BlackRock has introduced its first bitcoin exchange-traded product in Europe.
TakeAway Points:
- BlackRock has launched its first bitcoin exchange-traded product in Europe.
- Microsoft launched its AI-powered Security Copilot a year ago to bring a chatbot to the cybersecurity space, and now it’s expanding it with AI agents that are designed to autonomously assist overwhelmed security teams.
- Snapdragon-equipped PCs can now download the Google Drive app.
Bitcoin product in Europe
This happened in a bid to tap growing demand for cryptocurrency exposure in new markets after attracting more than $50 billion into similar products in the United States.
The world’s largest asset manager has launched its ‘iShares Bitcoin ETP’, according to a BlackRock product page online, which is domiciled in Switzerland and listed in Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt.
BlackRock was one of the first institutional investors to offer exchange-traded products in the U.S. to track the spot price of bitcoin after the Securities and Exchange Commission first approved them in January 2024.
It has partnered with Coinbase as custodian and Bank of New York Mellon as administrator on the latest product, the page said.
Microsoft announces security AI agents to help overwhelmed humans
The tech gaint introduced its AI-powered Security Copilot, a chatbot that is now being expanded with AI agents that are intended to help overburdened security professionals on their own.
Microsoft is unveiling six of its own AI agents for its Security Copilot, as well as five that have been created by its partners.
Microsoft’s six security agents will be available in preview next month, and are designed to do things like triage and process phishing and data loss alerts, prioritize critical incidents, and monitor for vulnerabilities. “The six Microsoft Security Copilot agents enable teams to autonomously handle high-volume security and IT tasks while seamlessly integrating with Microsoft Security solutions,“ says Vasu Jakkal, corporate vice president of Microsoft Security.
Other security agents
Microsoft is also working with OneTrust, Aviatrix, BlueVoyant, Tanium, and Fletch to enable some third-party security agents. These extensions will make it easier to analyze data breaches with OneTrust or perform root cause analysis of network outages and failures with Aviatrix.
AI agents are becoming an increasingly popular way for companies like Microsoft to sell businesses on AI tools. Microsoft relaunched its Copilot for businesses earlier this year with free AI chat and access to pay-as-you-go AI agents.
While these latest AI agents in the Security Copilot are designed for security teams to take advantage of, Microsoft is also improving its phishing protection in Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 will start protecting Teams users against phishing and other cyberthreats within Teams next month, including better protection against malicious URLs and attachments.
Microsoft also has a lot of other industry-specific security announcements today and at its upcoming Microsoft Secure event on April 9th. You can read more about them over at Microsoft’s security blog.
Google Drive for Windows on Arm PCs is now widely available
Google has officially launched its Drive app for Arm-compatible Windows PCs. It first rolled out the Arm64 app in beta last year, but now it’s “generally available,” according to an update posted Monday.
Like the existing Google Drive app, the Arm64 version lets Windows PCs running Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors store, sync, and access files. The app is only available on devices with Windows 11 and Microsoft WebView 2, which Google says is “typically included” with Windows 11.
With last year’s launch of Qualcomm-equipped Copilot Plus PCs, many more apps have added support for Arm64, including Google Chrome, NordVPN, and ExpressVPN. Microsoft is also working on an update that will allow more software and games to run using its Prism emulator.
