2025-03-05T16:11:08Z Read in app Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Getty Images; Jenny Chang-Rodriguez/BI This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? Meta maintains internal block lists of employees who are ineligible for being rehired.BI spoke with former employees who said they were surprised to learn they were on these lists.Some former Meta managers said it could be nearly impossible to get employees off the list.A senior engineer caught up in Meta's 2022 mass layoff of 10,000 employees thought finding another role at the tech giant would be straightforward.They had worked at the company for more than four years, consistently receiving "Exceeded Expectations," one of the stronger ratings on Meta's performance scale. The year before, the engineer had earned a coveted promotion to a senior technical role. Their work had been praised by their skip-level manager, who told them in an email that their contributions were "crucial" to the company's success. They were told that their layoff was simply a business decision and that multiple hiring managers now wanted them back on their teams.After applying to nearly 20 positions in the year after they were let go, the engineer noticed a pattern: Hiring managers would express interest in bringing them back and set up a screening call with a recruiter, the first stage in Meta's multistep hiring process. Then, the recruiters would ghost them.Frustrated, the engineer asked a hiring manager what was happening. They were told"That was the first time I had a real indication that I was on some kind of list," the engineer, who is unnamed because they are actively trying to get rehired at Meta, told Business Insider.Meta maintains internal lists that bar some former employees from rejoining the company, according to five former employees, including two managers, who BI spoke to.The former employees and managers confirmed that Meta uses multiple systems to track rehire ineligibility, including a "non-regrettable attrition" designation and a "do not rehire" flag, though the exact mechanisms and number of affected employees remain unclear. While BI couldn't view a single, comprehensive list, multiple internal communications we reviewed showed that managers encounter systemic barriers when attempting to rehire certain former employees.For the past few years, tech companies have aggressively pursued efficiency after years of explosiveInterviews with five former employees across different divisions, along with internal emails and messages viewed by BI, revealed multiple instances of workers who were laid off and discovered they were barred from rejoining Meta after applying for new positions at the company despite good performance records in their previous stints. These workers often learned about their status from third-party contractors rather than Meta itself.BI has kept names and other identifiable details private to protect sources' confidentiality but has verified the identities and employment histories of these individuals.Employees who violate workplace policies, such as stealing confidential data, receive permanent bans from future employment at Meta. The company also maintains lists that sometimes include underperforming employees. However, two former managers who spoke with BI say the bans extend beyond these clear-cut cases: Managers often have broad discretion to add names to these lists, without documented performance issues."If a manager didn't like you, it wasn't hard to put someone on a list," one former manager said.In a statement to BI,Meta says its decision to bar an ex-employee from rehiring is based on a multitude of factors."We determine, at the time of separation, the reason for the employee's departure policy violation, performance termination, voluntary resignation etc. and that, along with the last rating prior to separation and any other recent performance signals, determines whether an employee is eligible for rehire or not," the Meta spokesperson told BI.One former manager, however, said that they and other managers at the company were able to put people on lists by "just filling out a form" and "putting in any real issue."It would "take minutes to get someone marked as 'non-regrettable,'" they told BI. "The manager would get an email asking if it was non-regrettable attrition or not."Blocklisted without an explanationAfter being cut during Meta's 2022 layoffs, a former hardware engineer with a record of being rated "Exceeded Expectations" was approached by a staffing agency about a contract position with the same team they built and managed at Meta.In emails viewed by BI, the staffing agency was initially enthusiastic, noting the ex-employee had the qualifications for the role. But after they applied, the responses grew increasingly vague.First, the agency said the role wasn't aligned with their experience. When the applicant pressed for more information, the agency revealed that Meta's HR team had marked them as "ineligible to be hired," the emails viewed by BI showed. The agency declined to provide additional details, saying the information was "kept confidential by Meta HR."The staffing agency did not respond to a request for comment from BI.Last month, Meta cut nearly 4,000 workers in a move that CEO Mark Zuckerberg characterized as performance-based trimming.Another former employee, who was also laid off in 2022, was approached months later by a different staffing agency for a contract position at Meta that was similar to their previous role at the company. When they applied, the agency told them that Meta said they were not eligible for rehire without providing a reason, according to an email between the staffing agency and this former employee viewed by BI."I got really frustrated because they didn't tell me the reason," the former employee said. "They gave this information to a third party, the contract company, but not to me." Their former managers did not respond when they reached out for clarification. The second staffing agency did not respond to requests for comment from BI.Meta's practices appear to be unusual even within the competitive tech industry landscape. Barring former employees with no major policy violations from being rehired without notifying them explicitly isn't standard practice at other major tech companies, according to industry veterans familiar with hiring systems."It's incredibly uncommon. This is very, very rare," Laszlo Bock, Google's head of people operations from 2006 to 2016, told BI."I've actually never heard of a company having a 'do not rehire' designation for former employees, because if an employee was a decent or good