EcoShield Pest Solutions recognizes the everyday dedication of its customer Experience Team with a week of connection, celebration, and heartfelt appreciation.

PHOENIX, Oct. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- EcoShield Pest Solutions celebrated its first Customer Service Appreciation Week with a week of recognition, connection, and activities honoring the people who help customers feel heard, supported and cared for every day.

For EcoShield's customer service teams, a phone call can mean helping someone resolve a frustrating pest issue, answering a billing question or coordinating with a local branch to find a solution. Each conversation requires patience, problem-solving and the ability to connect with someone whose day may already be difficult.

Customer Service Appreciation Week gave those teams an opportunity to receive the care they regularly extend to others.

"We appreciate everything that you're doing. We see you. We know your job is not easy, so this is our way of just saying thank you," said Lizzy Bradley, Manager of Customer Care Center, describing the message behind the celebration.

The effort began with Kristen Elmore, Training Manager of Customer Experience. As she started planning, she recognized that the celebration needed to reflect the people it was meant to honor. She brought together a committee representing different areas of customer experience, inviting team members to contribute ideas and help shape the week.

"It needs to have a voice from everyone," Kristen said. "The team needs to do this, because it's for them."

That collaboration became a week of shared music, interactive chats, quizzes, themed activities, recognition messages and appreciation gifts. Activities were designed to include both in-office and remote agents, including overseas colleagues, helping teammates connect across locations.

The celebration also created opportunities for people from local offices and other departments to share their appreciation. Conversations that typically centered on scheduling or customer needs made room for encouragement, laughter and getting to know one another.

For Heathyre Watts, a supervisor of customer care, those personal connections are central to supporting a team. Understanding how someone is doing, recognizing their efforts and helping them through a challenging day all influence the care they can provide to customers.

"I have to obviously look at the data and the numbers, but you impact those through connection with your team," Heathyre said.

The week offered another opportunity to recognize quieter team members whose contributions can be easy to overlook. Shared activities gave more people a way to participate, connect and feel included.

Jim Long, EcoShield's Manager of the Customer Care Center, praised the sustained engagement throughout the week and the effort to include overseas teammates. His message to the people taking calls and supporting customers was simple: "You guys all deserve it."

For Lizzy, the purpose of that work comes back to the person on the other end of the phone.

"We're just humans talking to humans," she said.

EcoShield's first Customer Service Appreciation Week celebrated that human connection—and the people who build it every day. Through the committee's efforts and participation across teams, the week put the company's purpose of spreading happiness into practice for those who spend their days helping others.

ABOUT ECOSHIELD PEST SOLUTIONS:

EcoShield Pest Solutions is a national leader in residential pest control, dedicated to protecting families and homes with comprehensive and effective solutions. Founded in 2008, EcoShield's mission has always been to deliver peace of mind through science-driven treatments that eliminate pests while minimizing environmental impact. With local service teams across the country, their team of experts provides personalized protection against ants, spiders, rodents, termites, and more—always backed by their commitment to reliability, sustainability, and exceptional customer care. For more information, visit www.ecoshieldpest.com.

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Florida Poly makes history with first flying police vehicle

LAKELAND, Fla., Oct. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Florida Polytechnic University Police Department has become the first law enforcement agency in the nation to integrate an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle into its operations.

The manned aircraft, dubbed Astro in a double nod to science and the dog from the classic Jetsons cartoon, marks Florida Poly's entry into the rapidly developing field of advanced air mobility (AAM), creating new opportunities to explore how the emerging technology can support public safety.

"Advanced air mobility is a technology on the rise, and we can either choose to be proactive or reactive as it develops," said Aaron Murray, the University's police chief. "We want to stay at the forefront of this technology and understand how it can be used to advance public safety and airspace safety altogether."

Florida Poly is in the final stages of seeking approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to use the aerial patrol vehicle in its operations. Murray said Astro can enhance the department's ability to monitor campus and surrounding acres, reach areas difficult to access by traditional vehicles, assist with post-storm recovery efforts and deliver emergency supplies quickly when needed.

The University Police plans to collaborate with law enforcement agencies throughout the region to deploy Astro in support of emergency response and other public safety operations.

