The cybersecurity industry is on course to generate salaries of £60m per year in Northern Ireland, according to Professor Sir John V. McCanny, CSIT principal investigator and speaker at the Centre for Secure Information Technologies’ (CSIT) seventh World Cyber Security Technology Research Summit in Belfast.
Industry leaders, start-ups, SMEs, government policy makers and researchers from around the world came together for the summit today to discuss some of the current key topics in the information security landscape.
“This is an exciting time for the growing cybersecurity business sector in Northern Ireland,” McCanny said. “The economic impact of this industry in terms of the local economy is now significant, with estimated salaries alone now being close to £60m per annum.”
CSIT, based at Queen’s University Belfast’s Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology, is the UK’s lead university center for cybersecurity research
The industry is seeing significant growth, McCanny added, which CSIT is supporting through its research and innovation technologies.
“This is also helping in the development of the next generation of industry leaders to address the widespread demand for cybersecurity professionals and technologies," he said. "The shortfall for this is currently estimated to be between one and two million people globally.”
Also announced was news that Direct Line Group PLC has become a Full Member and official partner of CSIT, with the arrangement allowing Direct Line to benefit from the Centre’s research and knowledge as the two look to work together to develop board-level training around cyber-resilience, awareness, desktop exercises and simulations to ensure the insurance giant is equipped to tackle cybersecurity threats and events.