Cork has been a tech city for over a generation with companies like Apple, Dell EMC and Amazon here for years and new arrivals Facebook and Google adding to our success.
But the latest tech trend - cutting-edge Cyber-Security (or InfoSec for Information Security) - has seen our region grow into a leading European hub for this very specialist and high-growth sector.
Cork has just become the home of the of the new National Cybercrime agency - Cyber Ireland.
And companies like Chicago's Keeper and California's AlienVault have opened European HQ's on Leeside recently as hundreds of InfoSec jobs come online in the Rebel County.
One of the biggest new arrivals is Texan cyber security firm Forcepoint, starting with 100 jobs in a purpose built and very plush set of offices on the South Mall. They're still recruiting for a range of positions at the moment and with the support of the IDA, have ambitious plans for their Cork Centre of Excellence.
Forcepoint stops threats such as spam, malware and hackers, analysing up to five billion web threats from 155 countries daily.
And their Senior Director of Software Engineering, native Leesider Derek Murphy, tells us why one of the world's leading cyber security companies chose Cork City as their base - and are actively looking for talent.
"I’ve been living in Cork for over 25 years now, and when the role came up at Forcepoint I was delighted.
I knew that Cork’s favourable business environment and strong, technically able talent pool would really set us up for success.
While studying at 3rd level education I started my career in ICT with an internship in Apple in 1994.
At the time, jobs in technology in Cork were hard to come by and this opportunity helped me and others move to positions we are in today.
When the technology boom came in the late nineties so did the investment in Cork, and today we are in the strong position of having many technology and cybersecurity firms based here, as well as all the ecosystem of supporting industries, driving employment and growth for the city.
We at Forcepoint are hungry for tech talent – working with colleges and recruiting direct from education into our businesses. Cork is a welcoming city to do business in – particularly in technology and cybersecurity.
We’ve been working with local business groups and universities to build connections and networks which will support us in our development in the future.
At the moment, we’re looking for people with skills in Software Development, Software Engineering, Data Science and Cloud Engineering.
t’s an exciting time for us, as all of the roles will be based on greenfield development on brand new software.
Forcepoint is a different kind of cybersecurity company. We focus on Human Centric Cyber Security, which essentially means we develop products which automatically respond to risk by understanding the normal rhythm of user behaviour and the flow of data in and out of organisations.
How does this work in practice? Imagine you are travelling for work: you load up your USB stick with presentations, you get on the plane to China and you try to log in – and then you’re blocked. Traditional security looks at things in a black and white fashion and may have an outdated rule that says a log on from a different geography must be stopped.
What if your security system understood your behaviour, automatically, and adapted its protection to allow you to get your job done, while still keeping data and systems safe?
That’s what we try to deliver. Everyone’s lives today are connected and powered by digital systems and identifies. When we talk about cybersecurity, what are we really protecting? Not just data, but something infinitely more important – humanity.
We take a different approach to the traditional cybersecurity methods of building walls, restricting movement or denying access. Instead, we offer an approach to cybersecurity that accounts for human behaviour and works the way we – we humans, work.
The culture here reflects our goals. At Forcepoint, you have the opportunity to join a startup environment with the comfort of a world class established organisation behind you. We have a brand-new office facility at No. 85 South Mall in Cork city centre: I can’t stress enough what a beautiful environment for work it is.
It's purpose-built for the engineering function it houses, with collaboration spaces, meeting rooms and a beautiful canteen which overlooks South Mall. We’ve already welcomed the families of our staff into the office, to watch the St Patrick’s Day parade: it was a great day and cemented the feeling of being part of the Forcepoint family."
