Omar Habbas, founding attorney of Habbas & Associates, has announced his support for a new educational initiative in partnership with San José Spotlight. This program aims to provide hands-on training and mentorship to aspiring journalists, ensuring the future of independent local news in Silicon Valley.

SAN JOSE, Calif., April 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — The decline of local journalism is a growing concern, with over 3,200 newspapers shuttered across the U.S. since 2005. This loss has led to increased misinformation, reduced civic engagement, and growing political division. As a longtime advocate for truth and justice, Mr. Habbas recognizes the critical role journalism plays in an informed society.

“Law and journalism are deeply connected—we both fight for truth, accountability, and justice,” said Mr. Habbas. “I am proud to support San José Spotlight in this effort to train the next generation of reporters and uphold the integrity of local news.”

Founded in 2019, San José Spotlight is Silicon Valley’s first nonprofit newsroom, dedicated to independent and investigative journalism. The new initiative will provide students and aspiring reporters, particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds, with mentorship, resources, and real-world experience in the field.

With Mr. Habbas as the program’s first major sponsor, San José Spotlight is also seeking additional funding from philanthropic organizations and individuals who believe in the power of local journalism.

For more information or to support this initiative, visit San José Spotlight.

Media Contact:
Omar Habbas
408-278-0480
Habbas & Associates

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SOURCE Habbas & Associates

Akamai’s cloud infrastructure contributes to improving the satisfaction of users of the CookieRun game around the world

SEOUL, South Korea, April 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Akamai Technologies, Inc., the cybersecurity and cloud company that powers and protects businesses online, announced today that Devsisters Inc., the developer of the globally popular CookieRun series, has adopted Akamai Cloud to strengthen its global game services infrastructure.

The adoption of Akamai Cloud is a decision by Devsisters to ensure stable service operations amid its rapid global market expansion. Devsisters is adding new items, stages, and features; improving its system; and hosting events for its games CookieRun: Kingdom and CookieRun: OvenBreak to improve user satisfaction while increasing the influx of new users. Thanks to these efforts, Devsisters’ CookieRun series is rapidly expanding its user base around the world.

Key features

Global performance improvements: Compared with conventional public clouds, Akamai Cloud features a more distributed edge and a wider range of points of presence, which enable the infrastructure to automatically scale up and down to deliver the same game experience to users around the world, even when traffic is concentrated in certain regions.

Cost optimization: When there are periods of peak user traffic, the system automatically allocates more server resources. In off-peak periods, it scales them back, preventing unnecessary operational costs.

Scalability: During new game launches, large-scale updates, or other events when hundreds of thousands to millions of users connect simultaneously, the system detects traffic surges in real time and automatically allocates the necessary resources, minimizing server downtime and service delays.

Devsisters expects that the adoption of Akamai Cloud will enable the swift deployment and scaling of new game launches, large-scale updates, and events so that users around the world can enjoy the same game experience anytime, anywhere.

“In mobile gaming, latency is a critical factor in determining the quality of service that users experience,” said KJ Lee, Regional Vice President and Managing Director of Akamai Korea. “With Akamai Cloud, a global gaming company like Devsisters can grow their global user base in a stable manner by providing services that are closer to users wherever they access the game in the world,” he added.

About Akamai
Akamai is the cybersecurity and cloud computing company that powers and protects business online. Our market-leading security solutions, superior threat intelligence, and global operations team provide defense-in-depth to safeguard critical data and applications at every touchpoint. Akamai’s full-stack cloud computing solutions deliver superior performance and affordability on the world’s most distributed platform. Global enterprises trust Akamai to provide the industry-leading reliability, scale, and expertise they need to grow their business with confidence. Learn more at akamai.com and akamai.com/blog, or follow Akamai Technologies on X and LinkedIn.

About Devsisters
Founded in 2007, Devsisters is a Korea-based game developer and creator of the popular CookieRun series with more than 200 million users worldwide. The company provides entertainment to users while building a unique universe centered around captivating characters and storytelling through various games across different platforms and genres, including CookieRun: OvenBreak and CookieRun: Kingdom. The company is also increasing its brand awareness through various IP-based businesses and is quickly becoming a global game company through continuous growth.

CONTACT: Akamai PR, akamaiPR@akamai.com

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SOURCE Akamai Technologies, Inc.

SEOUL, South Korea, April 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — WireBarley has strengthened its service reliability by obtaining global compliance audits.

WireBarley, a cross-border payment solution provider, has successfully completed both the SOC 1 compliance audit for global internal control over financial reporting and the SOC 2 compliance audit for information security.

System and Organization Controls (SOC) is a framework established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) to evaluate and certify the internal controls of service providers. Financial and IT service companies obtain a SOC report under these frameworks to demonstrate their credibility and security at an international level. SOC 1 assesses the adequacy of internal controls related to financial reporting, while SOC 2 assesses the information security management system of a company’s services. SOC 2 consists of five key principles: Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, and Privacy, with WireBarley completing the compliance audit with Security and Availability.

Each SOC report is classified into two types: Type 1, which evaluates whether internal controls are properly designed, and Type 2, which assesses whether these controls operate effectively over a period of time.

WireBarley previously obtained SOC 1 Type 1 and Type 2 reports, followed by the SOC 2 Type 1 report in 2024. In February of this year, the company achieved the final SOC 2 Type 2 report.

The SOC 1 and SOC 2 audits for WireBarley were conducted by KPMG Samjong Accounting Corp. as an independent auditor.

Joongwon John Yoo, CEO of WireBarley, stated, “This achievement of the SOC reports is a significant milestone that demonstrates WireBarley, in collaboration with over 50 global partners, is establishing itself as a reliable service in the global finance and fintech industry. We will continue strengthening our security and compliance efforts to ensure our customers and partners can use our services with confidence.”

Notably, SOC 2 reports require systematic security controls, which is why these reports have primarily been obtained by large IT companies. WireBarley, as a fintech startup, receiving the reports is a meaningful achievement, as it signifies official recognition of the company’s global-level security and internal control capabilities.

Additionally, WireBarley has maintained the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) certification for three consecutive years, demonstrating its top-tier global security capabilities in protecting card payment data. The company also operates a Compliance Committee comprising compliance professionals from all the countries where it provides services, ensuring adherence to local regulations.

WireBarley currently offers individual and business remittance services in seven sending countries and regions, including South Korea, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong SAR, and Vietnam, with transfers available to 46 countries worldwide.

WireBarley Corp.
Founded in 2016, WireBarley Corp. has rapidly expanded, establishing a strong presence across the Asia-Pacific region. As the first Korean overseas remittance company to enter the U.S. and Canadian markets, WireBarley continues to solidify its position as a global fintech leader. Headquartered in South Korea, WireBarley operates multiple subsidiaries worldwide, including in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong SAR, and the U.S. WireBarley’s FX and corporate treasury center in Hong Kong, which is one of the largest FX trading hubs in the world, plays a crucial role in enabling effective FX management and strong compliance practicality and formulating strategic partnerships with critical banks and payment player. With 7 outbound and 46 inbound countries, WireBarley currently facilitates over 520 remittance corridors and serves 1 million customers, with its mobile app reaching 2 million downloads. Expanding beyond remittances, the company has integrated B2B remittance platform, e-wallet services, and multi-currency cards, aiming to transform into a comprehensive global payment platform and establish itself as Asia’s foremost remittance provider.
www.wirebarley.com 

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SOURCE WireBarley