ASSURANCE, tax and advisory firm Grant Thornton has opened a new forensics and investigation services unit in its Belfast office.
The aim is to help Northern Ireland firms tackle the increasing cost of cyber-crime to their business, and the range of services offered by the new unit will help firms identify data breaches and investigate them effectively.
Cyber crime is a national scale issue, and the cost to the UK economy is estimated at £27 billion and growing, according to official government figures.
With data and its storage increasingly becoming a valuable commodity, Grant Thornton says the cost of cyber crime to Northern Irish businesses is also soaring.
Just last week cyber crime was in the global headlines after hackers breached international dating website Ashley Madison and stole the personal details of 37 million people, including more than 2,000 in Northern Ireland.
Creating the new unit - which it launched at Crumlin Road Gaol - is the latest expansion at Grant Thornton in Belfast which says it is experiencing "significant growth".
