By Stephen Johnson
Special to TechJournal South
TYSONS CORNER, VA – The government and commercial market for Cybersecurity products and services was a hot topic at the 6th Annual Bootcamp for Growing Companies and Entrepreneurs on Thursday at the McLean Hilton in Tysons Corner, Virginia.
The Bootcamp, sponsored by the Business Alliance of George Mason University, attracted more than 200 attendees. It was held on the same day that President Obama proposed a 21 percent increase in the Homeland Security Department’s fiscal 2010 cybersecurity budget.
Obama called for $355 million in Cybersecurity spending in DHS, up from the $294 million fiscal 2009 budget, “to make private and public sector cyber infrastructure more resilient and secure,” according to the budget.
Other federal agencies have their own budgets for Cybersecurity.
DHS is using most of the fiscal 2009 budget to deploy Einstein, a system to analyze civilian agencies’ systems for cyber threats and intrusions.
Jim Graham, senior vice president for Federal Programs at Reston, Virginia-based SecureIT, told a Bootcamp audience that the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI), signed into law by President Bush in January 2008, covers a broad scope of initiatives:
“These initiatives include Trusted Internet Connections (TIC); intrusion detection and prevention; research & development; cyber counterintelligence; situational awareness; classified network security; cyber education and training; deterrence strategies; global supply chain security, and implementation of information security technologies.”
Bruce Schoemer, senior vice president, National Security Group, at Camber Copr., noted that the number of cyber attacks on government and commercial networks has skyrocketed in the last three years.
Graham and Schoemer said that Cybersecurity is rapidly becoming a huge market, with both opportunities and uncertainties for technology companies, and that the federal government’s Cybersecurity initiatives will drive developments in the commercial marketplace.
Graham said that compliance-related spending is expected to top $15 billion this year, and that the cost for a typical company is about $500,000.
He said that the federal government’s demand for information security products and services will increase from $6.6 illion in fiscal 2008 to $9.6 billion in 2013, a compound annual growth rate of 7.9 percent.
Earlier this month, Obama appointed Melissa Hathaway to a position within his administration to spearhead Cybersecurity and to lead a 60-day review of the federal government’s actions to safeguard networks against malicious infiltration.
Hathaway, a former consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton, previously assisted the Bush administration in creating the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative.
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