performer, you'd much rather hire somebody who actually knows your company and culture than somebody else," said Bock, who added that he'd never seen the practice formalized at any major corporation thus far.A mechanism outside normal recruiting toolsThis past summer, Meta connected the senior engineer mentioned earlier in this story with one of its lawyers from the company's employee relations team after the engineer contacted HR.After reviewing their employment history, the lawyer confirmed that there were no HR violations that might warrant a hiring restriction, the engineer told BI. When the engineer pressed for an explanation about the recruiting block, Meta's lawyer told them they couldn't comment.In a follow-up email to Meta's HR department viewed by BI, the engineer asked Meta to confirm whether they were on a recruiting block list and, if so, to provide the reason. The company saidOver the next several months, the senior engineer contacted multiple Meta directors and managers who appeared interested in rehiring them, according to messages viewed by BI.A division director told them that they had witnessed similar cases where current Meta employees, who had been given a month to find new internal roles after their programs had been canceled, discovered that they were blocked from transferring because they happened to be on a list.Another director, who was actively trying to rehire the senior engineer, expressed frustration about the block and said that it was preventing them from rehiring multiple people they hoped to recruit.One hiring manager who wasn't allowed to hire the senior engineer told them in a private message that Meta asked them not to discuss specific reasons for not moving forward. When the senior engineer asked a different hiring manager about getting off the list, they were told that even a sign-off from a vice president wouldn't be enough.In an email viewed by BI, a hiring manager expressed frustration that they couldn't figure out why someone they wanted to rehire had ended up on a block list. It seemed, they said, that they were running into a mechanism outside normal recruiting tools. They wrote that they had not seen anyone successfully get off a list and be able to interview at the company again.Ashley Herd, an employment attorney, told BI that companies maintaining such lists isn't illegal,"For it to be illegal under nationwide federal law, it would have to be discriminatory based on some sort of protected characteristic," Herd said. She added that it's "really a terrible practice because you're missing out on talent, especially people that know your business."Mitchell Epner, a partner at Kudman Trachten Aloe and Posner LLP who practices employment law, told BI that it's common for severance agreements to include provisions barring former employees from reapplying. None of the former Meta employees BI spoke to said their agreements contained such language."The rights that an individual has vis--vis an employer are extraordinarily limited," Epner said. "Outside of discrimination against protected classes, employers can do virtually anything that they want ... for any reason at all or no reason at all."Meta's block lists aren't accidentally rehired a former employee as a contractor despite him being on a "Do Not Hire" list after he was accused of stalking and harassing a coworker for over a year.Despite their experience, the senior engineer told BI that they would still return to Meta if given the chance."It's the worst company I've ever worked for," they said. "But they also pay the best. If I could get in there for a couple more years and make bank, I would do it."Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at or Signal at . Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

Just Eat It"Cheetozard", a kinda Pokemon-shaped cheese puff, sells for close to $90,000 to an auction bidder who almost definitely isn't peckishIs this just the grown men who dress up as Ash Ketchum version of thinking a slice of toast looks like Jesus' mug? You decide.Image credit: The Pokemon Company. News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on March 6, 2025 Hungry? Well, if you had about $90k sitting around doing nothing late last week, you could have been in the running to buy a incredibly important Pokemon collectable. "Cheetozard", a Cheeto that some people reckon looks like Charizard, was up for auction, and ended up shifting for just over $87K, when you factor in the "buyer's premium" fee.Yep, forget about investing in Pokemon TCG Pocket packs, you could have had a preserved cheese puff that's up to eight years old, and looks a bit like a dragon.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. The Flamin Hot Cheeto in question was lot number 70 in an auction run by collectables-focused American auction house Goldin Auctions that concluded on March 2. The winning bid was $72,000, which for context is less than the current winning bid at the same auction house on a game-worn Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls basketball jersey from the 90s, but more than the top bid for a game-worn LeBron James Lakers jersey."Presented is a 3-inch long Flamin' Hot Cheeto in the shape of the Pokemon Charizard, affixed to a customized Pokemon card and encapsulated in a clear card storage box," reads Cheetozard's description on the site, "It was initially discovered and preserved sometime between 2018-2022 by 1st & Goal Collectibles. The Cheeto surged in popularity on social media platforms in late 2024." There he is, in all his cheesy glory. | Image credit: Goldin AuctionsThere were 60 bids in total for the snack that definitely won't ever get eaten, with my condolences going to the bidder who offered to pay $67,000 for Cheetozard, only to be topped exactly 11 minutes later by the lucky winner.Here's the thing though, I think you've not missed out on much. This is sacrilege, but I reckon the Cheeto looks more like a generic dragon than it specifically does Charizard. All I'm saying is, in my humble opinion as the owner of some eyes, the fact Cheetos are naturally - well, not naturally because there's nothing natural about cheese puffs - orange-ish in colour is doing a lot of lifting here in this one being identified as looking like the Pokemon. I suppose the shape of the arms is arguably more like Charizard than other famous dragons, but that's about it.Let us know how much you'd have paid for Cheetozard below, and check out our array of helpful TCG Pocket guides for expert advice on things like how trading works in its current form and assembling decks based around ex Pokemon ranging from Cresselia to Yanmega.

