Introducing our Newest Keynote Speaker, Ben Rhodes!

The Millennium Alliance is proud to announce Ben Rhodes, Author & Former Deputy National Security Advisor, as the Keynote Speaker at the Transformational CISO Assembly taking place from November 19-20 at The Hutton Hotel in Nashville, TN.

About Ben Rhodes:

Ben Rhodes is the author of the New York Times bestseller The World As It Is; a contributor for NBC News, MSNBC and Crooked Media; the co-chair of National Security Action; and an advisor to former President Barack Obama. From 2009-2017, Rhodes served as a Deputy National Security Advisor to President Obama. In that capacity, he participated in nearly all of President Obama’s key decisions, and oversaw the President’s national security communications, speechwriting, public diplomacy and global engagement programming. He also led the secret negotiations with the Cuban government which resulted in the effort to normalize relations between the United States and Cuba, and supported the negotiations to conclude the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran. Prior to joining the Administration, he was a Senior Speechwriter and foreign policy advisor to the Obama campaign. From 2002-2007, he worked for former Congressman Lee Hamilton, supporting his work on the 9/11 Commission and Iraq Study Group. A native New Yorker, Mr. Rhodes has a B.A. from Rice University and an M.F.A from New York University.

Transformational CISO Assembly

The Millennium Alliance is thrilled to present our bi-annual Transformational CISO Assembly, taking place in Nashville, TN.

With the instances of cyber attacks increasing, businesses of all sizes are working tirelessly to secure their networks, devices, and data. Fortune 500 organizations are especially vulnerable as they have big data pools and thousands of people who need access. CISOs need to plan for worst-case scenarios, stay ahead of the latest IT Security transformation technology, and maintain their company’s information assets, all without losing sight of the corporate culture.

Are you interested in becoming a sponsor for this event? Click here today to learn more >>

Are you a CISO interested in attending this event? Inquire here today to find out if you qualify for Millennium Membership >>

Security Newsletter: Edition 3

Battling the InfoSec Talent Shortage: 3 Tips for Hiring Security Staff

“The infosec talent shortage!” “There’s too many roles and not enough candidates!” So many excuses get thrown around about why security teams can’t find talent. Let’s cut to the chase – yes, hiring is hard and there are reports of more jobs than candidates. However, many of the reasons a team can’t find talent is due to the approach used for security hiring. There are actually many tricks and techniques that can help your team-building approach.

Let’s explore 3 changes that can dramatically increase your ability to hire great security folks

#1 Get rid of the security unicorn job description

#2 The fallacy of certifications and degrees

#3 Look internally – growing security members from within your company

#1 Get Rid of the Security Unicorn Job Description

How often do you see a job description like this: “Junior security analyst needed. Must be expert in red team and forensics. Previous experience leading organizations through ISO27001 certification. Previous coding experience required.”

Wow, let’s unpack that. We just defined a junior level analyst role, tacked on expertise in two different domains (red team and forensics), then asked for experience in a totally different domain, ISO certification experience. And, to top it off, threw in another entire profession at the end – software development. Sure, it’s farcical and exaggerated, but it’s really not that far from the truth of many job postings. This brings us to the first tip for growing your security team – take a hard look at your job descriptions.

A critical activity before attempting to grow your team is to have a clearly defined job description. This sounds like boring HR driven requirements, but it really is crucial for hiring security talent. It’s important to step back and look at the core skill areas and the level of expertise needed in each domain. For example, while at Twitter I lead this exercise when growing our application security team. Here are the core skills we were looking for:

Application security testing
Secure code analysis
Secure software architecture design
Ability to develop security solutions
Developer security training

During interviews, we would find candidates great in security testing and code review, but poor in their ability to develop security solutions or vice versa. As we dug in, we realized we were searching for the unicorn. After weighing the different areas we discovered that we actually needed two different roles – an application security consultant to help drive the secure SDLC and review and also and a developer-focused security engineer to build reusable software in the name of security. As we broke this up into two unique roles we also weighted the importance of the different core skills and communicated this to the interviewing team. We don’t need the world’s leading expert in every category. Familiarity in some areas is appropriate, whereas expertise in other areas is a must for the role. The important item was to define these needs, document them, and communicate to the interviewing team. Now, with a clear definition of skills and levels of expertise, we were able to find great candidates for both roles.

