The New York City Economic Development Corp. (NYEDC) has launched a new program to address the city’s urgent cybersecurity skills shortage.

The program, Cyber NYC, is a $30 million initiative to develop cybersecurity talent, fund research and support the growth of security-focused startups across the metropolitan area.

NYEDC is also in the process of constructing a dedicated facility to host the new program. This special cyber center will host the city’s first-ever cybersecurity startup accelerator as well as other amenities.

The city also plans to add technology partnerships to its Applied Learning Initiative, to encourage collaboration between academic institutions and businesses and to help digital entrepreneurs launch new products and services. Additionally, Cyber NYC will host a cyber boot camp.

This is a positive development for New York City, as the city — and the state — is currently getting ravaged by cybercrime. Last year, New York reported a loss of $106.23 million from cybercrime which was the second-highest in the country. And New York City is now the top target for ransomware in the world.  

At the same time, New York has one of the biggest cybersecurity skills shortages in the country. Businesses across New York are having an impossible time finding qualified experts to protect their digital assets.

New York-based businesses in need of cybersecurity assistance can find affordable help from third party managed service providers (MSPs) like Apex Technology Services — premier computer consultants offering a wide range of security services ranging from comprehensive training to systems patching and maintenance.

Here are some of the areas all organizations looking to promote a cybersecurity culture need to focus on.

1.    Cybersecurity training must be done regularly.

2.    Auditing and documentation must be performed regularly to ensure systems are secure.

3.    Anomaly detection should be running constantly to detect threats as they emerge.

4.    Penetration testing shows if systems can easily be reached from the outside. Here is a case where this test might have saved two company’s’ reputations from being destroyed.

5.    Network forensics for when a breach eventually occurs. The bad guys always seem to get in eventually.

6.    An action plan to follow when a breach does occur. Once it happens, few will have the clear heads needed to “wing it” correctly. Equifax botched it’s response in what is being called a PR catastrophe.

To ensure your organization is safe – even if you have internal IT, hire an experienced MSP or MSSP like Apex Technology Services.