Blizzard has announced that the next Diablo 4 season will also preceded by a PTR (Public Test Realm). This has become something of a habit for the developer, after spending months creating seasonal content without players involvement. Read more

Image: SamsungLate last year, a patent emerged that suggested Samsung was looking to create its own foldable handheld console. Now, the company has showcased what such a device might actually look like at MWC25 in Barcelona.With the Nintendo Switch 2 launching later this year, you might be wondering if the console is set to receive some stiff competition from this new Samsung device. Worry not though; according to T3, this is merely a concept that Samsung hopes will entice other manufacturers into utilising its foldable screen technology in similar ways.Still, it's an intriguing handheld, even if it is a bit ugly. For example, in order to fold the screen over completely, holes have been implemented where the d-pad and face buttons are usually situated, ensuring that the analogue sticks don't get in the way when closing the device.As such, the d-pad and face buttons are still there, but they curve into the holes from the outside. It doesn't strike us as the most ergonomic solution, but then we have to remember that this is merely a concept design for the time being.Honestly, we could see something like this come to fruition in the coming years given the ridiculous amount of PC and emulation handhelds flooding the market at the moment. As for the Switch 2, however, we're not convinced such a device will prove to be much of a threat to Nintendo's upcoming next-gen hardware.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube798k Samsung Flip SwitchA complete guide to Switch 2 - confirmed details, rumours, leak historyWould you be interested in a foldable handheld console in the future, or is this concept a bit of a non-starter? Let us know what you think with a comment in the usual place.[source t3.com]Share:00 Nintendo Lifes resident horror fanatic, when hes not knee-deep in Resident Evil and Silent Hill lore, Ollie likes to dive into a good horror book while nursing a lovely cup of tea. He also enjoys long walks and listens to everything from TOOL to Chuck Berry. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related ArticlesNintendo Confirms Removal Of Switch Online SNES GameSuper Soccer will "no longer be available"Stardew Valley's New Update For Nintendo Switch Is Now LiveUpdate: Creator acknowledges "error" in Switch patchNintendo Switch Online Announces Removal Of Super Famicom TitleGoodbye, Super SoccerNintendo Discounts Several Games On Switch For MAR10 Day (North America)"I'm a slasher... of prices!"Stunning New Physical Edition Of Stardew Valley Is Now Available At FangamerIncludes comic, poster, art cards, and more

Image: The Pokmon CompanyAs long as Pokmon TCG exists, there will always be scalpers looking to make a quick buck from the game's rare cards and packs.Case in point, a new video has surfaced in which two men appear to be fighting it out to take advantage of a kiosk restock. The video comes from TikTok user 'yoc9official', who appears to be one of the men directly involved in the altercation, though he claims to be well-intentioned and is simply purchasing cards for his own collection.The other man, however, wearing the Philadelphia Eagles jumper, is supposedly a known scalper according to the comments on the video, and appears to be trying to block the kiosk without making it seem as though he's committing any kind of physical assault.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube798kWatch on YouTube It's really quite embarrassing: @yoc9official 10am at a restock Just wanted to get my 151s bro #pokemon #restock #wrestletok #pokemon151 #prismaticevolutions Good Morning - Kanye West It's difficult to tell what's being said in the video since there's no audio, and a second upload doesn't really shed much light on the incident, either. It sounds like the Eagles man is trying to defend his position, claiming that he came into the store multiple times; presumably to hit the kiosk at the exact time the restock takes place.Some folks in the comments have said that if you want to purchase Pokmon cards for yourself, then you have to play scalpers at their own game and get there first whenever restocks take place. Honestly, it's all a bit of a mess.Back in 2021, scalpers took advantage of a promotion at the UK retailer GAME in which Euro 2020 cards were being offered up for free. Said cards quickly found their way on eBay for stupid prices. If that's not ridiculous enough, scalpers attempted to sell limited edition Pokmon Oreos during the same year, posting them on eBay for buy-it-now prices of up to $25,000. Would you pay $25k for a "used" Mew cookie?Should we be surprised?Oh dear...What are your thoughts on this rather embarrassing video? Have you ever encountered anything like this? Let us know with a comment.[source tiktok.com]See AlsoShare:00 Nintendo Lifes resident horror fanatic, when hes not knee-deep in Resident Evil and Silent Hill lore, Ollie likes to dive into a good horror book while nursing a lovely cup of tea. He also enjoys long walks and listens to everything from TOOL to Chuck Berry. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related ArticlesRandom: Honda Teases Real-Life Pokmon Scarlet And Violet MotorbikeThe official reveal takes place next monthOpinion: Pokmon Legends: Z-A Looks Cool, But It's Lacking Arceus' Unique StyleWe're getting Scarlet and Violet vibes'Pokmon Champions', A New Battle-Focused Game, Announced For Switch And MobileStay tuned for more info!Best Pokmon Games Of All TimeGotta rank 'em all

