Maryland is ‘not the epicenter of commercial cyber’ industry

Making the case that Maryland is the hub of the government cybersecurity industry is easy.
Just look at the state’s proximity to Washington, D.C., politicians courting the government for cyber dollars and the more than 56,000 employees at Fort Meade, the home of U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency.
But the hub of the private, commercial cybersecurity industry? Not quite.
“We are fond in Maryland of saying we are the epicenter in cybersecurity,” said business consultant Art Jacoby to the Baltimore Business Journal. “We can claim to be an epicenter for business-to-government cybersecurity, we sell to the intelligence community, we sell to the civilian agencies in a big way. We are not the epicenter of commercial cyber.”
The commercial cybsecurity industry is a well of untapped potential for early-stage startups in Maryland, if cybersecurity firm Sourcefire‘s $2.7 billion acquisition is any indication. Although some pieces appear to be missing from the commercial cyber ecosystem, including early-stage funding for cyber startups.
Read the full Baltimore Business Journal story.
And read Technically Baltimore’s assessment of the cybersecurity industry’s affect on Baltimore.