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Telenor wants to play harder and faster in the burgeoning digital transformation market, and to that end it has struck a wide-ranging strategic partnership with Google Cloud partnership that appears to tick a lot of boxes for Telenor: Not only does it give Telenor access to Google's global data centre footprint and expertise in analytics, machine learning and AI, it also comes with a commitment to co-develop and sell new products and services.

The two companies will also look at using Google Cloud to add new bells and whistles to Telenor's IT and networks. They include the potential development of new virtual network functions and edge computing, with a focus on IoT and 5G services. The partnership covers Telenor's consumer and enterprise operations; however, there is a clear emphasis on the latter customer segment.

There is another bullet point that jumps out of the announcement: Telenor and Google will also offer support services to organisations undertaking digital transformations. Hand-holding, trusted partners, and 'upskilling' are all topics that routinely crop up in discussions around digital transformation. For telcos and their partners, it represents an opportunity to forge stronger ties with their enterprise customers.

"We believe that together we can go beyond connectivity to enhance our offering to our customers with new and innovative solutions, whilst improving the overall experience of our current portfolio," said Telenor CEO Sigve Brekke, in a statement.

Telenor is no stranger to public cloud. The Norwegian incumbent is a Microsoft Office 365 reseller and offers business telephony services hosted both in its own data centres as well Microsoft's. In addition, its IoT arm, Telenor Connexion, has been hosting its connectivity management platform on Amazon Web Services (AWS) for years. However, today's deal arguably represents Telenor's broadest and deepest public cloud integration to date.

"We are delighted to collaborate with Telenor to bring together the strengths of both our companies and accelerate innovation in the telecommunications industry," said Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian. "We look forward to further accelerating Telenor's ability to digitally transform its customers' businesses with infrastructure, industry solutions and technology expertise."

There is a 'striking while the iron is hot' side to this partnership too.

The pandemic accelerated enterprise investments in digital transformation, as organisations responded to having their staff work from home, and adapted to the disruption wrought on supply chains and channels to market. Even though the pandemic has eased somewhat, a complete return to the old ways of doing business is not going to happen. As a result, according to an IDC report published in October, direct investment in digital transformation is set to increase further, and will account for 55 percent of all global ICT investment by 2024. This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.5 percent in 2022-24.

"For the first time ever, we see that the majority of enterprise organisations, at 53 percent, have an enterprise-wide digital transformation strategy, a 42 percent increase from just two years ago," said Shawn Fitzgerald, research director, worldwide digital transformation strategies at IDC, in a research note at the time.

In terms of investments, IDC predicts that spending over the aforementioned forecast period will reach a staggering $6.3 trillion. Between 2021 and 2025, the research firm expects digital transformation spending to come in at more than $10 trillion.

In short, there is money to be made, and Telenor reckons that partnering with Google will help it to grab a bigger chunk of that money than it otherwise could.

- Nick Wood, reporting for TelecomTV

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Telenor taps Google Clouds AI and analytics expertise to target a bigger slice of the digital transformation market - TelecomTV

As the world increasingly moves to a digital format, cybersecurity is becoming more important than ever. Its especially significant since, according to a recent survey by Sophos, 51% of businesses in America experienced a ransomware attack in 2020. Thats a staggering number of security vulnerabilities that truly shouldnt exist in the modern day and age.Yet, its relatively understandable.

The push for apps hitting the market quickly has become a driving factor in a lot of development teams, and sometimes, that means that cybersecurity takes a back seat. In fact, this is why a lot of companies have begun adopting the DevOps model with the hope that they can not only overcome security and compliance challenges but also release a product within a tight deadline.

Fundamentally, the issue of application security is multi-faceted, with a variety of techniques, philosophies, and certifications that can be applied to make all applications safer.

For example, take the recent update to MITREs Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE), which itself was built on the incredibly popular ATT&CK Framework. Sponsored by the U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the whole purpose is to categorize security weaknesses and vulnerabilities with the hope of understanding the specific flaws of each category and how to mitigate them. In fact, CWE has over 600 categories, with everything from buffer overflow to cross-site scripting and even race conditions.

This update couldnt have come sooner, too, especially since some experts predict that cyberattacks will escalate given the massive increase in both remote work and the Internet of Things (IoT). This is exactly why cybersecurity understanding is not optional for these companies, as hacking tools are becoming more commonplace. Its important that any tool that connects to the web has some form of cyber resilience.

In fact, its this distinction between cyber resilience and cybersecurity that companies often get wrong. Its not a choice between one or the other, and its not enough to simply throw as many coding standards as possible at the problem. Instead, companies and developers must develop applications with cyber resilience in mind such as using Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipelines to code with fewer vulnerabilities or using more reliable web hosting.

As you can imagine, a lot of the modern world is hosted in the cloud, and therefore, cloud security plays a big part in ensuring that data stays safe. In fact, cloud-hosted application security has become a problem, especially since there often isnt a cloud-specific DevSecOps person on hand to make sure that the application is safe from potential outside vulnerabilities.

Thankfully, there are security protocols ,such as the security compliance principles of the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC), which set out easy-to-follow rules on how to approach security for the cloud. Actions such as protection of data in transit, authentication, customer separation, and ensuring the customer is using the service securely are all basic concepts that can significantly increase cybersecurity and resilience.

