Online security company to hire 150

A US cybersecurity firm is to create 150 jobs in Cork city centre over the next three years, it has confirmed.

Cylance describes itself as a company “that is revolutionising cybersecurity with products and services that use artificial intelligence to proactively prevent, rather than just reactively detect advanced persistent threats and malware”.

It is opening its new Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) operations centre on South Mall and is looking to fill roles in sales, sales engineering, and customer support and says it plans to add malware analysis and software development roles in the future.

“Cork has become an international cybersecurity and technology centre, and we are proud to be a part of that. Our mission has always been to protect everyone under the sun, and tapping the rich technology pool in Ireland will help us greatly in this effort,” said Stuart McClure, president and CEO at Cylance.

IDA Ireland chief executive, Martin Shanahan, described Cylance as one of the fastest-growing companies in the history of cybersecurity.

“The choice of Ireland for the new EMEA operations centre for Cylance is an endorsement of the emerging cybersecurity cluster in Cork.

“The city’s tech infrastructure, talent pool, and supportive academic network have created a compelling business environment which will continue to attract investment from companies operating in this space.”

Barrie O’Connell, Cork Chamber president, said Cork has many connections with the west coast of the US.

“In a digitalised economy, cyber security is a key business priority. For Cork Chamber it is very encouraging that Cork is at the forefront of providing leading cyber security solutions for businesses across Europe and with Cylance on board, our offering will become even stronger.”

The California-headquartered company has been named in the top 100 of the 5,000 fastest growing American companies.

It says its CylanceProtect product currently protects millions of computers and servers for more than 3,000 large enterprise customers, preventing cyber attacks every day which could otherwise result in data breaches or cripple “network performance, employee productivity and brand reputation”.

Meanwhile footwear company Skechers has opened its 15th Irish retail store in Waterford.

The 14 staff in the new store bring the number the company employs on the island to 250.

“Plans call for additional stores to roll out across the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland over the next year, including one in Kilkenny and another located at Newry, bringing the new jobs tally to almost 40 in the space of less than a year,” said a spokeswoman for the company.

Skechers signed a retail licensing agreement with the footwear retailer Shuz 4 U Ltd in 2010 to open and operate Skechers-branded retail stores throughout Ireland.