July 2019 Newsletter

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Welcome to Cyber Ireland’s New Members!

An incredible 80 organisations have already signed up to become members of Ireland’s Cyber Security cluster since the Cluster Launch on the 20th of May. The new members range from cyber security MNC’s and indigenous companies, companies with security-operations, large consumers of cyber security products & services, as well as academic institutes and government agencies. We believe Ireland has a real opportunity to position itself as a global cyber security leader, and we are delighted to have these organisations on board to support and drive this ambition.

To participate in the cluster working groups, activities or events, organisations will need to sign-up and become members. Membership of the cluster is free for the first year until May 2020. You can become a member by downloading the Cluster Membership Application form and return it to [email protected]

Talent & Skills

ICT Skillnet Courses
Upcoming ICT Skillnet Courses:

 A full list of Upcoming Cyber Security Training Programmes from ICT Skillnet can be found HERE.

 
FIT Cybersecurity Apprenticeship
The Fastrack to Information Technology (FIT) Cyber Security Apprenticeship will run in Cork and Dublin commencing in September 2019.  Benefits to companies include:

•    Apprenticeship training is estimated at €18K, funded by the Government
•    Companies get two-year period to assess apprentice’s fit to company & culture
•    Attendance and participation is excellent because of FIT governance of the program
•    Candidates tend to be very driven and highly engaged
•    100% retention and very high conversion on the Network and Software Developer apprenticeships so far.


If you are an employer interested in tapping into this valuable skills pipeline and taking on an apprentice, contact:

 

Ireland’s Ecosystem for Diversity in STEM
Check out this great booklet from IDA Ireland on Ireland’s Ecosystem for Diversity in STEM.
Cyber Ireland is preparing a Cyber Security Booklet, including:
  1. Initiatives to attract children into cyber security careers
  2. Initiatives to attract / retain adults into cyber security careers
  3. CPD Groups, Meet-up Groups & Networks
  4. Events & Conference Diary Dates 
Keep an eye-out for our Cyber Security Initiatives Survey.

Research & Development

Disruptive Technology Technology Innovation Fund
Call 2 for the Disruptive Technology Innovation Fund (DTIF) is now open. Collaborations must have at least 3 partners, including at least one SME  and one other enterprise partner, and must be projects of scale with a minimum funding request from DTIF of €1.5 million over 3 years.
Interested in learning more about the application process for DTIF Call 2? Enterprise Ireland will host a webinar on 30 July 2019: Please register at DTIF Call 2 Webinar.
A number of organisations have expressed their interest in  cyber security-related projects. You can register your interest with Cyber Ireland & the topic area so that we can help facilitate cyber security-related applications between SMEs, MNCs & Research Performing Organisations. Contact: [email protected]


Cyber Security R&D Mapping Study
 
Cyber Ireland is commencing a project to map the cyber security R&D landscape across both academia and industry in Ireland.The mapping will identify the organisations currently involved in cyber security R&D and their research areas, to better promote Ireland’s research strengths and facilitate increased industry-academic research collaborations.


Shoring Up Cybersecurity with AI
  • Capgemini’s Reinventing Cybersecurity with Artificial Intelligence Report Published.

Networking & Promotion

NCSC Weekly News Reports
The National Cyber Security Centre is trialling a new weekly news report service, since May 2019. It provides a summary of some of the more interesting and relevant news articles concerning cyber security over the past week. Latest News Articles can be found here 


Upcoming National & European Cyber Security Challenge
The growing need for IT security professionals is widely acknowledged worldwide. To help mitigate this shortage of skills, many countries host national cyber security competitions targeting towards students, university graduates or even non-ICT professionals with a clear aim to find new and young cyber talents and encourage young people to pursue a career in cyber security. The European Cyber Security Challenge (ECSC), organised by ENISA, leverages these competitions by adding a pan-European layer.
 
 
 
The ECSC has been running since 2014, with the finals taking place in a different host city each year. This year sees Bucharest in Romania host the competition, and also sees the return of Team Ireland after previously participating in 2016 in Düsseldorf and 2017 in Malaga. Cyber Security Challenge Ireland is the Irish national competition, designed to identify, inspire and enable the top cyber security talent in Ireland to join the Irish team for the ECSC. The competition is open to anyone aged 18-25 who holds an Irish passport. An online capture-the-flag (CTF) event will be held over the weekend of 9th August. From this, competition participants will be invited to take part in an on-site qualifier in TU Dublin, Blanchardstown, on Saturday 7th September where a team will be chosen to represent Ireland in the European Cyber Security Challenge finals in Bucharest from 8-13th October. 
 
More details on the competition, registration and sponsorship opportunities can be found at the competition website (https://cybersecuritychallenge.ie) or by contacting Mark Lane at [email protected]

International & Business Development

Cyber Ireland Connects with Leading UK Cyber Security Cluster – Midlands Cyber

Cyber Ireland was part of an Irish business delegation of over 45 companies and organisations, to the UK Midlands for the UK launch of the British Embassy led programme Joining the Dots.

We met with the largest Cyber Security Cluster in the UK, MidlandsCyber (est. by government in 2015), which is based at Malvern Hills Science Park and learned about their cyber security ecosystem & supports:

  • Soft landing Initiative for companies (co-working space, public relations and industry/government warm introductions)
  • BetaDen –  a commercial tech accelerator
  • 5G Testbed for Smart Manufacturing & Security
  • Seminar by QinetiQ – a multinational defence research & technology company (spin-out of government, £1b revenue, 6,000 employees worldwide),
  • Midlands Cyber MOU with Maryland USA
European Cyber Investor Day Launched

For start-ups and SMEs – Following the last Cyber Investor Day in May 2019, which two Irish companies attended, the next European Cyber Security Organisation (ECSO) Investor Day is scheduled to take place on 15 October 2019 in Luxembourg. Application process for the start-ups and SMEs has been launched!

The most promising European cybersecurity start-ups and SMEs will have an opportunity to pitch their innovative solutions and participate in the strategic business matchmaking sessions, where they will meet with the influential European and international investors.  To be selected and pitch their product, the European cybersecurity start-ups and SMEs are invited to apply by 25 August 2019.

Application guidelines are available here.
For investors – Interested investors are invited to register here. 

Cyber Ireland in the News & at Events

  • Cyber Ireland attends SME & Entrepreneurship Conference 2019 at the Aviva Stadium, Dublin (12/07/2019).
  • Ireland hosted its first ever GovTech gathering; bringing together start-ups, entrepreneurs, SMEs, academia, venture capitalists and key Government decision-makers. As part of the workshop Cyber Ireland contributed to the development of a plan to embed GovTech in Ireland (20/6/2019)
  • “Ireland is not meeting the 18pc increase in demand for cybersecurity roles” Silicon Republic Article
If you are involved in any cyber security groups or initiatives and would like to include your news/activities in the newsletter, please let us know. Our aim is to better promote and support the various cyber security activities on-going around the country.

Please do share our Newsletter with your network and new sign-ups can do so here.