First in the U.S.

Stéphan D'haene, CEO of Jetson, said the California-based company fast-tracked Florida Poly's order of the Jetson ONE vehicle despite a three-year waiting list because of the University's STEM focus and the police department's public safety purpose, both of which reflect Jetson's goals for the future of safe flight.

"In our business plan and in alignment with our mission, we have always been looking for the use case beyond the recreational intent," D'haene said. "We believe that this project is so important and aligns so much with what we want to do that we made it a priority."

A new educational horizon

Beyond its public safety applications, Astro will become a hands-on learning and research tool for Florida Poly students and faculty. The University launched its new aerospace engineering degree this fall, providing students an immediate opportunity to study emerging flight technology in a real-world setting.

"At Florida Poly, we want our students working with emerging technologies before they become commonplace," said Dr. Brad Thiessen, Florida Poly's provost. "Astro gives our students and faculty a living laboratory where they can analyze real-world data, tackle new engineering challenges and help shape the future of advanced air mobility."

Faculty and students are already coordinating efforts to use real-time operational data from Astro for academic research and senior capstone design projects.

"Connecting an educational component to this technology is a big deal," Murray said. "We are a technology university, and this aerial vehicle delivers more opportunities to learn, build partnerships and explore ways to keep our airspace safe, while connecting the work of our police department directly with our students."

Technology takes flight

The introduction of the Astro flying police vehicle is the latest example of Florida Poly putting emerging technology into practice across campus. The University recently added a drone unit for its police department and a student-powered Security Operations Center for cybersecurity.

"There are a lot of things that people once looked at as recreational vehicles that are incredible tools in our profession now," Murray said. "People used to think that bicycles, motorcycles and drones were all just toys or hobbies, but look at the huge impact they have made on our law enforcement profession."

Astro's arrival also comes as AAM gains momentum across the state, particularly in Central Florida.

Florida was recently selected to participate in the Federal Aviation Administration's eVTOL and Advanced Air Mobility Integration Pilot Program, designed to safely integrate next-generation aircraft into the national airspace. The SunTrax facility in Auburndale, Florida, located only four miles away from Florida Poly, is home to the nation's first dedicated AAM aerial test track, with eVTOL testing expected to begin by the end of 2026.

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SACRAMENTO, Calif., Oct. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Sophont, a frontier medical AI startup, announces Holon-S1, a pan-cancer AI model that predicts spatial gene and biological pathway activity from routine hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) pathology slides. By using widely available pathology slides, Holon-S1 aims to broaden access to insights that typically require costly and time-consuming molecular testing, supporting biomarker discovery and personalized treatment research.

"Most AI pathology solutions infer patient risk profiles without showing clinicians and researchers what biology resulted in the prediction," said Tanishq Mathew Abraham, Ph.D., CEO & Co-Founder of Sophont. "Holon-S1 was designed to uncover the biology behind the answer, showing which genes are active, where in the tumor they are active, and how that is related to whether a patient is likely to respond to treatment. Pathology has historically told us what a tumor looks like. Holon-S1 goes beyond this and tells us what the tumor is doing and where it may be vulnerable."

In a retrospective osteosarcoma patient case study using publicly shared slides, Holon-S1 recovered several insights originally obtained through months of extensive molecular testing.

Holon-S1 identified a fibroblast-associated program including FAP, the gene targeted by a therapy that the patient responded to. Comparing pretreatment and post-treatment slides, quantified increased immune infiltration and decreased cancer proliferation. The model had not been trained on osteosarcoma, suggesting potential generalization to unseen cancer types and analysis of archived slides without new tissue.

In triple-negative breast cancer, a novel biomarker defined by the spatial organization of predicted EREG activity was associated with response to chemotherapy before surgery in discovery and separate held-out cohorts. EREG has been implicated in chemotherapy sensitivity in other cancers; for the first time, this analysis suggested potential relevance in breast cancer. Details appear in Holon-S1's technical report.

Sophont evaluated Holon-S1 across 16 organ types, more than 15 scanners, and formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded and fresh-frozen tissue. In a controlled comparison, it outperformed two other state-of-the-art models released this year in spatial gene activity prediction and robustness.

