remarks come as Russia already operates the Unified Biometric System that enables access to Gosuslugi, electronic signatures, eSIM issuance and certain banking services.