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New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is trying to boost the city's cybersecurity market by tapping into its large student population and harnessing new investment.
Why it matters: While New York is overflowing with students, there's still a nationwide cybersecurity workforce shortage. De Blasio hopes to increase the number of cybersecurity jobs in New York City by 10,000 in a decade to help secure its major economic engines such as finance and retail sectors, which are prime cyberattack targets.
The details:
- Israeli-founded tech firm SOSA will run a global cyber center in Chelsea to bring entrepreneurs and investors together.
- Jerusalem Venture Partners will kickstart cybersecurity investments in SoHo.
- Columbia University, Cornell Tech, and Facebook have signed on to develop educational programs that feed into cybersecurity jobs, for instance at MasterCard and PWC.
- The city is investing $30 million into the Cyber NYC program, which also expects approximately $70 million in private backing.