#2 The fallacy of certificates and even degrees

A certification is great for learning, but it’s horrible as a screening mechanism for hiring. I get why people hate the job descriptions that ask for X certification. I agree, it’s a bad and lazy approach to hiring. But don’t blame the recruiters, they are taking the lead (or lack thereof) from the security hiring managers.

Instead, hiring managers have to work with the sourcers and recruiters to identify skills, experiences and potential previous roles that indicate a good potential candidate. Talk with you sourcer and describe the role and previous experience that would be relevant. Also talk about other similar roles that aren’t a fit since that will likely come up. I’ve also found it very helpful to take it a step further and craft a few specific screening questions recruiters can ask candidates during their initial call. These can be relatively basic questions, but the important thing is to create buckets of potential answers – ‘great’, ‘good’, ‘not a fit’. This way the recruiter can do an initial screening to see if candidates are a good match to begin the interview process.

Here’s an example:

“Tell me a few considerations for secure password storage within a web application”

Great answers – they talk about ‘pbkdf2’ or ‘bcrypt’. The candidate possibly mentions that these only protect against offline attacks against the hash so online attacks must be considered via brute force protection. May touch on other related concerns like password reuse attacks.
Good answers – mentions using a good hashing algorithm and a unique salt
‘Not a fit’ – Generically mentions to just “use encryption” or to store it in a database and be sure no one can access it without any other details

As you can see, we’re not going into great depth with a single question. But if you’re hiring for an application security role a reasonable candidate for a non-entry level role should easily respond in a way to be bucketed into good or great – and hence move forward to the hiring manager. Also, just the activity of having a security person explain a security topic to a non-security co-worker is a great test. If that is a difficult experience for the candidate then you may not want them to represent the security team interacting with others in your company.

#3 Growing security members from within your company

Hiring is both a science and an art and while good interviewing may identify talented individuals, there still is the unknown element whether the individual will be successful at the company. However, if you “hire” individuals from within the company you have an incredible advantage, they already have a track record of success (or not, in which case you should tread carefully).

But how do you hire a person that isn’t in the security team into a security role? Don’t think of security as an entire discipline from top to bottom, but rather a specialization on top of an existing base skill. Here are a few security roles and base skills:

Application security engineer – software developer
Enterprise/Corporate security engineer – SRE, IT, or DevOps
Security risk management – compliance, internal audit, risk

Suddenly, you’ll notice you have a large pool of individuals more than qualified in the foundational skills for your role. In addition, they already know the ins-and-outs of how the company and tech stack operate. Plus, since they’ve worked at the company for some amount of time you’ll have real references on their performance. With this foundational knowledge, you have a great indication if this could be a solid employee in the security team. You’ll still have to conduct parts of the interview process, and see if they’re really up for the new style of work, but you’re starting from a great spot!

Security is in high demand but you can build and grow great teams

Hiring great security team members may seem challenging. And rightfully so, because it is. But if you reflect on your hiring process, criteria, and where you’re looking for candidates, you’ll be able to increase your chances of success. But just remember, hiring a great security individual is just the first step – you also have to set them up for success and grow their skills and career. But that’s a topic for another day.

Michael
Want to chat? Find me @_mwc

Understanding the FaceApp Frenzy

FaceApp is a free smartphone app that uses AI technology to apply age-enhancing filters to users’ photos, but we’re sure that you’re already aware at this point. The viral app sparked an overnight craze on social media with celebrities Drake, The Jonas Brothers, Lebron James, Gordon Ramsey and countless others sharing their refined new looks.

Just as fast as the social trend caught on, the Russian-based tech firm that developed FaceApp began to face massive public scrutiny with concerns over data privacy. Widespread panic began to escalate once cybersecurity experts raised red flags over the Terms and Conditions of the app, namely the parts that require access to all photos and “perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive, royalty-free (and) worldwide” license to use your photos, name, and likeness. The collection of user data isn’t out-of-the-ordinary, but the public’s reaction to FaceApp’s policies speaks volumes to the growing distrust in tech companies Post-Snowden, WikiLeaks and Cambridge-Analytica.

The Washington Post reported that photos accessible to FaceApp were stored on ordinary, American-run servers and the company has no known ties to the Russian government. It’s also been revealed that most images are removed from their servers within 48 hours. Even so, the FTC and FBI have been called to further investigate and reduce the risk of data misuse.