Holon-S1 is currently available for research use only. Sophont is designing further retrospective and prospective studies to evaluate potential diagnostic use.

"Biomedical foundation models are advancing at an extraordinary pace, and we are entering an era in which feature extraction and prediction alone may no longer suffice," said Jorge Reis-Filho, Chief Strategy Officer and Operating Partner at Foresite Labs and Venture Partner at Foresite Capital. "Models that combine high predictive accuracy with biological interpretability could enable new approaches to translational research and help us reimagine disease taxonomy and segmentation, as well as play pivotal roles in patient stratification," he added. "I look forward to seeing rigorous, independent evaluations of Holon-S1 against other leading foundation models on biologically and clinically relevant benchmarks."

The company is inviting biopharma and life sciences companies as well as research institutions to collaborate on biomarker discovery, therapeutic target research, and analysis of existing and archived patient cohorts.

Explore Holon-S1: https://sophont.med/holon

About Sophont

Sophont is a frontier medical AI lab building open, multimodal medical foundation models. Founded in February 2025 by Tanishq Mathew Abraham, Ph.D., and Paul Scotti, Ph.D., Sophont has raised $9.22M to date from Kindred Ventures, Upfront Ventures, Jeff Dean (Discovery Loop), Logan Kilpatrick (Google DeepMind), Clem Delangue (Hugging Face), and others. Sophont's mission is to build open medical superintelligence: AI that sees the whole patient, and that every clinician and researcher can use, inspect and build on. Its open releases include OpenMidnight, CortexMAE and Medmarks. Learn more: https://sophont.med.

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First of its kind dataset includes more than 300 hours of muscle-signal and first-person video recordings that let robots learn from what hands do beyond what a camera sees

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Encord, the data infrastructure company for Physical AI, today released EMG-1, the largest open-source dataset pairing muscle signals to first-person video. Developed in collaboration with Wearable Devices, the release ties biological signals to AI development, using wristbands that read the forearm muscle signals behind every finger movement (a technique called electromyography, or EMG), capturing what the hand is doing even when it is hidden from view. EMG-1 contains more than 300 hours of synchronized recordings during real world tasks alongside optical motion capture; it is over 30 times larger than the next-largest public dataset of its kind.

Autonomous robots learn how to manipulate objects in deployment by training on real-world video of people completing tasks, but cameras lose track of hands when they are occluded, most often by the object being handled. EMG is used to produce accurate hand-pose labels on training data where the camera fails, continually recording the electrical activity that drives each finger. Paired with first-person video, the two streams provide a complete record of a movement that is inaccessible through a camera alone, in addition to signals like force and contact that a camera cannot capture.

Experiments showed that combining EMG with video reduced fingertip tracking error by 25% compared with video alone, and resulted in 35% lower error during short gaps in visual tracking. EMG alone also recognized pinch-like finger movements. Encord is excited to see what the community can do with EMG-1 beyond our initial testing. Researchers can download the dataset and learn more about other initiatives at encord.com/data-labs.

EMG is the first of several biological signals Encord Data Labs is bringing into robot training data. The lab is also conducting research into how brain signals (EEG) can be used to label an operator's mental state, such as satisfaction or error response, and steer robot policies.

"We work with hundreds of companies at the frontier of Physical AI like Toyota, Boston Dynamics and Zipline, and it's clear that real-world model performance comes down to the data going in. With EMG-1 and our new state-of-the-art hand-tracking model, Encord is offering a solution to one of the biggest problems facing robotics teams today," said Eric Landau, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Encord.

Introducing Encord Data Labs

EMG-1 releases in conjunction with the launch of Encord Data Labs, a research division working at the frontier of Physical AI data development. Encord works with hundreds of leading AI teams, giving the company visibility into their biggest challenges. Data Labs exists to solve them: with innovations in Applied Research & Automation, Advanced Data Capture, and Partnerships, the division makes Physical AI work more reliably in the real world. Alongside EMG-1, Data Labs is also releasing:

Encord-REACH, a new state-of-the-art hand-tracking model built for real-world conditions where existing models break. Tailored for industrial conditions, the model improves tracking with industrial gloves, obscured fingers, fast motion and multiple hands entering the frame. In Encord's evaluations, it reduced tracking errors in wrists by 80%, joints by 65%, and lowered industrial glove errors by up to 70%. It also eliminated mistaken bystander-hand swaps observed in competing models, 27% on average.

