Data from Capitol Metrics indicates that the number of businesses and industry organizations lobbying on cybersecurity and data protection rose from 108 in 2008 to 314 in 2013, the Washington Post reported Monday.Catherine Ho writes that Capitol Metrics also found that the number of lobbying firms that launched cybersecurity campaigns on behalf of their clients jumped from 74 in 2008 to 216 last year.
“We view cybersecurity as an exciting growth vertical in defense and security markets which are otherwise pressured by budget constraints,†said Steve McBee, president of Washington-based McBee Strategic Consulting, according to the Post.
“We anticipate that policymaking in this area will be highly active, but also uneven, over the next five years as decision makers in Washington seek to make sense of constantly shifting threat environments and innovation in cyber technology,” McBee added, according to Ho’s report.
Ho writes that retail chains Target, Neiman Marcus and Michaels Stores hired third-party lobbyists after disclosing recent security breaches that affected millions of customer records.