Join Fox News for access to this content You have reached your maximum number of articles. Log in or create an account FREE of charge to continue reading. By entering your email and pushing continue, you are agreeing to Fox News' Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which includes our Notice of Financial Incentive. Please enter a valid email address. Are you ready to step into your dream home or office, feeling every dimension as if it were already built?With some pretty cool tech, you can do just that by walking through your future space at its actual size and experimenting with layouts and furniture in real time.This isn't just about visualizing your space; it's about avoiding costly surprises down the line and making sure your final product is exactly what you envisioned. By experiencing your plans in a life-like setting, you can refine your vision, ensuring your project stays on budget and matches your dreams.STAY SAFE & IN THE KNOW AT NO COST! SUBSCRIBE TO KURTS THE CYBERGUY REPORT FOR FREE SECURITY ALERTS & TECH TIPS Immersive walk-through of a future home (Lifesize Plans)How to experience your space before it's builtImagine walking through your future home or commercial space, corner to corner, at actual size.Lifesize Plans makes this possible with its immersive walk-throughs, giving you a level of clarity and confidence in your design decisions. What's really cool is that you will have the opportunity to experiment with layouts in real time using moveable furniture and walls, ensuring that every detail is exactly as you envisioned.An expert building consultant will accompany you throughout the walk-through, providing valuable insights and guidance to refine your vision. The comprehensive visualization includes specialized features like pools and outdoor spaces, as well as ensuring your garage is perfectly suited for your needs, even down to charging stations for electric vehicles.WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)? Immersive walk-through of a future home (Lifesize Plans)The technology behind the immersive walk-throughLifesize Plans leverages cutting-edge technology to bring architectural designs to life. Here's how they achieve their immersive experience.Projection technology: Lifesize Plans uses advanced projection systems, creating vivid and clear images across large spaces.Multiple projector setup: The showroom typically features 11 projectors working in tandem to cover expansive areas. This setup allows for seamless projection across 60,000-square-foot showrooms with approximately 20-foot-high ceilings.Geometry Manager Pro software: This specialized software from Panasonic enables precise adjustment of multiple projections. It allows for edge blending of up to 100 images, color matching and digital image enlargement with up to 10x zoom capability.Smart projector control: A mobile application allows remote management of the projectors, including automatic lens focus, input switching and projection status monitoring.3D modeling: The process begins with converting 2D architectural plans into detailed 3D models. These models serve as the basis for the immersive walk-through experience.Virtual reality integration: While the primary experience is projection-based, some companies in this space also offer VR headset options for an even more immersive individual experience.Real-time modifications: The technology allows for real-time adjustments to designs, enabling clients and designers to make immediate changes and visualize the results.By combining these technologies, Lifesize Plans creates a unique, immersive experience that allows clients to walk through and interact with their future spaces at a 1:1 scale, revolutionizing the design and construction planning process. Lifesize Plans is set to open locations across the U.S. over the next five years. Immersive walk-through of a future home (Lifesize Plans)Benefits for you of an immersive walk-throughBy using Lifesize Plans, you can avoid costly mid-construction changes that often lead to budget blowouts. On average, these changes can cost around $35,000, but with Lifesize Plans, you can sidestep these expenses and stay on budget. Additionally, you'll join the 98% of clients who refine their vision after experiencing their plans in a lifelike setting, ensuring that your final product matches your dreams.In an industry where 90% of new builders face regrets, Lifesize Plans offers a "test-drive" for your build. This means you can experience every dimension of your home or commercial space before construction begins, eliminating the potential for builder's remorse. By gaining clarity before construction, you can enjoy peace of mind and a regret-free future.Barry Johnston, director of HEVN Creative, the technology and global licensing partner of Lifesize Plans, tells CyberGuy that