Synthetic data generation findings in collaboration with NVIDIA and ANYbotics. The companies generated synthetic examples of rare industrial anomalies, including liquid spills, with NVIDIA Cosmos 3 models to improve anomaly detection in robotic inspection. Using Encord's platform to curate real-world source data and validate synthetic outputs, the collaboration produced training examples for scenarios that are difficult to capture in real-world footage. Synthetic data improved recall on real-world anomalies by up to 24% and increased the examples available for model calibration by 2.2x.

In the coming months, Encord Data Labs will release more findings, including:

- Automated action segmentation for first-person video, which labels task steps from a handful of examples and significantly reduces time spent doing manual labeling.

- A benchmark of frontier vision-language models showing where AI-generated video captions can't yet be trusted for Physical AI.

- Expert-labeled sensor data for Archetype AI's physical world models.

The division's research is fully integrated with Encord's Physical AI data infrastructure, syncing human data with video in Encord so that it's ready to curate, improve and train on. Customers can bring their own teams to generate and enrich training data or work with Encord's experts.

The announcement was made at Encord's inaugural Long Horizon Summit in San Francisco, where Data Labs demonstrated EMG-1 and its hand tracking model live.

"This week, the people building the most ambitious robots in the world saw EMG-1 and our hand tracking running in real time," said Ulrik Stig Hansen, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Encord. "Data Labs is the home of Encord's research at the frontier of Physical AI. We're just getting started."

About Encord

The company supports over 300 AI teams globally – including Woven by Toyota, Boston Dynamics and Zipline and numerous Physical AI and frontier labs – and has seen significant growth in both revenue and data volume on its platform as a result of the surge in Physical AI.

Media Contact:

Chris Clemens

Nexios Communications Strategies

[email protected]

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Experienced operations leader joins Ansira to turn strategy into measurable growth

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Ansira Partners, Inc. ("Ansira"), the platform of record for brand-to-local ecosystems, today announced that Oded Benyo has joined the executive leadership team in the role of chief operating officer. He reports to Ansira's CEO Paul Tibbitt and will oversee delivery operations and processes and the service teams supporting the company's proprietary technology platform.

"Oded brings a strong mix of operational experience, growth leadership, and a real ability to align teams around shared goals," said Tibbitt. "As we continue helping brands and their partners grow, Oded's experience connecting people, processes, and technology through data-driven decision systems will be a great addition to our executive leadership team. We're excited to have him with us and look forward to the perspective and energy he'll bring to Ansira."

Benyo has over 28 years of experience across technology, marketing, advertising, and operations. He most recently served as COO of the Automotive CRM business at Epsilon, where he led operations and delivery, driving growth, AI-enabled operational scale, and profitability. He previously served as CEO of Returnalyze, following more than 15 years at Epsilon, formerly Conversant, where he held numerous senior leadership roles. Benyo's prior experience also includes leadership roles at Sphera Corp. and Elron Telesoft.

Benyo earned an MBA in general management from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and a bachelor's degree in management information systems from Northeastern University.

"I'm excited to join Ansira at a pivotal time for the marketing services and technology industry," said Benyo. "Ansira's combination of deep client expertise, innovative technology, and scalable solutions creates a strong foundation for continued growth. I look forward to working with the team to strengthen operations and deliver even greater value for clients and their partners."

Ansira is backed by Truelink Capital, a middle-market private equity firm based in Los Angeles.

ABOUT ANSIRA

Ansira is the platform of record for brand-to-local ecosystems, purpose-built to solve the challenges of fragmented and complex sales and marketing networks. Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, the company combines AI-infused technology, closed-loop analytics, and the expertise of 1,300+ team members to connect 500+ brands and over a million partners. Ansira provides end-to-end solutions, from dynamic content and localized experiences to funds and incentive management, empowering brands to build trust, drive measurable growth, and simplify operations across their ecosystem. For more information on Ansira visit Ansira.com or LinkedIn.

