PwC's new Cork centre is safeguarding businesses against cyber attacks
Leonard McAuliffe, Cyber Partner, PwC Ireland, says there's significant demand for cybersecurity services both globally and in Ireland.
The recent launch of PwC Ireland’s Cyber Managed Services Centre in Cork is an innovation that will be welcomed by everyone concerned by cyber attacks. In Ireland that’s a sizable number.
This concern is evident following the results of PwC’s 2024 Digital Trust survey where, notably, 53 per cent of Irish respondents expect Generative AI to lead to catastrophic cyber attacks in the next 12 months. In addition to this, third party breaches emerged as the number one cybersecurity threat concern of Irish organisations at 42 percent, surpassing the likes of ransomware.
The opening of this Centre is a timely move, given that it’s a strategically planned response to the rising demand for cyber managed services, both in Ireland and internationally.
PwC’s Cyber Managed Services Centre will initially focus on two key areas: Third Party Risk Management to help companies minimise the cyber risks associated with outsourcing to third party vendors or service providers; and Privacy Managed Services to provide companies with outsourced solutions for a variety of privacy operations and compliance services.
Leonard McAuliffe, Cyber Partner at PwC Ireland says: “At a time when disruption and uncertainty are all around us, businesses are becoming increasingly reliant on, and interconnected with, third parties, meaning cybersecurity supply chain risk is intensifying further. PwC’s Cyber Managed Services Centre will allow businesses to benefit from our specialised cyber resources, fine tuned processes and cutting edge technologies, to increase efficiencies, reduce costs, and enhance focus on their core business activities.”
According to McAuliffe: “As the sophistication and number of attacks increase, organisations are finding it harder to defend themselves. AI is being used by cyber criminals to deliver more sophisticated attacks on organisations such as deep fake impersonations and the creation of malware which does not require any human input to promote its spread, also known as self propagating malware,” says McAuliffe.
“Globally and in Ireland, there are not enough cyber specialists to meet demand and organisations are finding it harder to recruit and retain this specialist talent. Consequently, they then outsource some of these cybersecurity services. To meet that rising demand, we started the Cyber Managed Services Centre in Cork,” says McAuliffe. Organisations can get comfort in having access to PwC skilled cyber resources on a scalable model based on demand.
The methods with which PwC protects its clients is rigorous indeed. Third parties are provided with rigorous questionnaires that they’re required to answer, before uploading evidence onto PwC platforms. With that, automated tools provide PwC with real time information on the security ratings of these parties, including whether they have been hacked and more. This means that the risk profile PwC provides on these third parties is of immense value to clients.
“These processes indicate whether those third parties really do look after their cyber security,” says McAuliffe.
“An organisation could have a secure IT environment, but if it hires a third party, for example, to support or maintain its data bases, security controls within the third party might not be sufficient, “ says McAuliffe. “This may be so, particularly if it’s a small company that has an under resourced security function. Hackers target the weakest link, and consequently, poorly secured third parties are attacked and used as a backdoor into larger organisations.
As for what clients visiting PwC’s Cyber Managed Services Centre can expect, McAuliffe lists the co-creation space, where clients’ current processes are reviewed with PwC teams to see how they can be improved. White screens, where clients are shown how to design their processes more efficiently using AI. Pods, where groups can collaborate and learn from one another. There are also secure areas where sensitive client data is processed. It also includes a hospitality area and a boardroom for when clients wish to be onsite.
Unsurprisingly, client feedback has, according to McAuliffe, been ‘great.’ “We already have clients onboarded and lots of enquiries and that instils great confidence in our service,” he says. Confidence is always important, but when it comes to cyber security, it’s particularly so. “When we look at an organisation’s risk register, cyber is always in the top three,” says McAuliffe.
We then chat about the changing regulatory landscape for cyber. McAuliffe says that “the new Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) applies to 22,000 financial entities and ICT providers, both here and across Europe.” DORA ensures that financial services organisations can detect, respond and recover from all types of ICT/Cyber threats. Crucially, the regulation also governs the way regulated financial services deal with third parties and outsourcing providers.
On the impact of the European Network and Information Security Directive 2 (NIS2), McAuliffe says: “For the first time, leadership and boards are obliged and responsible to ensure organisations are implementing appropriate security controls.”
NIS2 comes into effect on 17th October this year and will introduce greater cybersecurity standards for operators of critical and important services for the country. Board members will be under pressure to ensure there’s compliance throughout their organisation. “Greater investment in cyber security is needed to ensure Cyber Security Remediation Programmes are funded to ensure compliance,” says McAuliffe.
As well as protecting precious assets for clients, PwC's new centre will foster innovation — which happens to be one of McAuliffe’s favourite topics.
“With clients, we foster innovation in many ways, including working with them to make their processes leaner and more efficient. To do this we automate, using AI to speed things up by reducing effort, whilst ensuring the highest quality remains. Other ways in which we innovate with clients is by brainstorming together in workshops, then fleshing out the ideas that come from that.
“Innovation brings great improvements for our clients and I love to see that. One of the prime reasons we chose Cork for the location of the Cyber Managed Services Centre is, of course, because Cork is a vibrant cyber hub for Ireland. Being in Cork, PwC is well placed to avail of highly skilled and talented students that come to us. The students that come to us from MTU and UCC are very bright with brilliant ideas and different perspectives. We foster their innovation, by providing the environment in which they can experiment with the technology and create new ideas. They enjoy experimenting with the new tools and develop their own as well. This, and the monthly competitions we run for the best innovation prize are some of the tools we use to foster innovation amongst our teams. I always challenge them to improve processes and innovate. Everyone benefits, particularly our clients.”
Part of PwC’s national strategy, the Cyber Managed Services Centre is indicative of the firm’s significant investment in Cork and one that builds upon its recent announcement of 150 jobs in that county.
As a PwC partner, McAuliffe agrees that this is good news. It’s also something that impacts him positively on a personal level. “As a Corkman, I am very proud that this new service brings jobs to Cork,” he says, “and this is only the beginning. While we’ve started with third party risk management, and privacy managed services, we are adding further services such as security monitoring, vulnerability management, identity and access management and security architecture.”
“The more services we add, the more teams will be required and that will bring even more high value jobs to Cork.”
To learn more about PwC's Cyber Managed Services Centre, visit www.pwc.ie/cybercentre
