Cork Institute of Technology is to set up a national cyber security cluster with support from IDA Ireland, aimed at providing a collective voice to represent the cyber-security sector and addressing key challenges.
The Cork third-level institute has best practice cluster development expertise and a strong core of in-depth cyber-security expertise on its faculty, and will drive development of the national cluster, to be called Cyber Ireland.
Cyber Ireland is supported by a number of leading cyber-security and tech firms which previously called for the establishment of a cluster to represent industry needs and deal with new challenges, including Johnson Controls International, Dell EMC, IBM, McAfee, McKesson and Trend Micro.
The first steps in organising the cluster will include a a series of cluster initiation workshops in Cork, Dublin and Galway, running from 18 to 20 February 2019.
CIT senior researcher Eoin Byrne, who will lead development of the cluster, said: “For Cyber Ireland to be successful, it needs to be industry-driven, supported by third level education and government. Without the cooperation of these three pillars, the cluster cannot reach its full potential.
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“Industry must be at the core of the cluster, which needs to be championed by passionate and dedicated leaders. Academia is also critical in addressing the skills and training needs of industry. We look forward to engaging with industry and academia across Ireland in the coming months, to develop a programme that is in line with international best practice in cluster development.”
IDA Ireland chief executive Martin Shanahan added: “The cyber security industry in Ireland is growing at an unprecedented rate and we believe Ireland is uniquely placed to benefit from increased global investment to position itself as a world class cyber-security cluster.”
For further information on Cyber Ireland and how to get involved, see here.
Photo: IDA executives Dónal Travers (left) and Victoria MacKechnie with Dr Eoin Byrne. (Pic: Maxwells)