ABOUT TRUELINK CAPITAL

Truelink Capital is a private equity firm based in Los Angeles with over $4 billion of assets under management. Truelink pairs deep industry experience in the industrials and business services sectors with a commitment to building partnerships that drive long-term value through an operationally focused strategy. Truelink partners with management, corporate sellers, and founders to accelerate growth through the execution of strategic initiatives and transformative add-on acquisitions. Learn more at: www.truelinkcap.com.

Media Contact: Megan Duran

[email protected]

972.663.1380

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Calls for Increased Investment in Critical Water and Wastewater Systems

LEXINGTON, Ky., Oct. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Robert Burton, president of Kentucky American Water, issued the following statement in response to the grade of C+ for drinking water and D+ for wastewater in the American Society of Civil Engineers' (ASCE) 2026 Report Card for Kentucky's Infrastructure:

"The ASCE 2026 Report Card for Kentucky's Infrastructure reinforces the urgent need for investment in critical water and wastewater systems, assigning the state a C+ for drinking water and a D+ for wastewater, showing no progress in the water grade and a decline in the wastewater grade from a C- in ASCE's 2019 report.

The report card underscores the growing infrastructure challenges facing the Commonwealth, including aging assets, recruiting and retaining licensed operators, and the need for greater climate resilience. These pressures reinforce the importance of continued, long-term investment in critical water and wastewater infrastructure.

At Kentucky American Water, our responsibility is clear: provide safe, clean, reliable and affordable water and wastewater service while investing in the systems that support and sustain the communities we serve. Our experience demonstrates how sustained, professionally managed investment can strengthen water and wastewater systems. Over the past five years, we have invested nearly $330 million in infrastructure, and we plan to invest more than $570 million over the next five years, while continuing to balance reliability, resilience and affordability for customers."

About American Water

American Water (NYSE: AWK) is the largest regulated water and wastewater utility company in the United States. With a history dating back to 1886 and celebrating 140 years in 2026, We Keep Life Flowing® by providing safe, clean, reliable and affordable drinking water and wastewater services to approximately 14 million people with regulated operations in 14 states and on 19 military installations. American Water's approximately 7,000 talented professionals leverage their significant expertise and the company's national size and scale to achieve excellent outcomes for the benefit of customers, employees, investors and other stakeholders.

For more information, visit amwater.com and join American Water on LinkedIn, Facebook, X and Instagram.

About Kentucky American Water

Kentucky American Water, a subsidiary of American Water, with approximately 150 dedicated employees, provides safe, clean, reliable and affordable water and wastewater services to approximately 550,000 people.

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Complaint alleges Hims & Hers Health, Inc. misled investors between August 4, 2025 and July 29, 2026; investors may seek lead plaintiff role by November 2, 2026

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Glancy Prongay Wolke & Rotter LLP ("Glancy") announced today that the class action lawsuit covers investors who bought Hims & Hers Health, Inc. ("Hims & Hers" or the "Company") (NYSE: HIMS) securities between August 4, 2025 and July 29, 2026. The Hims & Hers Health, Inc. case, Velanki v. Hims & Hers Health, Inc., et al., was filed on September 1, 2026 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (Case No. 3:26-cv-09313).

Investors who suffered losses on Hims & Hers Health, Inc. investments can submit their Hims & Hers Health, Inc. loss information here before the November 2, 2026 lead plaintiff deadline.

Key dates in the Hims & Hers Health, Inc. case

- Class period: August 4, 2025 to July 29, 2026

- Complaint filed: September 1, 2026

- Lead plaintiff deadline: November 2, 2026

What happened?

On July 29, 2026, the Federal Trade Commission, joined by the State of Utah and Los Angeles County (representing California), filed a federal complaint against Hims & Hers Health in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging deceptive and unlawful privacy practices — including sharing sensitive user health data with third-party advertisers Meta Platforms (Facebook) and Snap via embedded tracking pixels and customer list matching despite marketing emphasizing strict privacy — as well as deceptive billing and subscription-cancellation practices.

On this news, shares of Hims & Hers fell $4.32, or 14.73%, to close at $25.00 per share on July 29, 2026, thereby injuring investors.

