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Cybersecurity Industry Set to Grow Tenfold

Everyone knows that IT security is hot around the globe right now. But it's about to get much hotter, according to Richard Stiennon, who was the lunch keynote at the 2013 Michigan Cyber Summit yesterday.

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Picture of Richard Stiennon, chief research analyst at IT-Harvest

Everyone knows that IT security is a hot industry around the globe right now. But it’s about to get much hotter, according to Richard Stiennon, who was the lunch keynote at the 2013 Michigan Cyber Summit yesterday.

Stiennon, who wrote a detailed blog on the reasons for the coming growth of cybersecurity for Forbes, is the founder and chief research analyst for IT Harvest.  He is also an author and frequent speaker around the globe on IT security industry trends.

Stiennon said that businesses spend money when they need to reduce online risk, and that security need is growing. Stiennon described several significant incidents over the past decade that have brought us to this point. These global trends continues to accelerate.

“This $60 billion industry researches, develops, and sells firewalls, anti-malware, authentication, encryption, and 80 other categories of products. With each advance in the threat level represented by hackers, cyber criminals, and cyber spies there has been a new batch of vendors which come on the scene to counter threats that bypass previous technologies and spending has increased.”

Stiennon’s bold prediction is that in ten years, IT security will be a $600 billion global industry. The recent revelations from Edward Snowden will only accelerate cybersecurity industry expansion.

These global developments in IT security mean that state governments, universities, businesses, investors, IT professionals, and consumers need to prepare for the enormous growth and opportunities now. States like Michigan need to accelerate efforts in cybersecurity.

Wisconsin, which also held an October cyber summit a few weeks ago, receive a similar message from Stiennon on investing in the IT Security industry.  

Other Cyber Summit Speakers

The Michigan Cyber Summit was held in Novi, Michigan, and over 700 people attended the sold out event. In addition hundreds more watched the livestream broadcast to the Internet. The agenda included dozens of outstanding speakers from around the globe – including a keynote presentation from Rami Efrati, Head of Civilian Sector Division, National Cyber Bureau/Prime Minister’s Office, Israel.

As reported by Hilton Collins from Government Technology Magazine, Governor Snyder opened the Cyber Summit with a keynote presentation – in which the Governor announced a new volunteer Cybersecurity Corps. The Governor also described the progress we have made in Michigan since our last Cyber Summit in 2011. He challenged everyone in attendance to become engaged in public / private partnerships in sharing information and intelligence data.

The Governor also described the kinds of spear-phishing attacks we have faced this year, and elaborated on the new cyber dashboard that we are using in Michigan. The dashboard was developed as a part of the National Governor’s Association (NGA) Resource Center for Best Practices in Cybersecurity, and Maryland has developed and implemented a similar approach.

 I moderated a panel of experts who presented on the NGA Call to Action on Cybersecurity. The panelists included:

Doug Robinson, Executive Director, National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO)

Thomas MacLellan, Director, Homeland Security and Public Safety Division, National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices

Farnam Jahanian, Director, Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate, National Science Foundation (NSF)

Cheri Caddy, Director for Cyber Policy Integration and Outreach, National Security Staff, The White House

Elliot Schlanger, Director of Cybersecurity and Chief Information Security Officer, State of Maryland

The clear take-away from this panel was that cybersecurity is not just a technical issue, and states need to take steps to put the appropriate governance in place to effectively manage the new normal. There will be more communications coming the NGA’s Center to get the word out to every state regarding the Call to Action. The near-term hope is that every state will embrace the new Call to Action.

Questions were asked from the audience regarding the process to developing a pipeline of local cyber talent, the economic development aspects of cybersecurity and how states can work better with federal partners and the private sector in this new world.  

In conclusion, new bold statements about our future in cyberspace were made at the Michigan Cyber Summit. The online world is quickly evolving, and cybersecurity action is required by each of us now.

You will be able see the recorded keynote sessions as YouTube videos online in a few weeks at www.michigan.gov/cybersecurity.  

 

Daniel J. Lohrmann is an internationally recognized cybersecurity leader, technologist, keynote speaker and author.