Cyber businessStates, cities vying to become U.S. “cyber hub”

The global cybersecurity market reached $67 billion in 2011, and it is projected to grow as high as $156 billion by 2019, according to Markets and Markets, a Dallas-based research firm. The need for cybersecurity solutions and experts is going to grow as more companies such as Sony Pictures, Target, Home Depot, and Chase are hacked, consumers demand better online security, and businesses become more aware of the potential cost to their sales and reputation if they do not provide cybersecurity. As private sector firms compete with government agencies for the best cyber professionals, cities and states are also competing to be the country’s “cyber hub.”

Jim Dinegar, chief executive officer of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, recently took eighty-two bank presidents, construction executives, real estate agents, and mortgage brokers on a “cyber bus tour” to see the construction of the government’s 750,000-square-foot data center located in Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, home to the NSA and the U.S. military’s cyberwarfare command. Dinegar wants to convince business leaders that it is worth investing in businesses that will supply services including housing, to the thousands of cyber workers that will be recruited to work in the government’s data center. Cybersecurity, he said, “is an opportunity that’s bigger than anything I’ve ever seen.” He hopes a cybersecurity boom will bring more jobs and businesses to the District of Columbia, northern Virginia, and suburban Maryland area.

The Christian Science Monitor notes that Dinegar is facing competition from Silicon Valley, Texas, Florida, and other areas where public and private groups are positioning themselves to win millions in federal contracts and from venture capital firms. Many cities are building what they call “a cybersecurity ecosystem” by offering cyber firms tax-incentive packages to relocate and hiring public relations firms to devise branding strategies. Cities are investing in cyber start-ups and even crafting academic programs to teach the next generation of cyber professionals to meet worker demand.

As many as 300,000 cybersecurity jobs in the country went unfilled last year alone, according to security firm Symantec. “This is one of the fastest growing industries — not just in the tech sector, but in the world,” and no one has claimed it, said Peter Singer, a strategist who focuses on cybersecurity at the New America think tank in Washington, D.C.“What’s the next Silicon Valley for cybersecurity?” he asked.

The Greater Washington area has a major advantage due to its proximity to headquarters of federal agencies. CS Monitor notes that federal contracts with the NSA, for instance, often have requirements that firms be within a few miles of the government customers paying them. “Silicon Valley is a little bit more than five miles away,” Dinegar quips.

The biggest obstacle facing those pushing a Greater Washington cybersecurity hub is that elements in the region are competing with each other. “We are correct in calling Maryland the epicenter for cybersecurity,” said Jeffrey Wells, Maryland’s director for cyber development, referring to the state’s Cyber Maryland initiative, launched in 2010 as the country’s first state-coordinated approach to harness federal, state, and local governments; along with private sector and academic partners to promote cybersecurity opportunities.

Karen Jackson, Virginia’s secretary of technology, disagrees with Wells. “Virginia will come out on top,” Jackson said. “We’re nationally ranked as the best place to do business. That’s a national ranking that says we’re better than everyone else.” Jackson is working on landing the “Civilian Cyber Campus,” which is intended to be a new center to consolidate civilians from DHS and the Justice Department onto one campus. The White House’s budget for 2016 requested $227 million for the center, though the location has not been named.

Dinegar views the competition among Greater Washington governments as counterproductive in the broader national competition. “We’re like, ‘Stop! Stop arguing with each other! We’re collectively the home of cyber here in this region’. ”

“Frankly, if we worked better together, we wouldn’t have Silicon Valley eating our lunch, or Austin, Texas, emerging as strong as they’re emerging,” he added. “There’s plenty for everybody, so let’s not be greedy.”