Swedish IT Development in Urgent Need of Foreign Talent
Yesterday saw the opening of Verisec’s new development center in Belgrade – Verisec Labs. Having struggled to find the right competence in Sweden, the company decided to move their R & D to Serbia where the greatest talents within cryptography and IT security are located.
The investment in Verisec Labs means that Verisec now takes a major leap in combating the challenges of IT Security. Currently, there are six people employed in Belgrade, and six additional places are ready to be filled soon. The aim is that Verisec Labs will have about 20 employees in two years’ time.
The choice of Serbia as the location for the new development center had its obvious reasons, according to Johan Henrikson, CEO at Verisec:
“Serbia has a unique combination of well-educated and highly motivated talents within cryptography and IT security. In fact, companies like Microsoft and Intel have already established centers for programming and development in Belgrade. It’s just a matter of time before more companies will discover the dynamics and vast resources of knowledge available here. Naturally, we want to be part of this as early as possible in order to attract the best people,” he says.
The backdrop to Verisec’s investment is a harsher security climate and an ever-growing need of innovative solutions that can mitigate evolving threats:
“Attacks are becoming more sophisticated and cybercriminals are constantly finding new ways to access sensitive information. Meanwhile, threats become more frequent. The number of reported data breaches in Sweden during the first half of 2012 increased by 99 percent compared to the corresponding period last year. Unfortunately, the knowledge required to meet these new threats is just not available in our country, although we probably see ourselves as pioneers within IT”, says Johan Henrikson.
Sweden’s ambassador Christer Asp, who visited the facilities before the opening, welcomed the investment:
“Verisec Labs is an excellent example of how to utilize the enormous technological potential available here in Serbia – potential that you may not normally associate with this region. The fact that a company like Verisec choose to place a center here, and not elsewhere, shows that Serbia is at the forefront of producing cutting edge IT solutions, especially when it comes to this kind of advanced cryptography that Verisec Labs is going to develop”, he says.
Though admitting to the numerous benefits of placing a development center abroad, Johan Henrikson also recognizes that this may cause problems for Sweden in the long term. In order to keep Sweden competitive, he calls for more powerful means to improve education:
“Swedish companies used to move production abroad and keep R & D at home. Today it’s the other way around. If we don’t raise the level of quality in our educational system – from the primary schools and upwards – even more companies will be forced to place their R & D elsewhere. From our standpoint, and I think every knowledge-intensive company would agree, it’s competence that matters, not geographic location”, he concludes.
For more information, please contact
Johan Henrikson, CEO, Verisec, +46-8-723 09 00, johan.henrikson@verisec.com
ABOUT VERISEC
Verisec is an international IT security company that provides innovative security solutions for banking, government and medium to large corporations worldwide. Through a combination of products and services, Verisec offers end-to-end solutions in order to secure digital identities and mitigate threats facing the digital world. The company was established in 2002 and has delivered products to more than 7 million users worldwide. For more information, please visit www.verisec.com.
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