- Jefferies sees limited impact from First Brands’ bankruptcy Reuters
- Behind the Collapse of an Auto-Parts Giant: $2 Billion Hole and Mysterious CEO The Wall Street Journal
- Auto Stocks in a Spin as First Brands, Tricolor Worry Investors Bloomberg.com
- Jefferies Provides Letter from Its CEO and President Regarding Point Bonita Capital and First Brands Group The AI Journal
- Echoes of the ‘Subprime Crisis’? Credit funds under Wall Street investment banks explode, with peers like Morgan Stanley beginning to withdraw investments. 富途牛牛
Category: 3. Business
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Jefferies sees limited impact from First Brands' bankruptcy – Reuters
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MENA startups face a cybersecurity wake-up call
An article by Dmitry Marinov, CTO of ANY.RUN, a UAE-based cybersecurity company
As the MENA startup ecosystem matures, cybersecurity has shifted from a back-office concern to a boardroom topic. With investors now demanding tangible proof of security controls—and not just compliance claims—founders must treat cybersecurity as a marker of operational maturity, not an afterthought.
In 2025, MENA startups face mounting pressure to align with both domestic compliance regimes (such as the UAE’s TDRA/NCA and KSA’s SAMA/NCA frameworks) and global investor expectations tied to ISO 27001, SOC2, and GDPR-like standards.
What’s new is that these aren’t just policies on paper — they now demand proof of practice. Startups are expected to demonstrate:
- Detonation of malware in sandbox environments
- Retention of threat activity logs for more than 30 days
- Mapping detections to MITRE ATT&CK and maintaining incident response workflows that go beyond email warnings
If just three years ago regional VCs rarely asked about security during due diligence, today investors and auditors increasingly treat this data as evidence of operational maturity, not just hygiene.
Still, the gap between what investors expect and what is happening on the ground has never been wider. In my incident response work across the MENA region, I’ve seen the same pattern repeatedly: startups with world-class products running on completely flat networks — all servers, workstations, and development environments on the same subnet with limited internal firewalls, no log retention beyond a week, and employees opening suspicious files directly on their laptops.
Becoming “security-capable” doesn’t require a fortune or a full SOC team. But it does require understanding what’s actually hitting startups in this region.
The most common types of attacks against startups in MENA
Startups everywhere face a standard set of cyber risks — phishing, ransomware, business email compromise (BEC) scams, and supply chain attacks. While Western attackers often aim to exfiltrate data at scale, many MENA-targeted campaigns are financially driven, delivering loaders like PrivateLoader or SmokeLoader as access points for ransomware groups.
Startups in the UAE and Saudi Arabia face disproportionately high volumes of commodity malware, rarely seen in ecosystems like those in the EU and the US. The region exhibits a distinctive flavour and intensity in specific vectors:
- Phishing remains the dominant attack vector, particularly credential harvesting via impersonated Microsoft login pages, fake invoice links, and HTML file lures embedded in ZIP archives.
- Stealer malware and droppers are designed for low observability — running in 64-bit and ARM environments, evading UAC prompts, and avoiding overt persistence.
- Business Email Compromise (BEC) has experienced a sharp rise (29 % increase in attack volume just in the UAE), often involving pretexting and internal impersonation to reroute payments or extract sensitive documents.
- Malicious documents are declining in volume but persist in campaigns that use archive containers or disguise themselves as training files.
Common root causes and security blind spots in early-stage teams
The biggest misconception among startups is that security is a “scale problem”—something to worry about after product-market fit. In reality, security debt compounds like technical debt, and the longer you wait, the more it costs—in engineering time, customer trust, and valuation risk.
Attackers don’t wait for Series B funding. We’ve seen phishing kits and loaders hit within days of a product launch, especially in regions like MENA where sandboxing and logging practices are still maturing.
Investors are also asking earlier: by the time you’re raising your first institutional round, funds in Abu Dhabi or Riyadh are already requesting red-team reports and sandbox logs. The tipping point isn’t a breach — it’s your first customer. From the moment you handle user data or payment flows, you’re a target, whether you have 50 users or 50,000.
Across early-stage startups, the same weaknesses surface repeatedly:
- Flat network setups: dev, staging, and production often run in the same network with overly broad access rights. A breach in one system can quickly spread to the rest.
- Weak credential practices: even with MFA, teams often reuse passwords or share admin accounts, making it easy for attackers to move laterally once they get in.