What is the Hims & Hers Health, Inc. lawsuit about?

The Hims & Hers Health, Inc. securities lawsuit alleges that, between August 4, 2025 and July 29, 2026, defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements and failed to disclose material adverse facts about Hims & Hers Health, Inc.'s business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, the complaint alleges defendants failed to disclose that: (1) the Company shared consumers' health information with third-party advertising platforms; (2) the Company charges consumers for prescriptions almost immediately after they submit an intake form, despite telling consumers that they will be able to consult with a medical provider to find a treatment that is "right for them"; (3) the foregoing conduct subjected the Company to regulatory scrutiny; (4) as a result of the foregoing, the Company was reasonably likely to incur fees and penalties; and (5) as a result, defendants' positive statements about Hims & Hers Health, Inc.'s business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.

"The complaint filed against Hims & Hers Health, Inc. alleges that, among other things, the Company failed to disclose that the Company shared consumers' health information with third-party advertising platforms. For investors who bought during the class period, the November 2, 2026 deadline is the first major step in this case," said Charles H. Linehan, Partner at Glancy Prongay Wolke & Rotter LLP.

What's the next step?

Glancy Prongay Wolke & Rotter LLP is a leading national shareholder rights law firm, ready to assist Hims & Hers Health, Inc. investors in potentially pursuing claims to recover their losses.

If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff in the Hims & Hers Health, Inc. class action, you must move the Court no later than November 2, 2026. To learn more about your rights, visit the Hims & Hers Health, Inc. case page, email [email protected], or call 310-201-9150 (toll-free: 888-773-9224).

You may retain counsel of your choice. If you bought Hims & Hers Health, Inc. securities during the class period, you may take no action and remain an absent class member. No class has been certified yet in the Hims & Hers Health, Inc. case.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is eligible? Investors who purchased or otherwise acquired Hims & Hers Health, Inc. securities between August 4, 2025 and July 29, 2026 and suffered losses may be members of the proposed class in the Hims & Hers Health, Inc. shareholder lawsuit. Any class member may ask the court to appoint them lead plaintiff by November 2, 2026.

What is a lead plaintiff? In the Hims & Hers Health, Inc. class action, the lead plaintiff is the investor, or group of investors, that the court appoints to represent all class members and oversee the case. Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, courts generally presume the movant with the largest financial interest is the most adequate lead plaintiff.

Do I have to be lead plaintiff to recover? No. A Hims & Hers Health, Inc. investor's ability to share in any future recovery does not depend on serving as lead plaintiff. Hims & Hers Health, Inc. investors may take no action and remain absent class members.

What is the deadline? Motions to serve as lead plaintiff in the Hims & Hers Health, Inc. class action must be filed by November 2, 2026.

Does it cost anything to contact Glancy or participate in this action? Glancy represents Hims & Hers Health, Inc. investors on a contingency fee basis, which means investors pay no attorneys' fees unless there is a recovery. Any fees are subject to court approval and are paid from the recovery.

Can I choose my own lawyer? Yes. Hims & Hers Health, Inc. investors may retain counsel of their choice.

Why work with Glancy on the Hims & Hers Health, Inc. lawsuit? Glancy Prongay Wolke & Rotter LLP is a premier law firm with decades of experience representing investors and consumers in securities litigation and other complex class action litigation. Contact Glancy about the Hims & Hers Health, Inc. lawsuit. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

About Glancy Prongay Wolke & Rotter LLP

Glancy was named one of Law360's Securities Groups of the Year and ranked second in total investor recoveries by ISS Securities Class Action Services in 2025.

Glancy's successes have been widely covered by leading news and industry publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, Reuters, the Associated Press, Barron's, Investor's Business Daily, Forbes, and Money.

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

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Charles H. Linehan

Glancy Prongay Wolke & Rotter LLP

1925 Century Park East, Suite 2100

Los Angeles, CA 90067

Email: [email protected] 

Telephone: 310-201-9150 | Toll-free: 888-773-9224

www.glancylaw.com

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This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.

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Some cyber incidents leave no margin for error, whether that's an attack that interrupts energy, water, or financial services, or a breach that triggers reporting obligations in several jurisdictions within hours.

The UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) created the Enhanced Level of its Cyber Incident Response (CIR) scheme for incidents like these. It recognizes providers that meet rigorous standards for high-quality incident response, at the highest level of risk.

Today, CrowdStrike has been assured at the Enhanced Level of the NCSC CIR scheme, the highest level of incident response assurance the UK government offers.

This builds on the CIR Standard Level assurance we announced earlier this year and gives UK organizations independent, government-backed proof that CrowdStrike can respond when the stakes are highest.

As Adversaries Accelerate with AI, Defenders Must Keep Up

Europe remains a prime target. According to the CrowdStrike 2025 European Threat Landscape Report, 22% of all victims named on dedicated leak sites are based in Europe, making it the second most targeted region after North America.

AI is making the adversaries behind those attacks faster and more capable. Attacks by AI-enabled adversaries rose 89% year-over-year, and the fastest breakout time fell to just 27 seconds, according to the CrowdStrike 2026 Global Threat Report. The time to patch is also shrinking: In the first half of 2026, 88% of observed exploitation of vulnerabilities with a public proof of concept happened within 48 hours of its release, the CrowdStrike 2026 Threat Hunting Report found.

As the window to defend narrows, organizations need a response partner that has already proven it can operate at the highest level.

The Highest Bar, Independently Proven

Every NCSC-assured provider must meet rigorous standards for incident response quality, including core skills in digital forensics, network traffic inspection, and malware analysis. The Enhanced Level goes much further. Providers must demonstrate expertise against the most capable adversaries, across the largest and most complex environments, delivered to the highest standard of quality.

These capabilities are also why both Forrester and IDC have named CrowdStrike a Leader in incident response services.

Supporting the UK's Critical National Infrastructure

When an incident hits Critical National Infrastructure (CNI), the impact can quickly expand across the energy, water, transport, health, and financial services systems that millions of people depend on.

These are the environments where nation-state adversaries are most persistent and where response has to be fast, precise, and coordinated with regulators and government stakeholders. Enhanced Level assurance gives CNI operators independent confirmation that CrowdStrike has the expertise and quality to respond when it matters most.

"When the worst happens, organizations facing the most serious threats don't have time to wonder whether their response partner is up to the task. CIR Enhanced Level assurance answers that question before the first call is made. It independently validates what our team does every day: taking on sophisticated, increasingly AI-enabled adversaries, at scale, in environments where the stakes couldn't be higher. For our customers in the UK, it means they have a partner assured at the highest level the NCSC offers."

— Tom Etheridge, Chief Global Services Officer, CrowdStrike

Does Your Organization Need an Enhanced Provider?

The NCSC recommends that all UK organizations, from small businesses to central government, use an NCSC-assured provider when dealing with a cyber incident. For organizations where an incident could have the most serious consequences, it recommends the Enhanced Level. These include, but aren't limited to, organizations that are:

- Part of CNI: Disruption can spread to the public and the essential services people rely on.

- Part of UK central government: Incidents can carry national security implications.

- A likely nation-state target: Nation-state adversaries are patient, well-resourced, and built to evade detection.

- In a regulated sector: Breaches bring reporting obligations and regulatory scrutiny, so findings must hold up.

- Operating in more than one country: Incidents cross borders, legal jurisdictions, and time zones, and response must do the same.

If any of these describe your organization, choose a response partner whose capability has been independently proven.

Don't Wait for a Breach to Choose a Responder

With a CrowdStrike Services Retainer, each organization gets guaranteed access to the CrowdStrike incident response team, assured at the NCSC's Enhanced Level, and a partner who already knows your environment before an adversary gets in.

Before an incident strikes, we help you:

- Know where you're exposed: Gain visibility into exposures across endpoint, identity, cloud, SaaS, and AI systems, and prioritize what to fix first.

- Strengthen detection and response: Improve how quickly your team detects and contains threats, whether you build that capability in-house or partner with CrowdStrike to deliver it.

- Get ahead of the next attack: Test your defenses and response plans against real-world adversary techniques through tabletop exercises, compromise assessments, and red teaming.

