George McKinney, Director, Technology and Services, Invest Northern Ireland,
explains how Northern Ireland has become a world-renowned hub for cyber
security innovation and expertise.
Innovation, skills, collaboration, and targeted support have together underpinned the continuing success story that is Northern Ireland’s cyber security sector. The sector employs some 2,700 people in over 128 companies generating over £237m direct GVA annually for the NI economy and, with a 67% (to £72m) increase in VC investment in NI-headquartered cyber security firms since 2023, the growth trajectory is firmly upwards. With Belfast having one of the highest concentrations of cyber security businesses worldwide and, for the last 10 years, the number one investment location for US cyber security firms (FT fDi Markets, 2023), Northern Ireland has cemented its position as a crucial hub for cyber security innovation and expertise.
How it began
There were a small number of fledgling cyber businesses being established in NI in the early 2000s, including Mail Distiller, which spun out of BT in 2005, but a significant milestone was the establishment of the Centre for Secure IT (CSIT) at Queen’s University in 2009. CSIT is a core player in the global cyber security research network and has supported the development of Northern Ireland’s cyber security ecosystem through its challenge-led research and innovation programmes, focused skills development, and generation of and collaboration with start-ups. Indeed, CSIT is one of nine UK universities awarded a prestigious ‘Gold Award’ by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) as an Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research and Education. With support from CSIT and other stakeholders, Invest NI was able to help attract a number of investors to Northern Ireland, to undertake cyber security R&D and to benefit from the talent coming through its world-class education pipeline and, as a result, the sector began its rise to become recognised worldwide as a hotspot for cyber security excellence.
Where we are now
Among the inward investors that have helped to grow our cyber security sector are Proofpoint, Rapid7, Synopsys, Imperva and Silversky, all working in the cyber as a service arena. There are also several international financial and professional services companies with cyber security operations in Northern Ireland, including Allstate NI, Aflac and PwC. These companies have invested in Northern Ireland for a number of reasons, not least the ongoing support that is provided by Invest NI. We also promoted the quality of our workforce and the specialised courses that have been created at our universities to create a pipeline of cyber security talent. The strong links between industry, academia and government and Northern Ireland’s competitive operating costs have also played a vital part in attracting top-tier companies. The success of the cyber security sector also owes much to our homegrown companies who are located across Northern Ireland. Companies such as Angoka, Salt Communications, Ampliphae, B-Secur and Vertical Structure, are based in Belfast, but equally there are clusters of companies and opportunities to build and scale teams in other areas of Northern Ireland. Metacompliance, which specialises in security awareness training, is based in Derry~Londonderry; Loughtec, which supplies a range of cyber security solutions is located in Omagh, while Antrim is home to consultancy firm Ansec IA (part of the Outsource Group). Over the next ten years, the City and Growth Deals will provide significant funding to strengthen the innovation and digital landscape, providing new opportunities to develop cyber security clusters across Northern Ireland. This growing ecosystem is supported by NI Cyber, which is working to expand the sector through collaboration across industry, academia and government, skills development and networking. Collaboration is also to the forefront at CSIT which now has a Cyber– AI Technologies Hub. This is a consortium of eight R&D intensive cyber security companies working with CSIT post-doctoral researchers, engineers and PhD students to develop AI tools. Across all these companies – foreign and indigenous – Northern Ireland can now boast world-class expertise in the key areas of cyber security including: identification, authentication and access control; risk, compliance and fraud; securing applications, networks and cloud environments; threat intelligence, monitoring, detection and analysis; operational technology security and connected devices; and managed security service provision and advisory services.
The future
In less than 20 years the cyber security sector in Northern Ireland has grown from a small number of fledgling businesses to become a priority area for growing our economy. The UK government has set a target of growing the sector to 5,000 cyber security professionals here by 2030. Invest NI is supporting the growth of the sector through a range of measures including funding support for start-ups with export potential, skills development programmes, grants for research and development, and help to identify and penetrate markets outside Northern Ireland. We can help early-stage companies to find and access loans and equity funds and facilitate collaborative working with other businesses, researchers and academia. Our Cluster Acceleration Programme offers financial support for groups of SMEs that want to work together to exploit opportunities that could enhance their competitiveness. And we have developed a number of cyber security specific supports including international roadshows and trade missions to the US. Academic expertise, high levels of inward investment, a growing cluster of indigenous companies and government support have created a successful cyber security sector in Northern Ireland. As demand for cyber security products and services continues to grow worldwide, there are considerable opportunities to build on the success to date.