- Blind trust in endpoint security: many assume antivirus or EDR will block everything. In reality, most malware is designed to bypass these tools, especially when delivered via ZIP files or public CDNs.
- Phishing and social engineering: startups underestimate how targeted phishing has become, with lures mimicking tax portals, banks, or government sites. Attackers also go after founders or CFOs via LinkedIn or WhatsApp using convincing pretexts.
- Third-party dependencies: early-stage teams rely heavily on SaaS or vendors but rarely check their security posture, leaving exploitable blind spots.
A consistently overlooked mistake is lacking a safe place to open suspicious files. This doesn’t require a full-blown SOC or complex infrastructure — just a browser-based sandbox that lets your team safely detonate files in isolation.
Tools that enable this are easy to implement, yet many teams skip them entirely, assuming antivirus or email filters are “good enough.”
As a result, a single PDF or ZIP can slip through and trigger a compromise, especially where access controls are weak. Ultimately, it’s not just about detection — it’s about instilling a habit and providing a platform for your team to verify files before trusting them.
Practical security moves for small teams
Even without a dedicated SecOps function, early-stage startups can now reach higher levels of security maturity thanks to accessible, lightweight tools:
- SOC-as-a-Service: fractional security operations give small teams 24/7 monitoring, real-time alert triage, and incident response for a fraction of the cost of hiring analysts, often under $1,000 per month.
- Identity and access management: platforms such as Okta, Google Workspace with conditional access, or Tailscale help enforce MFA, granular access policies, and session visibility using the same APIs and dashboards developers already work with.
- Sandboxing and threat detection: modern browser-based sandboxes allow teams to safely detonate suspicious files and analyse malware behaviour. Combined with threat-intelligence feeds, they can instantly flag malicious URLs, file hashes, and reused attacker infrastructure — a key advantage in regions where phishing portals and CDN links are recycled frequently.
- Securing the build pipeline: integrate CI/CD scans (e.g., GitHub Actions) to catch known CVEs, leaked secrets, and dependency risks early.
- Leaning on security advisors: fractional CISOs or experienced advisors can help shape policies and guide incident response without the overhead of a full-time hire.
These practices don’t just close security gaps—they can also make a startup more credible to investors and partners. Keeping sandbox logs and IOC reports from suspected incidents shows that detection and response aren’t just aspirational.
A simple security whitepaper outlining key controls — identity management, backups, incident response — gives partners and investors clarity about how you operate. Regularly auditing third-party dependencies, especially open-source libraries, and pinning versions reduces supply-chain risk. And when your response plans are not only documented but also practised and version-controlled, it signals the kind of operational maturity investors value.
Five-step starter playbook for cybersecurity at a startup
Startups don’t need to build enterprise-grade security overnight, but a few foundational practices can make a dramatic difference in both security maturity and credibility.
- Identity first: enforce MFA across all tools and eliminate shared logins via a password manager such as 1Password or Bitwarden.
- Segment everything: separate dev, prod, and CI/CD into isolated VPCs with role-based IAM.
- Sandbox early: integrate a sandbox to inspect suspicious documents, installers, and links before user execution.
- Log and retain: utilise centralised logging solutions such as open-source tools like Wazuh SIEM to retain 30+ days of audit and network activity logs.
- Test the human layer: run phishing simulations quarterly and train staff to recognise lures across email, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp.
These steps will not only reduce the likelihood of a breach but also build trust with users, speed up procurement, and make due diligence smoother when you’re raising capital.
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Rupee may rely on central bank support; bonds to track inflation data – Reuters
- Rupee may rely on central bank support; bonds to track inflation data Reuters
- Undervalued or still vulnerable? Indian rupee’s path splits analysts Business Recorder
- INDIA RUPEE-Rupee finds breathing room, aided by central bank defence of key level MarketScreener
- Currency watch: Rupee rises 7 paise to 88.72 against dollar; domestic markets and crude oil support gains The Times of India
- RBI tethers rupee near record low even as gold rally adds to headwinds TradingView
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China’s state iron ore buyer offers BHP cargoes for sale amid ban fears
(Reuters) -Several cargoes of BHP iron ore were put up for sale in China on Thursday and at least one was sold to a local trader, potentially defusing concerns in Australia that Beijing had imposed a ban on iron ore sales from the world’s biggest miner.