HEVN has"conducted an environmental impact study. By combining LSP with digital engineering and our core technologies, we can reduce the waste and mitigation costs of a project from 30% of total cost to 1%. This has a huge impact on carbon footprint, material costs, insurance and delivery timelines."GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE Immersive walk-through of a future home (Lifesize Plans)Kurt's key takeawaysSo, what does all this mean for you? Essentially, Lifesize Plans offers a way to ensure your dream home or office turns out exactly as you imagined it. By stepping into a lifelike version of your space before construction starts, you can avoid those costly surprises and regrets that often come with building or renovating. It's like test-driving your future home or office before it gets built.CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPWould you use immersive walk-throughs to design your dream home? Share your thoughts on whether this technology excites you or if you have any reservations about trying it by writing us atCyberguy.com/Contact.For more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading toCyberguy.com/Newsletter.Ask Kurt a question or let us know what stories you'd like us to cover.Follow Kurt on his social channels:Answers to the most-asked CyberGuy questions:New from Kurt:Copyright 2025 CyberGuy.com.All rights reserved.

In 2024, the Norwegian government set out a national digitisation strategy with the aim of making the country the most digitised in the world by 2030.This intent is nothing new and has both ignited, and been ignited by, a tech startup ecosystem that has taken Norway away from its industrial and maritime roots and into a new era of innovation. Chief among the countrys startup impact has been a globally significant fightback against financial crime.Fintech as an all-encompassing term has proved to be something of a double-edged sword. Greater accessibility and democratisation of finance, more seamless financial management for the general public and whole new industries such as blockchain point to progress. In opposition lies a new catalogue of opportunities for criminals to commit fraud, attack personal and business finances, and to obtain sensitive data.Finding solutions to these problems, fighting tech with tech, was always likely to be a lucrative pursuit, and three Norwegian-born companies are finding just that.One cyber security company, Promon, is a driving force behind the global cyber security agenda, with more than three decades of influence. Promon, known as the godfather of app-shielding, has more than two billion users globally, and protects more than $2.5trn in market capitalisation.Norways forward-thinking approach has created fertile ground for a thriving tech ecosystem, with startups across sectors like fintech, cyber security and AI all flourishing, says Promon founder, Tom Lysemose. Widespread digital infrastructure, a tech-savvy population and government support for innovation foster an environment where Norwegian startups can rapidly prototype, scale and connect with global markets.Lysemose notes that cyber crime in general continues to escalate globally, fuelled by the rise in digital transactions, making banking apps prime targets. Malware, phishing and ransomware remain the most common forms of attacks, with Promon uncovering several sophisticated strains of these vectors in recent years. One, he notes, defrauded just one victim out of $280,000, adding: It highlights the urgent need for robust, proactive security solutions.Promons journey manifested from Lysemoses Masters thesis and doctoral work, realising the vulnerability of applications while networks, devices and operating systems were getting so much attention.It seemed natural that the only way to protect an application is to understand how the application should behave, he says. This way, you can detect when someone tries to make the application do something it should not.These core ideas were present in the very first Promon product, and today they are also some of the core tenets of the entire industry known either as Runtime Application Self-Protection (RASP), app shielding, or in-app protection.Lysemose recalls: We had two disruptive ideas. The first was that the application needed to have security embedded directly in it to proactively prevent attacks. The second was that the security tools needed to understand the intended behaviour of applications and when an attacker might try to change that behaviour.Many other companies emphasise threat detection, but thats like identifying a criminal after theyve already entered your house. Helpful, but youd rather prevent them from getting in at all.The result of this ethos and service, still ongoing, is a two billion user portfolio across the world, all the while still being headquartered in Oslo.Weve seen some amazing cases in e-commerce and banking, especially. In many of the cases weve seen, the fraud entirely ends, full stop. Adding app shielding isnt about reducing or minimising, but stopping malicious activity from happening entirely.Being proactive is also the name of the game for Strise, a company founded in 2016 by Marit Rdevand, Patrick Skjennum and Sigve Srsen while they were studying