What's up with... Tata Communications, AT&T security, APT and the NGMN Alliance?

• Tata Communications goes home
• Does remote working make companies more vulnerable to cyberattacks
• APT chooses Nokia

Work at home but beware consumer solutions; Don't work at home, you're a security risk - just two of the contradictions encapsulated in today's carefully curated set of conundrums

Post COVID work: Signs that players are chancing their arms with explicit  post-COVID corporate service designs.  Tata Communications, which styles itself as a global digital ecosystem enabler,  has launched ‘Secure Connected Digital Experience’ (SCDx), “a proposition for enterprises to help them rebuild and adapt their organisations for a post-COVID world”.  Its says the solution will help companies currently relying on short-term fixes, such as consumer-grade applications or employees’ home broadband connections, by providing holistic, secure, enterprise-level digital solutions that address current challenges and are fit for the long term. Whether many companies currently feel they need to splash out on gold plated work-at-home solutions when those consumer grade solutions seemed to hold up rather well is another question. 

According to an AT&T Survey, 70% of large businesses believe remote working makes them more vulnerable to cyberattacks, which is predictable I suppose. But it’s all YOUR fault. The survey concludes that employees are the biggest risk thanks to a lack of awareness, apathy and/or reluctance to adapt to new technologies. One in three (35%) employees are using devices for both work and personal uses, one in four (24%) are sharing or storing sensitive information in unsanctioned cloud applications, and almost one in five (18%) are sharing their work device with another family member. AT&T suggests the  AT&T Alien Labs Open Threat Exchange could be part of the answer.

Taiwanese operator, Asia Pacific Telecom (APT) has chosen Nokia  to be its sole supplier for 5G New Radio and in the 5G network core. APT will deploy 28 GHz mm Wave across the island nation to provide ultra-fast broadband. APT says the Nokia kit will provide it with the capability to rapidly launch 5G services, expected to be available later this year, to its customers without making significant changes to the network. In the first instance, the operator is targeting six vertical industries: smart manufacturing, smart retail, smart medical, smart transportation, smart entertainment, and smart energy, as well as focusing on cloud gaming, virtual reality, augmented reality and enhanced streaming services to subscribers. ​

The Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance says it’s just published its second 5G White Paper and has launched further projects based on its conclusions since the one it published  way back in  2015 went down so well. It says the industry must avoid fragmentation by adopting global standards with open, interoperable interfaces and application programming interfaces. It says Mobile Network Operators are uniquely placed to provide such a fully integrated solution for Verticals that encompasses networks, clouds and platforms.