BHP sold a 170,000-metric-ton cargo to a Chinese trader on Thursday, the first day of trading after China’s week-long national holiday, according to two traders with direct knowledge of the matter. The cargo was paid for in dollars, they said.
The same day, the Shanghai branch of China Mineral Resources Group (CMRG) – set up in 2022 to centralise iron ore purchasing and win better terms from miners – offered eight cargoes of BHP iron ore totaling 1.14 million tons to steelmakers, according to an offer sheet reviewed by Reuters.
AUSTRALIAN FEARS OF CHINESE BAN ON ITS IRON EXPORTS
Bloomberg reported last month that CMRG had told major steelmakers and traders to temporarily halt purchases of all new BHP cargoes, escalating an earlier pause on purchases of BHP’s Jimblebar fines product, a type of iron ore, during a standoff in negotiations over new term contracts.
That news triggered fears in Canberra that China was preparing a ban on Australia’s most profitable export, much as it did with coal and other commodities in 2020.
While CMRG told steelmakers last month during negotiations with BHP not to buy BHP’s Jimblebar fines, purchases of other grades of iron ore can be made with permission from CMRG, two other sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
TRADE IN BHP’S JIMBLEBAR FINES STILL FROZEN
None of the cargoes sold or offered on Thursday were Jimblebar fines, whose trade remains frozen according to all four sources.
Reuters could not determine when CMRG bought its cargoes from BHP or how many cargoes have been sold.
CMRG did not respond to Reuters’ emailed request for comment.
A BHP spokesperson said that BHP does not comment on commercial negotiations.
Jimblebar is a small but liquid product, with roughly 40 million tons a year produced, for which a limited shortage would be unlikely to trigger a rally in iron ore prices, the two trader sources said.
Rio Tinto’s flagship Pilbara fines product could also act as a substitute, they added.
Last week, BHP CEO Mike Henry doused concerns about CMRG’s decision in talks with Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers, according to local media, saying the move was part of commercial negotiations.
The Treasurer’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Reuters staff in Beijing and Melbourne; Editing by Joe Bavier)
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InnoTek Secures Contract to Supply Components to Nvidia
By Amanda Lee
A subsidiary of InnoTek, a Singapore-listed precision metal components manufacturer, has secured a contract to supply components for Nvidia products.
InnoTek said Monday that it had been approved as a recommended vendor for Nvidia a well as IEIT Systems.
Magix Mechatronics (Dongguan), an InnoTek subsidiary, has secured initial precision machining orders for components used in Nvidia's products, InnoTek said. The value of the contract wasn't provided.
Production of components for Nvidia is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2025.
In the same statement to the stock exchange, Innotek said another subsidiary, Sun Mansfield Manufacturing (Dongguan), won a new project by Shenzhen Stock Exchange-listed IEIT Systems, a provider of data centre and cloud computing infrastructure.
InnoTek expects to begin production of metal casings and components for GPU servers for IEIT from October this year.
Write to Amanda Lee at amanda.lee@wsj.com
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Comparison of the completed and discontinued pediatric drug clinical trials in Mainland China: a cross-sectional analysis based on the data from 2003 to 2023 | BMC Pediatrics
General information on the pediatric drug clinical trials
As of December 31, 2023, a cumulative total of 722 pediatric drug clinical trials had concluded—either completed or discontinued—in mainland China. The annual trends indicated an increase in the number of completed, discontinued, and overall concluded clinical trials, with average annual growth rates of 21.5%, 89.7%, and 19.7%, respectively (R²=0.486). (Fig. 2). In terms of the trial phases, there were relatively few trials in the early stages such as Phase I and Phase II. The majority of the trials were concentrated in later stages, specifically Phase III (285, 39.5%) and Phase IV (150, 20.1%). Meanwhile, 6.2% of the trials adopted adaptive seamless trial designs such as I/II or II/III. Regarding the types of trial drugs, chemical drugs accounted for the largest proportion (393, 54.4%), while Chinese medicines/natural drugs accounted for the smallest proportion (29, 4.0%). In terms of the age of participants, most trials recruited adolescents (524, 72.6%) and children (429, 59.4%), newborns (124, 17.2%) and infants (274, 40.0%) trials were relatively fewer. From the perspectives of sponsors and trial institutions, the majority of trials were conducted by domestic sponsors (463, 64.1%), and primarily involved investigator-initiated studies (IST) (459, 63.6%). The number of clinical trials conducted in children’s hospitals was relatively low (109, 15.1%), with the majority being conducted in adult hospitals, disease control centres, and other trial institutions (613, 84.9%) (Table 1).