together in Oslo.What started as a university project, has since grown into a leading innovator in anti-money laundering (AML) technology, after noticing that traditional AML compliance methods often struggle with fragmented customer data and manual processes both leading to potential vulnerabilities.Strise developed software that unifies disparate data sources and automates compliance workflows, empowering institutions to proactively detect and prevent financial crimes, Rdevand says. This approach not only enhances security but also reduces operational costs and ensures adherence to complex regulatory AML landscapes.Initially, Strise focused on creating a platform that organised vast amounts of public and external data into customer-centric workflows, supporting AML, know your customer (KYC) and know your business (KYB) processes.Over time, we integrated advanced AI models and expanded our data sources to enhance the platforms capabilities, Rdevand adds. Our geographic footprint has grown from serving Nordic clients to partnering with international clients, and since first launching commercially in 2020, we are now leading the AML automation revolution.Strise is already planning to enhance the AML Automation Cloud to cover a broader spectrum of crimes in the future. One of its core areas, KYC, is a focus shared by Convier, a Norwegian tech startup that enables financial institutions to identify and report on customer risk regardless of where data is stored.Only founded in 2022, the company is not as far along in its journey, but like all ambitious Norwegian startups is already targeting international traction very soon.CEO, Andreas Engstrand co-founded Convier after having a very similar realisation to Strises founders. He recalls: I had noticed in my former role as head of financial crime at KPMG Norway that customer data in a bank was often fragmented, scattered across multiple systems, and was difficult to access, which meant that customer due diligence took hours to perform.Vitally, it also meant that they didnt see the full customer risk picture. We started building a platform that would unify banking data.A key issue that many financial institutions around the world have is a pressure to keep up with the rapidly changing landscape and associated technologies. This often equates to a race to comply, forgetting that there is an extremely important security and business purpose behind safeguarding data.Regulated entities spend up to $280bn a year to comply with regulations, says Engstrand. But the focus needed to shift away from just avoiding penalties, to directly addressing underlying criminal activities and vulnerabilities.We built our platform to run within the banks infrastructure without its own data store. This meant that instead of the bank spending months or even years trying to clean up its data, our platform would do that job for them so they could start identifying risk immediately.Not building a SaaS from the start was something completely different to what others were doing, but it has been a real accelerator for us because it enables us to deliver value from day one.Engstrand sees a clear correlation between Conviers own positive experience in Norway, the global success of companies such as Strise and Promon, and the role of Oslo as a hub for all three.Its such a good place to start building and testing technology because a lot of the data you need is openly available. It enables any startup to demonstrate quite early on what you can do with the technology you build, he summarises.While the citys impact on global finance and on the financial crime landscape now seems inevitable, it wasnt so long ago that oil and maritime occupied the minds of the citys innovators.Now, these three examples among many more serve as role models and mentors for the entire tech ecosystem, often sharing their insights with academic institutions and at industry events. Oslo is set to remain a thorn in financial crimes side for many years to come.Rdevand concludes: Oslo has rapidly transformed into a hub for digital innovation, fostering a vibrant tech startup scene characterised by collaboration and a forward-thinking mindset. The citys emphasis on education, coupled with government support for technology initiatives, has cultivated a talent pool adept in digital solutions.While Norways economy has traditionally been rooted in industries like maritime and oil, there has been a strategic shift towards technology and finance. This transition has opened avenues for startups to develop solutions addressing financial sector challenges that are being felt all over the world.Read more about Nordic tech innovationNordic innovators look to revive the zombie subscriber population.Virtual wards to digital feedback: the Nordic approach to post-pandemic healthcare.Channelling Nordic startup innovation towards global survival.

ProtoArc's CaseUp combo packs a full-sized wireless keyboard, mouse, and laptop stand into a sleek, travel-friendly case.

The refreshed model sees meaningful upgrades under the hood, and Apple's launching a new standard model alongside it.

The rise of AI-first search platforms is transforming the B2B landscape, offering a fundamentally different approach to finding information.