Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I suppose it is only when you are hit by something that you take it seriously. It is something that happens somewhere else and then you think "God, were we not lucky that it was not us?". A lot of the time it probably is luck. On the cyber-resilience rating for equipment, the equipment remains vulnerable to the actual user. You can design a system that is very safe but issues can arise when a human interacts with or uses it. The Chair talked about further and higher education and Mr. Honan talked about the need to develop that skill set. Because it interacts with every part of our life, is it the case that nearly all third level courses should include a module on cybersecurity? It does not matter what course you are doing. If you are studying healthcare, you are dealing with medical records. If you are studying transport engineering, you are dealing with transmission systems. Even at second level, nearly all secondary school students have smartphones now. The Chair suggested asking someone - I cannot remember who - about the third level curriculum. Because it is so prevalent in society, it would make sense to bring in a cybersecurity module for all secondary and third level students.