“Nothing in life is free.”

On Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or any website or app devoid of a pay-wall, you’re paying with a currency far more valuable than the dollar, your data. With cybersecurity and data privacy increasingly becoming a concern in the public eye, it’s important that cybersecurity experts acknowledge the fine-print. For those in the industry, these policies are somewhat commonplace, but the outcry that FaceApp recently created is proof of the disconnect between what users are willing to provide, and what they’re actually giving up.

Transformational CISO West

We’re thrilled that you’re interested in Transformational CISO West Coast in August 2019.

Are you interested in becoming a sponsor for this event? Click here today to learn more >>

Are you interested in attending this event? Inquire here today to find out if you qualify for Millennium Membership >>

Marketers: Prove Your Cause

Social cause marketing, without a doubt, is the leading trend in marketing right now. During Pride month this year, it became evident that every brand under the sun had a Pride campaign – we noticed Bud Light, Listerine, Kind Bar, Smirnoff, Verizon, J.Crew, Nike, Playboy, and even the Donald Trump’s webstore had something rainbow to offer. Although social cause marketing is a great way to engage an audience and tie-in purpose into your brand’s messaging, consumers are quick on the trigger when it comes to calling out bandwagoners (lest we forget Pepsi’s 2017 Kendall Jenner commercial). With 2 out of 5 Pride campaigns donating no profits to the LGBTQ+ community, consumers are skeptical to say the least. Sure, Gen Z is twice as likely than any other group to have an interest in issues of equality, but they’re also more likely to not trust businesses to act in the interest of society, according to MarketingDive.

Honesty can be your best marketing strategy.

Companies like Lush Cosmetics have long prevailed their mission for ethical and environmentally-conscious sourcing, and the proof is in the pudding – a number of their products donate 100% of proceeds to a social cause and their owned media shows audiences the “behind the scenes” of how, where, and who are sourcing the ingredients in their products. In stride of their environmental efforts, they’ve launched packaging-free product lines and even 100% packaging-free stores in the UK.

Lush is a prime example of social cause marketing done right. Brands shouldn’t hop on any and every popularized social cause, but rather, their company’s ethos and mission should become part of the brand’s story in every aspect, whether launching a product, sharing on social media or building out a marketing campaign. In Gary Vaynerchuk’s words, “The best marketing strategy ever: CARE.”

Next on Millennium Live:

Globally-recognized marketer and best-selling author, Mark Schaefer.

Transformational CMO East

The digital revolution has forever changed the balance of power between individual consumers and brands. This need to think “customer first” has made the marketing function more vital than ever before.

C-Level executives around the world are anticipating that digital technology will continue to drive business. We’ve put together a series of executive education roundtables, keynote presentations, collaborative think tanks, educational workshops, and networking sessions with our industry experts and advisory board.

Are you interested in becoming a sponsor for this event? Click here today to learn more >>

Are you a CMO interested in attending this event? Inquire here today to find out if you qualify for Millennium Membership >>

Is the Drive-thru the Final Frontier for AI?

AI is so prevalent in our everyday lives – I wake up in the morning and ask Alexa about the weather, open Google Maps on the way to a meeting and find the fastest route into the city, Gmail offers a handful of reply suggestions to my emails using Smart Reply and now, all Tesla cars have full self-driving hardware. AI technology has simplified nearly every aspect of our day in and day out, but for some reason, ordering a burger at the drive-thru is just as cumbersome as it was 7 decades ago.

5thru Technology is hoping to change that process – with their drive-thru accelerator technology, restaurants are able to use license plate recognition for customer profiles and automated pre-pay while you’re still waiting in line (so you’ll never need to take out your wallet and stretch out to the window ever again). Line time is cut down by 55% using their system, and it even has the ability to up-sell customers with AI-based recommendations using historic data on a customer’s past orders.

5thru’s founder, Daniel McCann, told CIODive, “Drive-thrus are one of those things that are still being done today as they were 50 years ago… it’s largely ignored the new technologies that are available today. I think it’s ripe for an overhaul to bring it into the 21st Century.”

The drive-thru accounts for nearly 70% of fast-food sales, but the convenience and technology behind them have remained stagnant with line times growing as a result. There are countless opportunities to collect data when ordering from a drive-thru; restaurants could build customer profiles, implement intuitive recommendations and aggregated consumer insights at the hyper-localized or regional level for data-driven menu selections.