Fig. 2 The growing trend of pediatric drug clinical trials in China
Table 1 General characteristics of completed or discontinued pediatric drug clinical trials According to the disease classification for trials in ICD-11, as presented in eFig.1 of the supplementary material, the majority of pediatric drug clinical trials in China currently focused on vaccines (134, 18.6%) and respiratory diseases (99, 13.7%). The completion rate was most pronounced in vaccine trials, accounting for 132 trials or 20.5% of the total. Conversely, oncology trials exhibited the highest discontinuation rate, with 22 trials representing 27.2% of the total. At the same time, as shown in Fig. 3, the discontinuation rate of oncology trials involving adolescent subjects is higher, and the completion rate of vaccine trials involving infants and children is higher.
Fig. 3 
The proportion of diseases system in pediatric clinical trials among different age groups. Coded by International Classification of Diseases (ICD)−11 classification. Because most trials involved multiple age groups, the sum of the proportions for each age group exceeds the total
The Chinese government has successively released two editions of the “Rare Disease Drug List.” Consequently, we utilized this list, along with disease-related information, to screen clinical trials for rare diseases [20, 21]. Among the 722 trials, only 116 were for rare diseases, involving 34 types of rare disease drugs (eTable 1). The distribution of clinical trial leading institutions was shown in Fig. 4, primarily concentrated in the eastern regions of China, Such as North and East China, with 235 (30.3%) and 194 (30.3%) trials respectively. However, the discontinuation rate in these two regions was also high, with 37 (45.7%) and 25 (30.9%) trials discontinued respectively.
Fig. 4 
Geographical location percentage among Completed and Discontinued pediatric clinical trials. The completion/discontinuation percentage refers to the proportion of the number of completed or discontinued trials in a certain location to the total number of completed or discontinued trials
In terms of trial design, 504 (69.8%) trials adopted randomization, and 384 (53.2%) trials used blinding. The trial sample sizes were mostly in the range of 100–500 participants (259, 35.9%). Most pediatric drug clinical trials were parallel and active-medicine controlled trials, with fewer single-arm and placebo-controlled trials. The proportion of trials with DMCs and MRCT was relatively low (Table 2). This study compared trials with seamless designs such as I/II, II/III with conventionally designed trials such as phase I, II, and III (eTable 2). The results showed that these trials with seamless designs enrolled fewer participants and had stricter data requirements, and a total of 64.4% of the trials had DMCs [22].
Table 2 Design of completed and discontinued pediatric drug clinical trials A comparative analysis of completed and discontinued trials was presented in Tables 1 and 2, showing significant differences in multiple key dimensions (P < 0.05). In terms of trial phases, completed trials are concentrated in phase III (256, 39.9%) and phase IV trials (146, 22.8%), conducted by non-pediatric hospitals such as adult hospitals and disease control centres. Discontinued trials were primarily in phase III (29, 35.8%) and phase II (13, 16.1%), with a higher proportion conducted by pediatric hospitals. In terms of trial design, completed trials demonstrated higher standards in randomization, parallel design, and active-medicine control (P < 0.05), providing higher levels of evidence. In comparison, the level of evidence for discontinuing trials was lower, the enrollment was smaller, and higher proportions of trials with DMCs and MRCT.
Subgroup analysis of the duration of completed pediatric drug clinical trials
A univariate subgroup analysis was performed on the duration of completed trials, excluding statistically insignificant variables such as sponsor type and trial design (eTable 3). The results of this analysis were presented in Fig. 5. Firstly, the duration of trials in China had gradually decreased over time(1201 days: 2003–2006, 458.5 days: 2019–2023). From the perspective of clinical trial stages, the seamless design trials of phases I/II, II/III, etc., took less time than the conventional trials with separate phases [23]. Additionally, there were significant differences in the trial duration among clinical trials of different diseases, with the duration of oncology clinical trials being the longest (1010 days) and that of vaccine clinical trials being the shortest (358.5 days). At the same time, the duration of trials with blinding, no adult participants, biological products, or domestic sponsors was shorter, and the trial duration of pediatric drug clinical trials with DMCs and MRCT was longer.
