Cyber NYC

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6 min to read

About the city. New York City sees itself as a unique place to lead the future of cyber innovation, due to a strong consumer demand (New York is home to 45 Fortune 500 headquarters), a workforce of more than 4 million people, a growing startup ecosystem ($1.2 billion in venture capital funding in 2017), and leading academic institutions.

Goal

The project aims to make New York an epicentre of cybersecurity leadership with the dual goals of stimulating economic development and tackling cyber threats to organisations in the city.

Implementation period. The program was launched in October 2018.

Fact

Statistics from the “2017 Cybersecurity Jobs Report” by Cybersecurity Ventures show that cybersecurity attacks occur every 40 seconds worldwide, with more than 3.8 billion Internet users affected by cyberattacks in 2017.
About 60 million Americans were affected by identity theft in 2018, increasing from 15 million in 2017.

Solutions

The Cyber NYC plan brings together academic institutions, government leaders, and corporate partners to work on six different but interrelated projects to build cybersecurity competencies and build a cybersecurity ecosystem.

The cybersecurity initiative focuses on driving innovation in cyber defence, promoting thought leadership around this topic, and training cybersecurity experts – all of which will help organisations around the world better protect themselves from hackers and other cyber threats.

The NYCEDC selected JVP, an international venture capital firm, to create the investment of the cybersecurity hub or hub.NYC, for the general Cyber NYC initiative.

Two of the six different programs under Cyber NYC address the need for more cybersecurity employees. One of them is the Applied Learning Initiative. The City University of New York (CUNY), Columbia University, Cornell Tech, iQ4, and New York University are developing courses to train cyber specialists through new certifications and degree programs. The other is Cyber Boot Camp, for which Fullstack Academy and CUNY’s LaGuardia Community College have developed additional cybersecurity training programs.

Cyber NYC also includes the Cybersecurity Moonshot Challenge, a global competition that brings new security technologies to market that can protect small businesses. There are also Inventors to Founders, an effort by Columbia University to connect academic inventors of patented cybersecurity technologies with entrepreneurs to create cybersecurity startups.

The sixth component is the Global Cyber Center, designated as a centre for curated programs and events to promote cooperation and create a cyber community. NYCEDC selected SOSA, an Israeli firm with expertise in innovation and building communities, to create and manage the centre from a renovated space in New York’s Chelsea neighbourhood.

Challenges

Organisations seeking to hire cybersecurity specialists face a severe talent shortage, a common problem across the country. Trade organisation (ISC)2 surveyed 1,500 cybersecurity and IT professionals worldwide and found that 63% of participating organisations faced a shortage of IT staff dedicated to cybersecurity. Moreover, about 60% of respondents said that the shortage puts their companies at moderate or even extreme risk of cybersecurity attacks.