Maryland keeps pushing for cybersecurity investment, opens international trade office in London

After announcing a new initiative to bolster Maryland’s cybersecurity economy in June, Gov. Larry Hogan has announced the state has opened an office in the United Kingdom to attract investments from international firms.

Operated in partnership between the state Department of Commerce and iCyberCenter@bwtech — a cybersecurity center located at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Research and Technology Park — the new office is part of the state’s ongoing efforts to expand its search for new economic and workforce opportunities in cybersecurity.

The London office, which opened Oct. 1, is founded amid efforts by states and cities to prioritize technology training and fill a widening cybersecurity employment gap. There is expected to be a global cybersecurity workforce shortage of 1.8 million professionals by 2022, according to a biennial study produced by the International Information System Security Certification Consortium and the Center for Cyber Safety and Education in February.

Hogan said in a statement that Maryland is doing its part to close this gap, “leading the cyber generation” and proclaimed that “this unprecedented cyber sector growth is helping to drive an exciting economic resurgence in our state.” The state is home to the National Security Agency and numerous government and private sector cybersecurity workers.

The new center was made possible by a memorandum of understanding signed by state officials and Midlands Engine, the U.K.’s economic development arm, during the governor’s trade mission in June.

At that time, the state also opened iCyberCenter, which provides weeklong training sessions and a yearlong incubator program that the state expects to attract up to 15 companies annually and about 100 new permanent jobs within the next several years. The center’s director, Andy Williams, will also head the new London office.