More jobs in the cyber security sector may open up due to the increased risk of cyber-attacks in Northern Ireland.
Around 1,200 people have been employed in the cyber-security sector and Queen’s University has just announced 10 new jobs as well. Dr. Godfrey Gaston of the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) claims that as a summit gets under way in Belfast, more will follow.
He also claims that the eighth World Cyber Security Summit is “the most international yet”.
Speakers from the United States Department of Homeland Security including Nadia Carlsten as well as former GCHQ director Robert Hannigan talked about topics including the challenge of making cyber-security available for everyone and the “weaponisation of social media”.
Dr. Gaston claimed saying, “There are many future challenges but the most significant is the interconnected world.
Now we only connect laptops, desktops, mobiles and tablets to the internet but the in the future it will be cars, your ‘digital home’ – they will all be connected.”
He further added, “The attack face has got a lot bigger, you have got to protect your car, your house and whatever else. It is about how you manage, when everything is connected, to protect from cyber threats.
We would not wish these problems on anybody but we do want to work with companies and provide that solution. There are about 1,200 cyber security jobs in Belfast and our biggest agenda is how we can grow that number significantly in the coming years. We have a huge opportunity.”
In recent years companies in Northern Ireland have played an important role in providing security for private companies and government organizations.
Dr. Gaston claims, “The bad news is that the threats are increasing but the silver lining is that that presents opportunities for us to find solutions.”
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