Cybersecurity may be growth area

January 20, 2010 - 0 comments

Washington -- U.S. defense companies, likely to face a cut in Pentagon spending, may find cyber-security a profitable replacement, an analyst says.

The issue has come to the fore because of the publicity over an attack on Google by hackers apparently trying to get information on e-mail accounts of Chinese dissidents. Defense companies already have employees with a background in cyber security, the Los Angeles Times reports.

"Cyber-security is shaping up to be a major growth opportunity for the defense industry," Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va., said.

"We've spent the last 20 years putting all of our information onto computers.

Now, we don't have any choice but to defend ourselves against foreign intrusion."

Spending by the U.S. government on computer security is expected to come to $8.3 billion this year, up 60 percent in four years.