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“SMEs play a crucial role in realizing a new cyber vision for Ireland.”
“Is lá álainn é inniu agus is féidir amárach a bheith níos gile fós.”
“Tomorrow can be better, brighter then today.”
Stefan Umit Uygur, Dectar CEO
Where:
When:
What:
Leinster House, Oireachtas Committee Room 2
Wednesday, May 31st, 2023
Joint Committee on Transport and Communications
Oireachtas Discussion “a common vision for cyber-security”
Dectar’s CEO and co-founder Stefan Umit Uygur was honored to be invited to participate in a discussion held in the Oireachtas on May 31, 2023, by the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications.
The discussion was focused on a Common Vision for Cyber Security in Ireland and featured speakers from various organizations and members of the government and industry. Stefan joined a panel of guest speakers including cyber industry leaders, experts on training and skills development, Cyber Ireland, and Irish Academia.
Dectar believes that collaboration between industry, business, and governments to build a strong cyber ecosystem in Ireland, is key to building a cyber resilient country.
The panel’s overwhelming message to the government was the potential we have here in Ireland to build the country’s cyber resources. Across the board, the speakers were advocating for the need to upskill and train the current workforce to be cyber aware. There was also a message about the need for initiatives to support Irish businesses to access and use indigenous software, technologies and companies.
Stefan opened the session with a statement discussing the important role that SMEs and indigenous Irish business should play in Ireland’s cyber security future. This discussion is the latest in a series of activities that Dectar has been participating in with our partners in Cyber Ireland, Irish Academia and other SMEs based here in Ireland to promote the building of a indigenous cyber industry nurtured through education and training.
Watch on Oireachtas TV:
Stefan’s speech begins at just past 22 minutes. We would encourage you to watch the full session, all the speakers had important contributions and things to say about how Ireland and other countries can drive research, development, and progress in the cyber sphere.
** Skip ahead as the Committee session starts from 21 minutes
During the Session Stefan answered questions and discussed how important it is for businesses to receive local support. For Irish companies, having their products in use by companies here in Ireland is essential to building the industry. Lack of cyber security expertise is a real threat to the survival of a small business. Companies struggle to attract employees with cyber skills as these skills are highly valued and specialized.
SMEs need employees with cyber knowledge, hiring talent with the skills needed to prevent and deal with a successful cyber attack is difficult.
“The Vision is to make Ireland a global, cyber security leader with skilled talent, technological innovation and research that will provide a safer, digital environment by utilising tomorrow’s skills today, for the benefit of all our Citizens.”
Dectar CEO – Stefan Umit Uygur
At the Oireachtas, Stefan was joined by other leaders in the Irish cyber industry who are working across government, academia and industry to build collaboration and advance and foster Ireland’s cyber security ecosystem.
Speakers Included:
Pat Larkin – Chairperson Cyber Ireland – founder Ward Solutions
Donna O’Shea – Chair of Cybersecurity – Munster Technological University (MTU)
Dr Paul Miller – Deputy Director for the Center of Secure Information Technologies – CIST
Professor Thomas Acton – Professor Business Information Systems – University of Galway
Sean McSweeney – Head Of Department of Computer Science – Munster Technological University
Dr Brian Lee – Director Software Research Institute – Technological University of the Shannon.
Colm Hyland – Managing Partner – CJHNetwork
“There should be only one common vision and single agenda for Ireland”
Dectar CEO – Stefan Umit Uygur
For members of the Irish Cyber Industry, Cyber Ireland has established a network of cyber companies and has over 90 SMEs, 50 multinationals and 10 academic institutions as members. Pat Larkin, chairperson of Cyber Ireland and founder of Irish Managed service provider Ward Solutions, highlighted the intense cyber threat that exists. A threat not only to business, but also to everyday people’s lives.
Ireland has become a global technology center which puts the country, and the businesses in the country, at risk.
In 2022, Stefan began to work on the document that would become the ‘Cyber Vision For Ireland ‘. Working with independent Senator Gerard Craughwell, and our partner from CJH network, Colm Hyland, the team have worked tirelessly to bring attention to the fact that Ireland is at a heightened risk from cyber attack. There is a dire cyber skill gap in the Irish cyber industry that we believe, with the right initiative and government support, can be solved.
“Investing more on sovereign technologies, supporting them and connecting into the national ecosystem, where the public, private, academic and international collaborations take place, will be beneficial. Collaboration is at the heart of this Vision, where we see Ireland to be amongst the most cyber ready countries and transformed into a global cybersecurity hub”
Dectar CEO – Stefan Umit Uygur
The cyber vision puts collaboration at the heart of Ireland’s cyber future. We can work together to democratize cyber security by making it accessible, not only to business, but also to young people, employees and professionals from all industries who work with digital technology.
“Manufacturing has always been at the forefront of technological evolution and the rapid digital transformation of the past few decades has left the industry with a significant skills gap in the area of cyber security. For small and medium enterprises access to people with the correct skills to effectively run business cyber security is difficult and globally there is a global skills shortage”
Colm Hyland – CJH Network
Dectar is currently working on a project that includes the development of training for Irish employees. The project, which is launching later this month with our partner’s CJH Network and the Advanced Manufacturing Training Center of Excellence (AMTCE), is an exciting development for cyber skills programmes here in Ireland. Dectar will be sharing more information about the project so watch this space to learn more about the exciting developments taking place this Autumn in Dundalk.
Building a cyber ecosystem is a crucial next step in making the cyber vision a reality.
Dectar believes spreading cyber security knowledge and skills through the creation of a training SOC followed by the production SOCs will service local and central government entities along with technologically poor organizations and SMEs. Dectar and our partners will be sharing and teaching essential cyber skills to employees and organizations this work will contribute to building a robust indigenous Irish cyber ecosystem
Transcript of the Session including Stefan’s submission to the committee