Security risks

Govini, a defense software startup, terminated founder Eric Gillespie’s board position after his arrest on charges related to soliciting sexual contact with a minor. The company emphasized its commitment to security and clarified that Gillespie, 57, hasn’t had access to classified data since stepping down as CEO years ago. The Pentagon is investigating potential security risks. The news comes after Govini surpassed $100 million in ARR and secured a $150 million investment. They also hold a $900 million government contract for supply chain risk analysis.

Zhou Hongyi, founder of 360, addressed concerns about Nvidia’s H20 AI chip security at a Beijing conference, following reports of Chinese regulatory scrutiny. While acknowledging the difficulty of detecting hardware backdoors, Zhou stated software-related vulnerabilities are inevitable. He distinguished between intentional backdoors and unintentional vulnerabilities, suggesting China’s suspicions are reasonable given past US government requests to Nvidia. Despite this, Zhou believes Nvidia likely has no deliberate malicious intent and proposed a third-party security audit to address concerns. Nvidia denies any backdoors in its chips.