Software security firm Kaspersky Lab is to create 50 jobs in Dublin over the next three years as part of a $5 million investment in Ireland.

The company, which provides antivirus and internet security software, has announced plans to open its first European research and development (R&D) centre in Ireland.

The new office will focus mainly on developing data-analysis and machine-learning technologies for the company’s enterprise solutions offering. The team will be responsible for core parts of new Kaspersky Lab solutions, focused on targeted attack detection and investigation.

Tech talent

“Dublin was an obvious choice for the company’s first European R&D office, owing to the quality and density of tech talent there, and of course, the city’s vibrant and appealing living conditions,” said Nikita Shvetsov, chief technology officer with Kaspersky Lab.

“Locating the office in Dublin is a great opportunity for us to increase our collaboration with other international IT companies, especially as the city is becoming known as the Silicon Valley of Europe, ” he added.

The company said it had appointed Keith Waters as head of engineering to lead the development team in Ireland.

Mr Waters, who previously worked at Amdocs and ChangingWorlds, has more than 15 years’ experience building enterprise big-data analytics products.

Kaspersky has 270,000 corporate clients and more than 400 million users use the company’s products.