The 21^st century has made our mornings, commutes, workdays, and leisure times so much smarter and more intuitive, and if self-driving cars are pulling up to McDonald’s in the near future, it’s about time the drive-thru was brought into 2019 through data collection and machine learning for a better customer experience.

Digital Marketing Transformation

With 53% of Marketers planning on adopting Artificial Intelligence in the next 2 years, the digital marketing revolution is just getting started. CMOs and CDOs alike are seeking new ways to maximize their digital reach to attract new business to, as well as deliver enriched, personalized experiences to existing customers.

The Digital Marketing Transformation Assembly will bring together North America’s most prominent digital marketing technology and business leaders from all major consumer-driven industries to discuss the latest technology, innovations, and strategies driving digital marketing in 2019 and beyond.

Are you interested in becoming a sponsor for this event? Click here today to learn more >>

Are you interested in attending this event? Inquire here today to find out if you qualify for Millennium Membership >>

Security Newsletter: Edition 2

A periodic newsletter from me, Michael Coates, on building security programs, security career growth, and emerging trends. If you were forwarded this newsletter, you can sign up here to receive updates.

The “Untrusted” Internal Network – Now What?

For years it has been an “us” vs “them” mindset in security. The bad folks are somewhere in the world – name a current adversarial country or organization – and our company is filled with good people. Therefore, if we build a big barrier around our company we can keep out the bad and everything is good, right?

The “crunchy perimeter & squishy center” security model has come and gone – at least it should be gone. It’s a relic of an old time and has no place in today’s modern enterprise defense. For those of you that may be fortunate to have avoided it, what is this model? Here’s the quick info. The idea was to build a strict and highly regulated perimeter around the company. Firewalls blocked almost all traffic in and out. Any exceptions were strictly reviewed and scrutinized. Laptops either didn’t leave the office at all or maybe had a forced VPN to tunnel all traffic back through the office network. While the perimeter was strong, once inside there was a more relaxed environment of trust. Because, hey, we can trust all of our employees, right? (in general, sure, as a global policy, definitely not)

What happened to this model? My argument isn’t that we should dissolve the perimeter or cast those efforts as worthless. Instead, we must accept that the paradigm has shifted. There is no longer a formal boundary between outside and inside or “us” and “them”. The rise of cloud computing, SaaS applications, continued connectivity to business partners, contract workforces, BYOD and more all mean that the “internal” network is a very busy place with many different people, systems, and notably – many threats.

Two Big Reasons to Ditch the “Strong Perimeter & Squishy Center” Mentality

First, insider attacks are a real concern and not just a theoretical exercise. Insider attacks may be the result of malice or just carelessness, but there is no denying that they are happening. The 2019 Verizon Data Breach Report shows that in some sectors “Privilege Misuse and Error by insider account for 30 percent of breaches”. Multiple articles also show how prominent tech companies have felt the impact of overzealous employees abusing their access to private data.

Second, even if we assume there are no malicious insiders, the “squishy center” mentality means that once inside the network, an adversary has free rein. Taking this one step farther, we’re essentially saying that if an attacker ever finds a vulnerability in the perimeter then the breach is not just a perimeter breach, but likely a massive breach of internal systems and data too!

We agree, the internal network is untrusted. Now what?

Although the internal network may not be trusted, this doesn’t mean we throw out the firewalls and just let it be a free-for-all. Instead, let’s double down on the concept of least privilege, which the perimeter is the first step to broadly eliminate access to the world unless they authenticate via VPN. The next logical step is applying least privilege inside the network. In other words, shift the mentality in all places to enforce strong authentication, access control, and minimal access policies. One way to think about this is that the company network is essentially a coffee house wireless network. No trust is implicitly granted just because a person is in a particular physical location and has internet access. Instead, trust is proved whenever access to systems and data is required.

