Overview 

The $300 million Irish market for cybersecurity solutions and services is extremely vibrant with U.S. vendors retaining a strong presence.  Reported economic crime and fraud in Ireland has increased significantly in recent years.  Cybercrime is considered the most disruptive economic crime facing the business community with Grant Thornton Ireland (GTI) reporting the economic cost of cybercrime in Ireland at €9.6 billion.  With its large $50 billion digital economy, Ireland is increasingly encountering cybersecurity threats that have led to a strong upsurge in spending on cyber security in both the public and private sectors.  PWC’s 2022 Global Risk Survey reveals that Irish businesses are significantly increasing their spend on risk management technology with a focus on data analytics and process automation.   

In May 2021, Ireland received a major wake-up call on cybersecurity when its health service experienced a significant ransomware attack that greatly incapacitated its operations for several months.  Despite the significant disruption, the Irish government refused to address the ransom demands and Irish cybercrime agencies, working with international partners, implemented countermeasures to disrupt the activities of the attackers.  The Irish government subsequently announced a package of measures to strengthen Ireland’s CS-IRT (Cyber Security Incident Response Team) - the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC). 

Increased remote working has placed significant additional pressure on the security of corporate IT systems in Ireland especially since many remote workers utilize personal devices while working remotely.  Industry studies report that more Irish organizations are investing in their cybersecurity resilience to ensure their company’s growth.  Irish CEOs rank cybersecurity ahead of both AI/data science and long-term value creation.   

Leading Sub-Sectors 

Cybercrime remains the most prevalent type of fraud committed in Ireland and is three times more disruptive than the global norm.  Hiscox’s 2022 cyber readiness report cites a 26 percent increase in the frequency of cyberattacks in Ireland with almost half of Irish businesses suffering a cyberattack.  In August 2022, the NCSC and the National Cyber Crime Bureau jointly issued a public alert to SMEs about the increased threat of ransomware attacks as cybercrime groups divert their focus to smaller businesses to breach global supply chains. 

Large enterprises, public sector, SMEs, remote workers and home consumers are the leading end user segments.  The $50billion digital economy encompasses 100,000 digital companies including major U.S. firms and a growing SME community.   There are also 70 data centers with Hyperscale (AWS, Google, Meta, Microsoft), being the dominant data center type accounting for 77% of capacity.    The life sciences, public healthcare and financial services sectors also represent strong end-user sub-segments.  The national digital transformation agenda to move more public services online requires investments that ensure the data of citizens is protected.  There is also heightened awareness around cybercrime among home consumers. 

EU legislation around data privacy and cybersecurity is a key driving force within the sector.  Both the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Network Information Services (NIS) Directive are driving spending on cybersecurity as companies, digital service providers, critical infrastructure providers and the public-sector seek to comply with these regulations.  Companies that suffer data breaches and cyber incidents in the future will be liable for heavy penalties that could amount to as much as 4 percent of a company’s global revenues.   

Opportunities 

This growing threat of cyber-attacks is driving increased spending on security solutions.  Opportunities exist to provide cybersecurity solutions and services to large corporations, SMEs and public-sector organizations.   The most significant opportunities are to be found in organizations for which IT security is mission critical, such as major financial institutions, utilities, and government departments. With cybercriminals increasingly seeking to breach automated industrial systems, Operational Technology (OT) attacks are likely to continue their upward trend with securing legacy OT systems of particular concern.   

Preparedness for cybercrime in Ireland is increasing with many companies performing cyber-attack vulnerability risk assessments.  However, while extremely vigilant in the search for fraud, Irish organizations have been slow to invest in technologies related to fraud prevention, detection and authentication.  Most economic crimes in Ireland are detected through corporate controls including fraud risk assessments, suspicious transaction reporting and corporate security.  No frauds have been detected via data analytic techniques.  

U.S. cybersecurity vendors have been playing a leading role in the Irish market.  Irish distributors, systems integrators (SIs) and value-added resellers (VARs) are continually seeking to identify and source the latest innovative cybersecurity solutions from the U.S.    

Resources 

Department of Environment, Climate & Communications (DECC) 

National Cyber Security Center:  https://www.ncsc.gov.ie/ 

PWC 2022 Global Risk Survey 

Hiscox 2022 Cyber Readiness Report 

TechCentral: https://www.techcentral.ie/ 

Silicon Republic: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/ 

Public Procurement Portal (eTenders): https://www.etenders.gov.ie/ 

For more information about Ireland’s cybersecurity sector, please contact: 

Padraig O’Connor 

Commercial Advisor – ICT & Cybersecurity Sector 

U.S. Commercial Service Ireland 

Tel: +353.87.2314726 

Email: Padraig.O’Connor@trade.gov