Security responsibility also includes website security standards. There are several ways to protect and secure website infrastructure such as edge protection and using a secure web gateway.

What tends to interfere with better cybersecurity for websites are things like performance optimization, which may make a website more responsive. When done in the absence of a security mindset, this can be an approach that can lead to a lot of problems.

A major contributing factor to the lack of web security is the absence of overall availability and experience of developers in this field. In fact, according to a recent survey, nearly 60% of developers have less than five years of experience, which can sometimes make it difficult for companies to keep up with not only the most modern techniques but also some of the more skilled malicious actors out there.

Clear and simple standards are important when it applies to things like overly complicated code. Sometimes, in the drive to make sure that code is secure, developers might forget to also take into account the best practices of application development, especially considering the immense time pressures they are under.

This is where the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) becomes a valuable guide. OWASP is a set of strict guidelines and criteria for application security. The OWASP checklist helps developers more easily integrate the recommended security standards while also helping to avoid coding flaws that can compromise security.

While OWASP is quite large in terms of how it goes about ensuring standards, heres a quick review at the different methods it uses:

Given that there is often a disconnect between the most recent technologies and current skill levels, it can be important to get back to the basics when it comes to programming and cybersecurity.

Keeping up to date with encryption standards is an important task that a lot of SecOps professionals might overlook or feel too busy to do. Similarly, keeping code simple is often something that more experienced developers tend to forget, and this can cause issues down the line for everybody involved.

Cybersecurity is a multi-faceted problem that is only getting worse as digital services continue to take over the world. That being said, its not necessarily the end of the world, and good cybersecurity is definitely achievable, especially with the easy availability of standards such as those offered through OWASP.

Its also important to consider the specific skill set of security developers. Make sure to not only maintain their security credentials but to also help them to grow professionally. The aim is always to be innovative rather than reactionary when it comes to security.

About the Author: Gary Stevens is an IT specialist who is a part-time Ethereum dev working on open source projects for both QTUM and Loopring. Hes also a part-time blogger at Privacy Australia, where he discusses online safety and privacy.

Editors Note: The opinions expressed in this guest author article are solely those of the contributor, and do not necessarily reflect those of Tripwire, Inc.

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Cybersecurity and OWASP in an Increasingly Digital World - tripwire.com

SILICON SLOPES, Utah--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Domo (Nasdaq: DOMO) announced that registration is open for Domopalooza 2022, which will take place from March 22 25, 2022 at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City and online. Domopalooza, Domos award-winning customer event of the year, will include keynotes from business leaders, experts and featured customers, showcasing how Domos modern BI platform is unlocking the value of data and putting it to work in new ways across the enterprise.

Domo announced the first in its lineup of exceptional customer speakers at Domopalooza 2022, which includes CAEs Ashleigh Stevenson, Business Intelligence Developer; Dickies Calvin Anderson, Vice President of Global Digital Strategy; Optums Stephen Dion, Senior Director of Technology; Sonys John Taft, Senior Engineering Manager, PlayStation; and Universal Music Groups Fred Foos, Manager of Global Business Intelligence.

This years Domopalooza is centered around the future of business and how Domo and data can help you deliver innovations that advance your companys competitiveness and value, said Josh James, founder and CEO, Domo. After two years of hosting Domopalooza virtually, I am thrilled to share that we are going hybrid in 2022, offering the same award-winning content, education and training, and for those who will join us in Salt Lake City, the in-person networking and collaboration opportunities plus live entertainment. Whether in-person or remotely, you dont want to miss these two high-impact days of learning and networking with our community of users from across the world.

The company also announced that GRAMMY-nominated band OneRepublic will be performing at Domopalooza 2022. The group, comprised of singer/songwriter and lead vocalist Ryan Tedder, guitarists Zach Filkins and Drew Brown, bassist and cellist Brent Kutzle, and drummer Eddie Fisher, released their debut set Dreaming Out Loud in 2007, and are best known for chart-topping singles Apologize, Stop and Stare, and Counting Stars.

Todays announcement is the first of several Domo will make on its lineup of Domopalooza keynotes and live entertainment. In previous years, Domopalooza has featured other inspirational speakers and entertainers including Save the Childrens Carolyn Miles, Super Bowl MVP Drew Brees, five-time NBA champion and entrepreneur Earvin Magic Johnson, as well as legendary entertainers Boyz II Men, Flo Rida and Ciara, among others.

In its eighth year, Domopalooza is designed to educate, inform and inspire Domos fast-growing community of users from some of the worlds most progressive organizations and recognizable brands. From keynote presentations to dozens of breakout sessions, hands-on personalized training and networking opportunities, attendees will gain valuable lessons from industry experts and fellow customers. For registration and to stay up-to-date on the agenda, visit Domopaloozas event page.

About Domo

Domo (Nasdaq: DOMO) is the Business Cloud, transforming the way business is managed by delivering Modern BI for AllTM. With Domo, critical processes that took weeks, months or more can now be done on-the-fly, in minutes or seconds, at unbelievable scale. For more information, visit http://www.domo.com. You can also follow Domo on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Domo, Domo Business Cloud and Domo is the Business Cloud are registered trademarks of Domo, Inc.

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Domopalooza Returns to Salt Lake City Focusing on Future of Business and Data - Business Wire