Here are a few concrete steps to help move a company in this direction

Company Education – Wide company awareness and support is required. Teams building internal systems for sales, data science, developer efficiency etc all must understand that authentication and access control is required – even though the systems are internal only. As a security team you’ll be viewed much more favorably if you also provide pre-vetted libraries to achieve auth’n and auth’z.
Security Architecture & Strategy – It’s time to understand and plan for a migration to a Zero Trust security model. Don’t be overwhelmed by hype here, you don’t need to do a full scale overhaul. But there are many small steps you can take to incorporate Zero Trust concepts into your security posture.
Data First Security Policy – We’ve established that access to an internal network does not imply trust, therefore we must evaluate how trust is established for access to internal data systems. As a security exercise, look at two internal data stores, one within your on prem data center and one within a cloud deployment. Evaluate how you authenticate and authorize services or users that can access the data. For the services, follow the call chain. How do you ensure that the individual initializing the services call is authenticated and authorized for the action. This gets tricky, but it also gets to the core of a data first security policy. Without confidence in these controls you are instead relying on only trusted actors on your internal network – which we know is no longer realistic.

The migration from a long held security approach and belief system may be challenging. You’ll undoubtedly have naysayers and others that believe this work is paranoid and unwarranted. In all areas of security it’s critical to return to fundamental risk modeling practices. If your company is moving forward to adopt new technology architectures and business relationships, then your threat model is evolving too. Through your risk management you either accept the new risk, hold back the business by denying technologies or update mitigating controls to safely enable the business. The only thing I hope you don’t do is cling to old truths that no longer hold – unless verified by your fresh risk evaluation specific to your company’s profile, risk model and controls.

Michael
Want to chat? Find me @_mwc

10 Things We Learned from Women Trailblazers

Adweek’s annual Women Trailblazers event in New York City kicked off this week, bringing together influential figures in media, marketing, entertainment, sports and technology to discuss topics that involved the underrepresentation of women in the workplace. The conversations and insights that were shared among women (and men!) triggered action from attendees in order to make cultural changes in their organizations.

The conversations that took place at the event are the building blocks we need in order to create awareness and ultimately spark change among women in the workplace. We were lucky enough to have our team member, Cara Bernstein, provide us with the inside scoop on what is being discussed among such influential characters.

10 Things We Learned from Women Trailblazers

1. Being a trailblazer is a responsibility.

What is a women trailblazer, anyway? Being a voice in the industry, creating disruptive change, and breaking the societal norms. IMG Model and Disabilities Advocate, Jillian Mercado, started the conversation at this event with her story of the challenges she faced to become a model, and now feels a responsibility to advocate for others. Another panel featuring three women all on corporate Boards each agreed that while rewarding, being on a Board is not all fun and games.

“It’s a lot of commitment. Having the marketing background helps but in addition to that marketing perspective, their needs to also be the female perspective. It’s not a four times a year stamp of approval type of commitment.” Susan Vobejda, CMO, The Trade Desk

It is a responsibility where you are not only using your expertise and past experiences to make decisions for the businesses, but to also represent women in a table of mostly men.

2. There will always be expectations from your spectators.

No matter the industry, people are inevitably watching you as you climb the ladder. The cleverly titled session, “Playing With The Boys” featured an all star panel of female athletes who feel constant pressure and expectations from the people back home.

“People expect girls to fail.” Hailie Deegan, Professional Stock Car Driver, NASCAR

With this in mind, women in the workplace are still evolving. What can women do to keep going despite these expectations? Join ’em.

4. Invite men into the conversation.

For a more humorous take on exactly how to ‘join em’, four former PepsiCo Executives took the stage with examples of specific situations they have been in as a female in the corporate world. You are at the table but not quite in the conversation. You want to go out for drinks with the team of guys, but don’t get the invite. You want to nail your performance review but only talk about areas for improvement. Women should be able to use language to make these approachable conversations. Don’t shy away from putting yourself right into it. Invite yourself to the golf outing, list the accomplishments you have mastered for your annual review, and YOU be the one to invite the men into the conversation.

5. Be true to yourself.

Because you don’t have any other option. One of the most exciting elements for Twitter Executive, God-Is Rivera, in working for the social platform is the individuality one can showcase.

“Everyone has the same amount of characters and everyone can be heard.” God-Is Rivera, Global Director, Culture and Community, Twitter

Make your brand bold. And don’t be afraid to be yourself.

6. Create fans, internally and externally.

Collaboration, while a fluffy buzzword, is critical in building trust to inevitably break boundaries, build purpose and become a trailblazing leader.

“If you don’t have the fan along with you, it’s not going to work.” Jill Gregory, EVP, CMO, NASCAR

While Gregory was referring to her avid NASCAR fans, this quote reigns true for your internal fans and supporters as well.

