Ireland Cyber resiliency a key focus for industry and government

Irish businesses and organizations are combatting rising cybersecurity threats which are triggering a strong upsurge in spending on cybersecurity.  Recent studies highlight escalated ransomware attacks, AI-powered cyberattacks amid rising migration to the cloud.  An Expleo Ireland report reveals that nearly 30 percent of large organizations paid a cybersecurity ransom over the past year while 41 percent admitted they had fallen victim to an AI-powered cyberattack in the past 12 months.  The average large enterprise in Ireland paid almost $0.8 million in cyber ransoms in the same period.  Mounting concerns of future incidents have seen 22 percent of large businesses establish budgets for ransomware attacks, averaging $3.1 million per incident.

According to EY Ireland, 41 percent of organizations in Ireland operate their core IT systems in the cloud.  This represents an accelerating rate of cloud adoption compared with just 15 percent two years ago.  The EY study also reveals rising interest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) with 10 percent of Irish businesses stating that AI is fundamental to their business, compared with just two percent a year earlier.  Companies are also recognizing that AI is a useful defensive tool against cybercriminals through real-time monitoring, detecting unusual activity and triaging and automating responses to incidents.

Imminent EU and Irish regulatory measures will also influence demand.  With 3,000 Irish organizations falling within the scope of EU’s NIS2 Directive, Ireland’s National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) has issued draft NIS2 Risk Management Measures Guidance for those entities ahead of the enactment of NIS2 into Irish law via the National Cybersecurity Bill later this year.  The Irish Government will also publish its latest National Cyber Risk Assessment (NCRA) and new National Cyber Security Strategy before year-end.  Both documents will stress the importance of supply chain security around digital technologies within key critical national infrastructure sectors including energy, transport, financial services, healthcare and telecommunications alongside relevant government and public sector IT systems.

The continued threat of cyberattacks is driving spending on cybersecurity solutions and services across all major end user segments.  U.S. cybersecurity vendors are prominent in the market while Irish distributors, systems integrators and value-added resellers (VARs) continually seek to identify and source the latest innovative cybersecurity solutions from the United States.

For more information on Ireland’s cybersecurity sector, please contact Padraig O’Connor at U.S. Commercial Service Ireland via Padraig.O’Connor@trade.gov.