Login
iscover
The NSW government has a secured a multimillion-dollar global cyber security research and development facility in North Sydney to create more than 170 jobs over the next five years.
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
International telecommunications company BT has established its first R&D (research and development) facility outside the UK, with $1.67 million of support from the NSW government.
"This facility is a major boost for our economy and will be a real-time nerve-centre protecting large enterprises, industries, governments and even nations from cyber attack," Minister for Innovation Matt Kean.
"BT will also make a $2 million investment in capital infrastructure, and a further multimillion investment to employ cyber security specialists."
Minister Kean is hopeful the new facility will help lure back Australia's best and brightest cyber security experts, while also ensuring up and coming talent remains in the country.
"This operation will help keep Australia’s best cyber security talent here in NSW and nurture our next generation of specialists to ensure we remain a regional leader in this fast growing industry," the minister said.
"I’m confident job opportunities offered by BT will also act as an incentive for Australian citizens currently working overseas to come back home and bring their highly valuable skills with them."
The R&D facility will employ experts across a diverse range of areas.
"The areas of expertise in the new facility include cyber security, machine learning, data science analytics and visualisation, big data engineering, cloud computing, data networking, and the full life cycle of software engineering," Minister Kean said.
"BT will also bring its newly created role of chief global engineer for cyber product development to the facility in a further vote of confidence in NSW."
BT Security CEO Mark Hughes said this is an exciting opportunity to tap into local cyber security talent, and by doing so address a major skills shortage we see in both the UK and elsewhere.
"Never before has cyber security been more important and we see potential for growth not only in NSW and Australia, but further afield," Hughes said.
"This facility will be a cornerstone of our global cyber security capabilities and help us stay ahead in this fast moving space."
