In a world of smart devices and digitally delivered services, cybersecurity is critical for individuals, businesses, and government. At the federal level, it is also clickbait for cyber-fraud.
President Joe Biden’s May Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity acknowledged the country faces significant cyber threats to national and economic security and asserted that the government would partner with the private sector to combat those threats. That was the starting gun for a run on government contracts to protect systems that process data (information technology, or IT) and that monitor or control industrial equipment, assets, processes, and events (operational technology).
Biden’s executive order directed government contractors to report cybersecurity breaches to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and it set goals for modernizing the government’s approach to cybersecurity, with investments in technology and personnel. The major sections of the order require specialized knowledge and skill sets only government contractors can offer.
The Government Accountability Office reports that federal agencies invest over $100 billion annually in IT and cybersecurity, and that’s likely to increase as government contractors assist in the movement towards cloud-based services, multi-factor authentication, data encryption, and other cybersecurity enhancements.
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