The Challenge Positioning Greater Washington as the center for cyber.

The Opportunity Recent security attacks on computer systems at the federal Office of Personnel Management, State Department, White House, Postal Service, NOAA, and many other organizations created a booming demand for extra protection. Though cybersecurity has become the issue of our time nationally, it is particularly sensitive in Washington.

CYBERATTACKS OF 2015 _ US Office of Personnel Management

Hackers gained access to nearly 14 million current and former government workers’ records, which included criminal history, mental illnesses, drug and alcohol problems, financial data, and family and friends.

Supplying this rising demand for cybersecurity is a growing technology corridor in the Greater Washington region. “Building forces of information technology experts to protect a myriad of systems and prevent future attacks taps into all the vast resources of this region,” says Anthony Pierce, chair of the Greater Washington Board of Trade and partner-in-charge of the Washington office of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. The corridor, which stretches from Northern Virginia all the way up to Baltimore, is home to key players including Homeland Security, the FBI, the CIA, the Pentagon, consulting firms, government contractors, and several universities. Nowhere else nationwide matches the capabilities and credentials that this region offers.

The region is quickly becoming the center of cyber. Currently, a 600,000-square-feet data center is being constructed at Fort Meade, Maryland, home to NSA and Cyber Command, with five million gallons a day of cooling ability to run the center. In addition, the Secretary of Defense is planning to hire at least 3,000 cyberexperts for the new center.

The Board of Trade partners with the National Association of Corporate Directors in presenting Board Agenda: Cyber, which reinforces the fact that this region is well positioned to handle such issues.

“When you look at the responsibilities, when you look at the national security and the national economy alongside infrastructure protection and national defense, that’s what we do here,” says Jim Dinegar, president and CEO of the Greater Washington Board of Trade. “Land, sea, air, and now cyber. This region is central to addressing this critical issue.”

1.8 Million square feet of leasing with tenants directly engaged in cybersecurity.

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