May 12, 2009 – Norkom Technologies has awarded the top prize in its inner-city Education in the Community programme to Dublin-based Mount Carmel Secondary School, for its presentation on Identity Theft on the Internet, as part of the company’s ongoing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme.

In an award ceremony held in the Morrison Hotel, Dublin, on May 8th, prize money totalling €22,650 was awarded to winners Mount Carmel Secondary School and runners up, Synge Street CBS. Each member of the winning team received €3,000, while their runner-up counterparts received €2,000 each, the majority of which must be used towards third level education. In addition, Mount Carmel and Synge Street schools both received €2,500 and €1,500 respectively towards IT/services equipment.

Norkom’s Education in the Community programme involved the participation of four teams from three Dublin inner city schools including Belvedere College, Synge Street CBS and Mount Carmel Secondary School. Styled in the vein of the BBC’s Dragons’ Den programme, the four teams had to develop a presentation on the theme of Identity Theft on the Internet, which was delivered to a panel of ‘Norkom Dragons’ in the form of seasoned employees. The theme was specifically chosen to correlate closely with Norkom’s business, which involves providing award-winning financial crime and compliance solutions to the global financial services industry.

Each team was assessed on the thoroughness, quality and innovativeness of the content and delivery of the presentation. To help them prepare for stepping into the Dragon’s Den, Norkom assigned each team with mentors, who provided the guidance and support necessary to steer the students through the processes of researching, compiling data, preparing the script and delivering the presentations.

According to Paul Kerley, Norkom’s CEO, “Many congratulations go to all the teams on preparing and delivering such winning presentations. It was a hard-fought contest, with each team exemplifying excellent team spirit and sheer originality in the delivery. Mount Carmel won the hearts and imaginations of the Dragons as a result of their innovative presentation style and real-world scenarios in how to prevent identity theft from occurring, which breathed life into their proposition”.

The aim of the Education in the Community was to stimulate the interests of inner city students in Dublin in science and IT-related subjects. As Paul Kerley explains, “The recent fall in demand for science and IT-related subjects at third level is concerning, but even more worrying is the consistent downward trend in mathematic scores that we are currently seeing at secondary level. The only way for Ireland to emerge from this recession is to position ourselves firmly as a knowledge economy. And the only way to do this is to invest in the technical education of our young people, who will fuel the next economic miracle and catapult the country back on the road to financial recovery – purely through their knowledge and skill-sets”.

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Media contacts:

Fiona McLoughlin, Marketing Manager, Norkom Technologies,

Tel: +353 1 8739612 or email fiona.mcloughlin@norkom.com

About Norkom Technologies (www.norkom.com)

Norkom Technologies (AIM: NORK.L, IEX: NORK.IE) enables financial organisations to take intelligent action, control defences, and evolve strategies against fraud, money laundering, and other types of financial crime. By combining a unique investigative technology platform with deep domain expertise, Norkom has established a solid track record of reducing financial losses, protecting users’ reputations, improving operational efficiencies, and lowering the cost information technology.

Norkom serves clients in over 100 countries, including HSBC, Banco Santander, Credit Agricole, DnB NOR, Dubai Islamic Bank, Erste, Rabobank, Standard Chartered Bank, Swedbank and Union Bank of California.

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