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Cybersecurity / Municipal government / Politics

Led by Sen. Barbara Mikulski, MD politicians bring cybersecurity jobs

Politico says there's "no denying that Maryland’s lawmakers have expended considerable political capital to transform their state into a home base primed and ready for any cyberwar."

Cryptonite makes devices invisible to attackers. (Photo by Flickr user West Point - The U.S. Military Academy, used under a Creative Commons license)

Politico says there’s “no denying that Maryland’s lawmakers have expended considerable political capital to transform their state into a home base primed and ready for any cyberwar.”
For years, a delegation of congressional representatives from Maryland, led by Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski, reports Politico, “has [long] steered hundreds of millions of dollars in federal cyberaid”:

Maryland lawmakers have jockeyed for years to position their state as an epicenter for protecting the nation’s digital defenses. At Fort Meade, they’ve set up U.S. Cyber Command, the Pentagon’s coordination point for cyberoffense and defense. They’ve helped incentivize companies to set up shop nearby. And they’ve brought home big federal cybersecurity grants — including a recent $10 million check for a new cybercenter tasked to work with industry. [more]

The results of such political jockeying tend to concentrated in the greater Baltimore region, with more than 13,000 jobs in cybersecurity. By 2016, federal cybersecurity spending will increase to more than $14 billion.
In Maryland, close to 20,000 jobs in cybersecurity jobs are available, which fits into the narrative Gov. Martin O’Malley would like to create for the state, which he said at this year’s CyberMaryland must be the “epicenter of cybersecurity.”

People: Barbara Mikulski / Martin O’Malley
Projects: CyberMaryland
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