Mayor Stephen Murray speaks at the 2nd annual South Coast Cyber Summit

BEAUFORT, S.C. (WTOC) - Cyber security is a growing national concern, with experts saying the field has hundreds of thousands of job openings across our country.

For years it’s been a goal in the city of Beaufort to become a nationally recognized hub for cyber security and now that the second annual south coast cyber summit is in the books the city’s mayor believes they’ve become that.

“Right now we currently have about 100 students of all ages in some form of cyber security training in Beaufort County. That’s not something that we had a year ago, so we’re making real progress and building that organizational capacity and changing people’s lives and giving them the skills they need to take these jobs,” Mayor Stephen Murray said.

He credits the partnerships between the public and private sector for bringing hundreds of people to this summit and growing the city’s reputation.

“We had the commanding general that runs Army cyber command down from Fort Gordon, also folks that are in maritime cyber security... and they’ve all said Beaufort is now on the map in the cyber security space.”

Mayor Murray says as they continue to address this national problem locally he knows there’s still work to be done, but he’s incredible proud of what the city’s already accomplished.

Copyright 2023 WTOC. All rights reserved.