Stuxnet breakthrough company expands

Symantec's is creating  60 jobs at its European Operations Centre in Dublin
'New authentication services mandate is a strong vote of confidence in Symantec's Irish Operation'

Richard Bruton TD

Ireland's Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton, TD, has announced that Symantec, the global leader in security, storage and systems management, is to establish a new team within its European Operations Centre in Dublin, creating 60 high quality jobs. The investment is supported by the Irish Government with the aid of IDA Ireland.

This is the company discovered that Stuxnet actually modifies code on PLCs in a potential act of sabotage and publishers earlier this year of the W32 Stuxnet Dossier.

The new team will be focused on three specific areas relating to Symantec's Identity and Authentication offerings, part of Symantec's Authentication Services business. These areas are customer authentication and verification, technical support and client services. The team will form part of Symantec's "follow the sun" model, with services and support being provided to customers across the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia Pacific and Japan in over 20 languages on a 24/7 basis. Symantec's VeriSign Authentication Services provide organisations with strong proof that a user, device, or website is genuine and that information is protected. This new team is key in ensuring security through a stringent authentication and verification process and team members will speak a minimum of two European languages in order to provide services to Symantec customers across the markets they serve.

Welcoming the announcement, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, the Minister said: "A significant part of the real Irish economic miracle in the mid/late 1990s was our ability to tap into the global ICT boom that was going on at that time. If we are to get growth in employment and in the economy again, one part of that will involve relying on our traditional strengths, and today's announcement is a great vote of confidence in our policies. We must be far-reaching in our ambitions in this area, and I am determined to build on those traditional strengths to ensure that we can reap great rewards from the new global tech boom and get our country working again".

Commenting on the announcement, Enrique Salem, President and Chief Executive Officer of Symantec said, "Today's announcement is a major step forward for Symantec enabling us to better serve our customers by utilising local talents. Following Symantec's acquisition of VeriSign's authentication business in 2010, authentication is a key growth area for the company. The VeriSign check mark is the most recognised symbol of trust online with more than 650 million impressions every day on more than 100,000 websites in 160 countries.


The decision to locate this investment in Dublin comes as a result of the success to date of Symantec in Ireland. I would like to thank staff and management here in Dublin for making this operation such a success, and the Irish Government and IDA Ireland for their support. I look forward to seeing the continued growth of Symantec in Ireland."


Barry O'Leary, CEO of IDA Ireland said, "Symantec first established an operation in Ireland in 1991 and its transformation involves new mandates, increasing the strategic importance of Symantec Ireland within its parent corporation. Transformation of this nature is in keeping with IDA's goals as outlined in our strategy, Horizon 2020. Ireland is benefiting from the overall growth in the technology sector and this investment from Symantec, a leading company in this sector, is very welcome news for the industry in Ireland. I would like to offer Symantec IDA Ireland's continued support as the company further embeds its operations here in Ireland."