THE growing threat of hackers to big business has led to a major expansion at a Bradford-based cyber-security firm.

On Friday, the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Bradford, Geoff and Chris Reid, joined education pioneer Sir John Lewis OBE to officially open a new security operations centre at the ECSC Group’s headquarters at Listerhills Science Park.

The state-of-the-art facility will act as a base for the company’s growing number of high-skilled technical staff, ahead of plans to open a similar centre in Australia in summer 2017.

The consultancy firm, which was founded in Bradford in 2000, boasts a tenth of the FTSE 100 as clients and listed on London’s junior AIM market in December with a valuation of £15 million.

Ian Mann, chief executive of ECSC Group, said they were delighted to be opening the operations centre.

He said: “ECSC is currently in an exciting growth phase as we use the proceeds from the successful listing in December 2016 to execute our expansion plans in order to scale up to meet the significant cyber-security market opportunity.

“High-profile attacks continue apace, which means companies are assessing their cyber-security needs with greater importance.”

The company has also received help from Bradford Council’s City Centre Growth Zone scheme.

The scheme, which offers rate rebates to companies creating jobs, awarded ECSC rebates worth more than £69,000 between 2013 and 2016.

ECSC has already doubled its staff numbers from 50 to 100 and a further recruitment drive is under way.

Mr Mann said: “This support came at a key stage in the growth of the business and has helped with our further expansion.”

Councillor Alex Ross-Shaw, of Bradford Council, said: “We are delighted that ECSC have been able to use the support we’ve given to help them to progress their business and open this new security operations centre in Bradford.”

The current Growth Zone scheme expires in March next year. Bradford Council is reviewing the offer and is expected to make announcements later this year about any extension planned. For details, visit www.investinbradford.com.