New Brunswick To Build Out Cybersecurity Cluster in Fredericton
FREDERICTON – New Brunswick’s government is hoping a Cybersecurity Centre of Innovation will strengthen an ecosystem it’s building and attract more investment into the province.
Cyber NB, the cybersecurity arm of Opportunities New Brunswick, and the Canadian government announced Tuesday that they’re contributing over $4 million to establish the centre.
“It’s a location where you’ll have multiple companies in the critical infrastructure cybersecurity space sharing best practices, learning from each other, collaborating. That’s overall what the nature of the space is,” said Tyson Johnson, the chief operating officer of CyberNB. “It’s to make sure that we’re increasing the level of innovation and collaboration between these cybersecurity firms that we’re bringing into the ecosystem.”
The approximately 5,000-square-foot centre, to be located in the same building as CyberNB’s office at Knowledge Park, aims to do something unique, Johnson said. That is to allow critical infrastructure like banks, hospitals and power generators to actively collaborate on cybersecurity with each other, and with partners in other sectors.
“It’s a space where all of these organizations that have similar mandates and goals and objectives can collaborate and develop new best practices and work with universities and colleges – work with UNB and the [Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity],” he said.
The New Brunswick Community College network and other partners already involved in the cybersecurity ecosystem will also be integrated into the cluster.
Opportunities NB identified cybersecurity as a strategically important sector in which it can attract investment into the province. There have been several cybersecurity investment announcements in Fredericton this year, including by Siemens, Difenda, and Global Intelligence.
“[The Innovation Centre] is an investment attraction vehicle for the province, absolutely. And now that you have these kinds of companies offerings here, there’s going to be growth within operations as they collaborate and take on new initiatives and develop new techologies,” Johnson said.
Those companies are also set to contribute to the centre.
“We’re anticipating Siemens will be bringing in their tech and some of their equipment into this shared env. There will be industry collaboration and participation into this effort,” Johnson said.
CyberNB is investing $956,000 in non-repayable contribution and the federal government committed $3.1 million in non-repayable contribution through its Business Development Program.
The funding will be used to build the space, technology, and resources.