Belfast is the leading European city for cyber security with the highest percentage of qualified IT professionals in the UK and Ireland. A host of international tech firms are flocking to Belfast to set up their operations. These companies are following in the footsteps of multi-national organisations, creating hundreds of jobs in this rapidly growing industry.
There are many factors contributing to Belfast’s reputation as the cyber security capital, such as a high number of qualified IT professionals, investment and support for relocation and prime office spaces for innovative cyber security companies.

Qualified IT Professionals

Belfast is an attractive location for cyber security companies to establish their global head offices as it is home to a large pool of IT professionals. Belfast has the largest percentage of qualified IT professionals in the UK and Ireland with more than 77% holding a degree level qualification, according to Invest NI Executive Director, Jeremy Fitch. Belfast draws many recent graduates to the city as the salaries on offer within IT are typically one-and-a-half times the average local salary. The cyber security industry offers new and exciting opportunities in IT with well-rewarded packages and job benefits.

Investment and Support

Government and business support bodies within NI have invested millions of pounds in financial support for cyber security and IT. Invest NI and the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) in Belfast have been key innovation and knowledge centres for cyber security. A highly skilled workforce along with investment support has led to Belfast becoming the number one global destination for US cyber security companies according to Financial Times’ FDi markets.
This can benefit Belfast citizens as the city is set to become a global innovation hub for cyber security, supporting over 5,000 jobs. This gives IT professionals and graduates new and exciting opportunities to work for pioneering global firms.

Leading Cyber Security Insights

Belfast hosted two major cyber security conferences in 2017 bringing together some of the greatest minds in the industry such as former spy agency bosses and international professional hackers. The CSIT World Cyber Security Technology Research Summit and the Open Web Application Security Project attracted thousands of cyber security buffs to the capital. As well as putting Belfast on the map, the city welcomed industry leaders, policymakers, researchers and start-ups to share ideas, innovations and insights.
This benefits not only cyber security professionals but also Belfast citizens as it helps attract bed nights from delegates travelling to the conferences plus financial spend within the city on attractions, restaurants and entertainment. These conferences generated an estimated economic impact of £1 million for Belfast City. The cyber security industry is worth more than £22 billion a year to the UK economy, growing at a rate of around 10% per year.

Top Global Defences

CSIT is leading a European wide project to provide greater prevention for cyber-attacks on today’s high-tech systems. These cyber security skills can be shared with Belfast and NI based businesses to help boost their defences against online attacks and ransomware. This is important as malicious software attacks quadrupled to 4,000 per day in 2016. Many cyber-attacks happen underneath the radar, with 97% of decision-makers in large businesses having experienced a cyber-attack.

The success of Belfast’s cyber security industry is putting the city on the map as it is recognised as a thriving hub for business growth, named as the #1 destination globally for financial technology development projects. (fDi Markets, FT) Additionally, Northern Ireland is the #1 international investment location for cyber security development projects and Europe’s leading destination for new software development projects. (fDi Markets, FT.)

Prime Office Space

Global cyber security companies setting up in Northern Ireland need centrally located, high-quality office space with modern facilities and the fastest, most reliable internet connection. As Belfast’s first ‘Future-Fit’ space, Chichester House puts connectivity and technological building advancements at the forefront of building design. It will be NI’s first building to have an internationally recognised connectivity certification by Wired Score.

For more information about Chichester House facilities, find out more about the building to visualise how your organisation could thrive here.