DIGITALWORLD
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SECURINGINFORMATIONHASDEEPROOTSINIRISH HISTORY, WITH SCHOLARS BELIEVING THAT OGHAM, THE ANCIENT SCRIPT DATING FROM AROUND THE FOURTH CENTURY, WAS A CRYPTIC ALPHABETKNOWNONLYTOASELECTFEW,WHICH ALLOWEDMESSAGESTOBESENTSAFELYBETWEEN TRUSTEDPARTIES. Ireland’s history has givenway to a presentwhere the coun-
try is a global centre of excellence ininformationsecurity across the spectrum of commercial companies, academic research, third-level education and law. Commercial security activity in Ireland covers a broad
church, fromthe anti-virus programs used bymillions of con- sumers andbusinesses everyday, to anti-fraudsystems andreg- ulatory compliance tools, as well as cutting-edge technology being hothoused in start-ups and university spin-outs. A strong focus on the business and enterprisemarkets per-
meates much of the work being carried out in Ireland. The banking sector, typically one of the largest global spenders on security, shops here for technology to verify credit cards by analysing their holograms, or for anti-fraud surveillance sys- tems forATMs. Irelandhosts internationally focusedteams analysing the lat-
est cyber threats at some of theworld’s biggest anti-virus ven- dors. Symantec, McAfee and Trend Micro’s Irish operations carry out high-value software engineering and product devel- opment. Galway is home to Copperfasten, whose SpamTitan technology for tackling junk email has been independently val- idated as among themost effective in its class. SpamTitan has thousands of customers globally and its leadership team in- cludesmany of the developers behind theAltaVista firewall. Ireland’s place as a strategic location of choice formany lead-
ing security vendors ispart of the larger tradition of global soft- ware companies basing major operations in the country. IBM has a teambasednearDublin, carrying out informationsecurity work across awide range of its product lines. “The specific teamI have isprettymuch uniquewithinIBM,”
says Mark Crosbie, security architect at IBM Ireland. “The workwe’ve done inDublin has become a template forwhatwe do across the corporation for developing applications securely. The skillswe have – and the quality of people – have been seen by the corporation as exceptionally valuable.” The presence ofmany large corporations in Ireland, and the
growth in support services for them, has added to the flourish- ing community of highly skilled security
professionals.Many international companies base global or European-focused IT
functions out of Ireland, while others vest their intel- lectual property here. Both operations demand high levels of technical security expertise. “It means we’ve got to look after this to a very high standard,” says Andy Harbison, director and head of litigation tech- nologywith business advisory firmGrantThornton. “We’ve got a very goodinfrastructure, anda lot of goodpeople
around.The peoplewhowork insecurity are excellent, andbecausewe have a very competitive IT securitymarket, itmeans you have a lot of high-end personnel.” The volume of activity inIreland’s security sectorhas created
‘In the financial area andwith the economic downturn, compliance is coming to the
forefront.This is a great driver of business’
a virtuous circle.Technology companies likeMicrosoft andHP have chosen to base strategic security functions here, as have financial servicesproviders likeCiti
andBankofAmerica.Ernst & Young,meanwhile,manages its entire European IT security function from Dublin. Such factors are directly influencing newer players, such as Mycroft, Lumension andWebroot, to choose Ireland as a key international base. The buzz of information technology activity in Ireland has
had other spin-off effects; the country has one of the world’s largest chapters of theOpenWebApplicationSecurityProject, in addition to an active grouping of the globally recognised in- fosec professionals’ organisation, the ISSA Information Sys- tems SecurityAssociation. As the threat landscape evolves andthe security risks change
withinit, Irish companies aremeeting thesenewdemandswith innovative technology and services. Smartphone use is grow- ing exponentially, leading to emerging security riskswhichbusi- nesses and consumerswill be compelled to address. The ability to authenticate mobile users will be an increas-
ingly important part of the securitymarket. Daon has planted a flag in this space with its IdentityX technology, which won a prestigiousAmericanTechnologyAward in the cyber security category. AdaptiveMobile has launched the world’s first anti- spam app for cellphones. Mobile security player Asavie is backed by a teamthat cut its teeth at Baltimore Technologies. And Dublin-based Morrigan Partners focuses on encrypting mobile communication which addresses the growing ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) trend in theworkplace. With increased focus being paid to cyber security at govern- ment and national defence level, Ireland’s neutrality gives its
Issue 4 Spring/Summer 2012 INNOVATION IRELAND REVIEW 55
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