7. Change the cultural conversation.

Even in 2019, there are still so many topics that women cannot yet bring out into the open and out of hush hush. The two women who co-founded ad agency, Fancy LLC, are definitely not afraid of doing this. Their agency is geared towards industries where women voices are absent – aging, sexuality, mental health, the list goes on. This non-dialogue is slowly changing, but surely we shouldn’t be so closed off about it. Discussing bold, intercepting, culture changing work is what it’s all about.

8. Have thick skin.

Erin Andrews, Broadcaster for FOX Sports, has never once thought about being a female in a male dominated industry. She’s too busy to think twice about it! You can imagine the backlash Andrews gets from fans and spectators who watch her on the big screen at every game. But she’s got some thick skin. She pushes social media aside after each game and instead focuses her attention on the next thing (which is usually a trip to the airport for another game, a taping of a Dancing with the Stars episode, or to see her family. Hello, balance!)

9. Create your own path and know your worth.

Don’t fall into anyone’s footsteps and don’t allow someone to push aside your values.

“On a Board, there are different Executive committees which all consist of different job titles for diversity and variety. Where can you add value?” Sarah Hofstetter, Board Member, Campbell Soup Company

People should be excited to get your perspective.

10. Inclusion should be key in any organizational culture.

Mandy Rico, Global Director, The Inclusion Index at Kantar, stressed this point from the start of the event. Whether you are at the beginnings of your career or an Executive who runs a team, keeping this in mind is essential to become an inclusive leader.

Going Mobile, and Building Conversion-Driven Results

Across all industries, mobile eCommerce has become an increasingly fundamental aspect of the buyer’s journey, and if you don’t take our word for it, Justin Smith from OuterBox pulled together these stats on 2018’s Mobile eCommerce:

More than half of all internet traffic shopping is coming from a mobile device
79% of smartphone users have made a purchase online using their mobile device in the last 6 months
Almost 40% of all eCommerce purchases during the 2018 holiday season were made on a smartphone

Cross-device intuitive programming is imperative in the digital landscape, and creating a streamlined app experience, when done right, can attract brand loyalty and a better customer retention rate. eCommerce heavyweights Wayfair and Target have found great success in recent years, while Ikea’s sales have dipped as a result of their heavy reliance on brick-and-mortar retail.

Right now, Ikea has 4 separate apps available, but none of which actually allow users to make in-app purchases. Ikea Place, an augmented reality app that helps users visualize Ikea products within their home, is an impressive technology and creative solution for a customer’s concerns over whether a piece coordinates with their current setup. However, without the ability to make a purchase in-app, it runs the risk of losing a prospective conversion in the time it takes a user to pull up a web browser.

An intuitive digital experience is vital in driving conversions, but in order to do so, the platform must allow for outcome-driven results.

In years past, Ikea separated itself from competitor furniture retailers by shaping the customer experience around psychographic and qualitative data – showrooms are modeled after the customer’s home, whether it be a dorm room, family home or small space. When a customer purchases a new piece of furniture, other changes usually follow suit, and the showrooms simplify the process of finding these matching items. Psychographic data also revealed that many customers have children with them, so they included a designated “day care” area. People get hungry after hours on their feet, so they included a cafeteria in every location. Ikea customized their in-store experience to solve nearly every problem their customer might face, and a digital transformation should be approached the same way: study, collect and utilize your customer data to improve the customer’s experience.

Ikea recently announced that they’re launching a new app this year – one that will allow for fast in-app purchases, an “inspiration feed” akin to Instagram’s explore page and better search and recommendation algorithms. Ikea’s COO, Leontyne Green Sykes, recently told Business Insider, “Our strategy is really around transforming to be more relevant for consumers and what they’re looking for”.

With big data constantly evolving, many companies will go through countless digital transformations before hitting the nail on the head, and Ikea’s journey proves just that. In a nutshell, it’s crucial that your consumer data is collected and utilized with a customer-focused frame of reference, and keep in mind that this customer’s journey is always changing in the digital landscape (but that’s the beauty of digital retail).

ABOUT DIGITAL RETAIL TRANSFORMATION ASSEMBLY

C-Level experts from across North America’s retail industry are coming together in Dallas in August to anticipate the highly complex digital retail environment that will develop over the next few years.

