Ciaran Luttrell and George O’Mahony discuss Ireland’s internet landscape and the impact of AI on the sector.
Late last week (26 February), hosted discovery and response platform eSentire awarded the fifth annual MTU Sean Hennessy Scholarship to Bartosz Lipinski, from Fermoy, Cork. In collaboration with MTU’s Department of Computer Science, this award was established as a way to honor a former colleague and support young people in the field of security.
SiliconRepublic.com spoke to Ciaran Luttrell, vice president of global SOC operations at eSentire and George O’Mahony, head of the Department of Computer Science at Munster Technological University (MTU), to hear more about the scholarship, Ireland’s cybersecurity sector and the skills needed to succeed.
“The scholarship provides a great opportunity for students to work in an international operations center that supports thousands of clients, hone their skills during their placement and consider this as a career after graduation,” explained Luttrell.
“This is the fifth year of this scholarship, and it has been a great way to find and develop new talent. So far, all of the graduates from previous years have joined us full-time and are still with the company and those who are still studying continue to work with us from time to time.”
Next in line
According to O’Mahony, developing the cybersecurity technology pipeline is very important, not just for professionals based in Ireland, but globally.
He said, “There’s still an online skills gap, not just in Ireland, but around the world. This is a global issue facing small companies and multinationals. There aren’t enough people.”
He said, by building a pipeline of graduate students, for example like the MTU program, in partnership with companies based in Cork and the south west region, there is an opportunity to develop a strong and connected ecosystem. But it will not depend only on the participation of graduates.
He said, “Graduates will not cover the entire skills gap. MTU has run the Cyber Skills Initiative as a lead institution. This is a collaboration between MTU, the University of Limerick and Technological University Dublin, which is a HEA HCI Pillar III project that was re-delivered in 2021.
“This project has been going on for five years and has allowed us to expand access to cybersecurity programs by looking at short courses and less guaranteesall approved by the university.
“This has allowed many people to do so high skill or re-skill and these types of alternatives, at the postgraduate level, are very important in solving this talent gap, especially if they are in line with international standards, such as the NIST/NICE framework.”
It’s an AI world now
Cybersecurity, almost every STEM role, is affected by the development of AI, with the biggest fear being artificial intelligence. it reduces job opportunities for young and old professionals alike.
O’Mahony is of the opinion that this is an even bigger problem in academia as the introduction of GenAI has had a negative impact on graduates. But, you get, the opportunity to commit to developing hard and soft skills, and professionals at the core.
He said, “AI is likely to impact other tasks within IT such as vulnerability scanning, log analysis, etc., which are important but repetitive.
“What will always be most important for a student or graduate is about critical analysis, critical thinking, problem solving, and being able to think in areas of uncertainty, such as not knowing exactly what an attacker might do. So companies will still need graduates to understand and use this skill, while being able to use AI and take advantage of new technologies.”
For both Luttrell and O’Mahony, AI-literacy cannot be ignored, especially for those who expect a job in a field as important as cybersecurity. O’Mahony noted that the collaboration between educational institutions and companies will be very important in bringing young people on topics that affect the activities of the Internet, such as emerging risks, and changing regulatory and operational requirements.
He said, “With AI, some technologies that affect the market are not even months ago, so how can you help students understand what is involved or how to secure those new areas? At this point, we have to help them understand the first goals and take a ‘lifelong learning’ approach, so they can use their knowledge and skills in the most effective way.”
For Luttrell, “getting a foot in the door is a huge achievement”, but what organizations really need to prioritize for their employees and long-term growth strategies, is to commit to a mutually beneficial career progression program.
He explained, companies are often concerned about hiring professionals for early careers, as it may not seem like a solid investment. He said that employers bring people in, train them and if they choose to continue, it affects the organization.
“The old mentality here is that you spend on training and recruitment, and then someone else sees all the benefits. It’s a stupid idea and I think it’s wrong to take it.
“More skilled people benefit everyone. The world is so connected that any company you work with or interact with can impact your security. We’ve seen attacks on service providers and software supply chains, so the number of skilled professionals on the market helps improve everyone’s security posture.”
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