Irish IT services provider HCS to expand its cybersecurity offering

HCS’ €1.13m investment in expanding both its cybersecurity services and its team is an attempt by the company to meet growing customer demand.

Irish IT services provider HCS is investing €1.13m over the next few years in its cybersecurity offering.

Less than six months ago, the Waterford-headquartered business announced it planned to invest €3.2m in doubling its workforce over the next three years. Its €1.13m investment is being funded by that.

At the time, HCS said this would amount to 30 new jobs across all areas of its business. It also indicated that due to a growing demand for cyber risk management services it would be hiring cybersecurity consultants and engineers.

Today (18 October) HCS said it was looking to hire five technical engineers as part of the earlier jobs announcement.

The company is planning to provide a new Fortinet Security Operations Centre (SOC) as-a-service to customers. The centre will be a base for AI and SOC analysts, who will monitor incidents on organisations’ networks 24/7.

HCS’ expanded cybersecurity team will manage customer networks both in the cloud and on-premises. The team will also provide security managed services to maintain and improve clients’ security posture on an ongoing basis.

The €1.13m investment will enable new certifications and upskilling for both new hires and existing employees within the company’s Fortinet and Microsoft security portfolios.

“This investment means that HCS can scale up our capabilities in the cybersecurity space and bring our services to progressive organisations that take security seriously. We are seeing a huge demand for more secure solutions among our customers. Covid-19 has accelerated security demands around remote working and cloud in particular, while geopolitical moves have resulted in a rise in cyberattacks in recent years,” said Dan Hegarty, head of sales, HCS.

The investment will also enable the expansion of HCS’ services in high-growth areas such as manufacturing, utilities and cloud security. As well as its Waterford base, HCS has an offices in Dublin and Cork.

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