Through a cutting-edge program designed by the industry, for the industry, we will provide a fresh and up-to-date insight to help move your organization to the next level of digital leadership. A series of executive education roundtables, keynote presentations, collaborative think tanks, educational workshops, and networking sessions will offer industry-specific topics and trends to ensure your company sustains its competitive advantage.

Are you interested in becoming a sponsor for this event? Click here today to learn more >>

Are you interested in attending this event? Inquire here today to find out if you qualify for Millennium Membership >>

What Tech Skills Should You Be Looking For In Your Company?

We talk about technology a lot, and how it is being integrated into major industries. Everything from major business processes to smaller daily functions, it is clear that the adaption of technology is essential to the growth of any company.

In order to successfully integrate technology into your business, there is one thing for sure, you will need the proper skill set for tech efforts to be rewarding.

“67% of hiring managers plan to expand their IT teams; 89% say it’s challenging to find skilled professionals.” Robert Half reports.

As a hiring manager or higher executive, understanding what skills to look for is something that can really help while finding new employees. So, let’s dive in.

1. Cybersecurity

It is no surprise that cybersecurity makes the top of this list. Protecting inter-connected systems is crucial in the world of computers, tablets, the cloud, you name it. If you are a business professional, chances are you have moved on from the world of paper and are totally knee-deep in the technology puddle. Do you want to protect your data? Cybersecurity will help.

2. Cloud security

Ah, the cloud. Cloud computing seemed to be the biggest tech trend last year, and that has not changed. From major enterprises to small businesses, the cloud works to hold all important assets over the internet as opposed to hard drives, which could get messy. It puts your company’s data into one place. The goal is to make sure that place is hard to access, so your data does not end up in the wrong hands.

3. Cloud computing

Someone has to know how to get the data into the cloud, right? Alas, cloud computing. Your next tech hire should know the ins and the outs of the cloud, especially how to access resources seamlessly.

4. Database management

Database management is pretty much exactly what it sounds like, the skill to analyze data effectively in order to improve systems or processes for the entire company. If a company’s processes are outdated, or not working for the greater good of everyone, what is the point?

You may want to hire someone who can look into each process, the data, accounts, and then figure out what will make it better. Or, what to take away.

Overall, if you are in the market for some new tech talent, it is important to keep those 4 skills in mind. Don’t forget that technology and security go hand in hand, and when both work together, your company could be seamless.

ABOUT DIGITAL ENTERPRISE TRANSFORMATION ASSEMBLY WEST

The Millennium Alliance is thrilled that you’re interested in Digital Enterprise Transformation West Coast in August 2019.

As more and more businesses look to digital technology and strategies to transform their business, CIOs know that data and information technology have never been more important. Understanding the convergence of mobile, social, and cloud is the first critical step for organizations looking to create opportunities and stay ahead of the competition.

Join us in Las Vegas for a series of executive education roundtables, keynote presentations, collaborative think tanks, educational workshops, and networking sessions will offer industry-specific topics and trends to ensure your company maintains its competitive advantage.

Are you interested in becoming a sponsor for this event? Click here today to learn more >>

Are you interested in attending this event? Inquire here today to find out if you qualify for Millennium Membership >>

Exclusive Interview with Google

At our most recent Digital Healthcare Transformation Assembly, Millennium Alliance attendees had the opportunity to hear first hand from Google’s Senior Partner, James Glover. After his keynote address, we sat down with James to learn about the future of Google on both the payer and the provider side, how the powerhouse is taking steps in empowering the patient/consumer, and we even learned about the start of James’ healthcare career which later lead to a Johnson & Johnson and Google partnership. Tune in!

About Google

At Google we’re committed to improving the lives of as many people as possible. One of the most important areas in which we’re striving to do that is health. Every day, people ask Google health-related questions, and we do our best to provide the most accurate and helpful information.

Beyond Search, emerging technologies present opportunities to elevate healthcare for everyone. Today we’re studying the use of artificial intelligence to assist in diagnosing cancer, predicting patient outcomes, preventing blindness, and much more. We’re exploring ways to improve patient care, including tools that are already being used by clinicians. And we’re partnering with doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals to help improve the care patients receive.

These are just the first steps of an exciting journey that all of us at Google are passionate about taking. To learn more, here’s a conversation with Dr. David Feinberg, who is leading our efforts. In addition to all we’re doing across Google, you can read about the exciting work being done by our colleagues in Alphabet at Verily and Calico.