Be ready before, during, and after a breach, with a partner assured at the NCSC's highest level. Talk to a CrowdStrike expert.

Experienced a breach? Get immediate help from our incident response team.

Family-owned Philadelphia property management company wins three Trilogy Awards, the association's highest honor, including a fourth consecutive win for 251 DeKalb, as 21 communities earn 38 honors in the association's independent regional evaluation

PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Lindy Communities received 24 first-place awards at the Pennsylvania Apartment Association's 2026 Keystone Awards, with 21 of its Philadelphia-area apartment communities earning a combined 38 honors in the association's three property categories: Leasing, Maintenance and Exterior Excellence.

Three Lindy communities placed first in all three categories to receive the Trilogy Award, the program's highest honor: 251 DeKalb in King of Prussia, which earned the distinction for the fourth consecutive year; Towers at Wyncote in Wyncote; and The Park at Westminster in Warrington. Five additional communities received the Dual Distinction Award for first-place finishes in two categories.

"Having three Trilogy winners across their respective brackets, along with so many other award-winning communities, is a tremendous reflection of the work happening across our portfolio," said Brett Goldenhorn, Senior Vice President of Operations at Lindy Communities. "These awards represent the daily commitment, teamwork, and pride our teams bring to our communities and residents."

Keystone Award winners are selected through independent mystery-shop evaluations conducted from the perspective of a prospective resident. Each community is scored on a 594-point scale covering the leasing experience, maintenance standards and curb appeal, and is compared only with communities of similar size, age, type and rent. Property awards are presented by region; Lindy's communities competed in the association's Philadelphia region.

Lindy's 2026 Keystone Award recipients:

For more information about Lindy Communities, visit https://www.lindyproperty.com/apartments/

About Lindy Communities

Lindy Communities is a fourth-generation, family-owned real estate company that has been creating apartment homes in the Philadelphia region since 1939. Headquartered in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, the company owns and operates 50 apartment communities across Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, Illinois and Tennessee, including more than 6,500 apartments in the Philadelphia region. Lindy's approach emphasizes environmental responsibility and community engagement, including its Fiesta Schoolyards initiative, which brings play spaces to Philadelphia public schools and parks. For more information, visit lindyproperty.com.

SOURCE Lindy Communities

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The Explorers Club x Society Awards Fine Arts Field Grant pairs artists with recipients of the TEC Impact Grant for extraordinary collaboration.

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Oct. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Society Awards and The Explorers Club are proud to announce the inaugural Fine Arts Field Grant.

For most of history, exploration and art traveled together. Before photography, artists accompanied expeditions because they were essential to documenting discovery and translating distant places into something the public could experience. Even after photography arrived, painters, sculptors, and other fine artists interpreted the emotional and human side of exploration in ways a camera alone cannot. The Explorers Club is filled with paintings and sculptures from historic expeditions that continue to inspire visitors for generations later.

The grant's mission aligns naturally with Society Awards' philosophy of supporting artists whose work will emerge from extraordinary access to places, people, and discoveries that few will ever experience firsthand.

The collaboration believes exploration expands human knowledge, and art gives exploration a lasting human legacy.

"As an Associate Member of The Explorers Club, I've spent time surrounded by the paintings and sculptures created from historic expeditions. Those works still capture the imagination decades and even centuries later. We wanted to help bring that tradition into the future by giving today's artists the opportunity to experience exploration firsthand and create the works that will inspire future generations." - David Moritz, Society Awards Founder and CEO

For more information and to apply, visit societyawards.com/fine-arts-field-grant

About Society Awards

Society Awards is the premier designer and manufacturer of luxury, custom and limited-edition awards. The Charlotte-based company makes more famous, prestigious, and televised awards than any brand in history. Its awards and recognition products are crafted with an artistry and mastery that has propelled them to be the unparalleled industry leader. Learn more about the world's best awards maker at https://societyawards.com/

About The Explorers Club

The Explorers Club is a multidisciplinary society dedicated to the advancement of field research, scientific exploration and resource conservation.

Society Awards Media Contact

Society Awards

[email protected]

The Explorers Club Media Contact

Kevin Murphy

[email protected]

SOURCE Society Awards

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