Fig. 5 
Duration of Completed pediatric drug clinical trials. Changes in the duration of trials were compared using time subsets of every four-year periods
Analysis of influencing factors and reasons for discontinued pediatric drug clinical trials
The dependent variable was trial discontinuation or completion, and the independent variable was information related to the inclusion of trials. Following the exclusion of variables with P≥0.05 following univariate analysis (eTable 4), the final model was presented in Table 3. This refined model revealed that the number of enrolled participants, disease, control setting, and the establishment of DMCs are significantly correlated with the discontinued trials. Trials enrolling 0-50 participants had a significantly higher probability of discontinuation compared to trials with over 1,000 participants (OR = 17.286, 95%CI = 3.175-94.119, P = 0.001). The results also demonstrate that, compared with placebo-controlled trials, active-drug-controlled trials (OR = 0.278, 95%CI 0.110–0.707, P = 0.007) and uncontrolled trials (OR = 0.149, 95%CI 0.026–0.859, P = 0.033) are associated with a significantly lower probability of discontinuation. Additionally, trials with DMCs were more prone to discontinuation (OR = 4.054, 95%CI = 2.011–8.172, P < 0.001). Furthermore, the likelihood of discontinuation was significantly greater for respiratory disease trials (P < 0.001) and oncology clinical trials (P = 0.009) compared to trials for other diseases (Table 3).
Table 3 Binary logistic regression analysis of factors affecting pediatric drug trial discontinuation Considering the reasons for trial discontinuation, we conducted a separate analysis of the significant variables in the previous logistic regression. As demonstrated in Table 4, the primary reasons for the discontinued trials were the safety or efficacy of the trial results (22, 27.2%) and commercial/trial plan adjustment(20, 24.6%). Small trials with fewer than 50 participants were discontinued because of plan adjustments (18, 27.6%). Placebo-controlled trials are more frequently discontinued due to safety or efficacy concerns than active-controlled or single-arm trials. Additionally, pediatric drug clinical trials involving adults were discontinued primarily due to trial results (17, 33.7%). In pediatric drug clinical trials for respiratory diseases and pediatric oncology, plan adjustments were the primary reasons for trial discontinuation, accounting for 4 (21.1%) and 8 (36.4%) respectively.
Table 4 Analysis of the reasons for the discontinued pediatric drug clinical trials [N(%)] Continue Reading
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Week Ahead for FX, Bonds: Eyes on U.S. Government -2-
The MAS uses the exchange rate as its policy tool to curb inflation and support growth, given Singapore’s trade-dependent economy. Separately, Singapore will also release its September nonoil domestic exports data on Friday.
Malaysia
Malaysia will release third-quarter advance GDP figures and September trade data. Economic growth likely slowed to 4.3% in the third quarter from 4.4% in the previous quarter, as leading indicators point to weaker private consumption and softer imports of consumer goods, ANZ economists said.
While business approvals rose sharply in the first half, sentiment weakened in the third quarter across manufacturing and services, and slower capital goods imports suggest softer investment growth. Nominal imports fell faster than exports, likely improving net export slightly, though external demand remains subdued, ANZ added. The bank maintained its full-year growth forecast at 4.3%.
Malaysia's export growth may remain subdued in September amid global uncertainty and U.S. tariffs imposed in August, said TA Securities analyst Farid Burhanuddin. However, Malaysia's diversified export base, particularly strong trade ties with Asean, China, and other emerging markets, should help offset weaker U.S. demand, he added.
India
India will release inflation data on Monday, which is widely expected to show that price growth has resumed cooling after an uptick in August. A CPI print below the central bank's target could fuel expectations for more rate cuts ahead.
DBS economists forecast headline inflation to have eased to 1.5% on year in September from 2.1% the month before, taking the quarterly average slightly below the RBI's projected 1.8%.
"Global energy prices have also been subdued, offsetting the spillover risks from a weak rupee, while precious metals continue to stay buoyant," they said.
Wholesale price index data on Tuesday will round out the inflation picture. On Wednesday, attention will turn to trade figures for September, as India remains in talks with the U.S. over tariffs. DBS economists expect exports to moderate, leaving the trade deficit wide at $24 billion.
Any references to days are in local times.
Write to Emese Bartha at emese.bartha@wsj.com and Jihye Lee at jihye.lee@wsj.com
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October 12, 2025 20:14 ET (00:14 GMT)
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