Virginia Economic Review

VEDP Vice President of Knowledge Work Meghan Welch spoke with Steven Chen, the founder of PFP Cybersecurity, about the cybersecurity funding environment in Virginia.

Brad Medairy is executive vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton, a Virginia-based Fortune 500 company where he leads the national cyber account and focuses on the cyber missions of national-level clients like the FBI, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), the U.S.

Quokka entered the cybersecurity world with a big reputation — under its previous name, the company landed on the front page of The New York Times after discovering a critical security vulnerability in some Android smartphones that sent user data to Chinese servers.

Cybersecurity attacks are evolving at rapid speed, and the U.S. lacks sufficient professionals to address them.

In an era where cyberattacks threaten everything from bank accounts to national security, the need for cybersecurity has never been higher. In 2020, data breaches, ransomware, and other cybercrimes cost the United States over $4 billion in damages, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Recently, an Air Force research agency reached out to George Mason University (GMU) with a pressing issue. Drones were attacking Air Force facilities around the globe.

Virginia's proximity to the federal government and the wealth of private technology leaders headquartered in the Commonwealth have helped its workforce rise to the forefront of the cybersecurity industry.

In an increasingly digital world where data breaches, ransomware attacks, and other cybercrimes are pervasive, a skilled cybersecurity workforce is more important than ever. Yet the industry grapples with a significant worker shortage.

States, nations, and any municipality can build and tout their critical infrastructure that, on the surface, may appear second to none. Think: thriving, automated food and agriculture ecosystems. Sprawling office buildings outfitted with remote smart sensors. Unflappable financial markets.

Karen Dahut is the CEO of Google Public Sector (GPS), where she works to bring Google technology to solve complex problems for U.S. public sector institutions at the local, state, and federal levels.

Artificial Intelligence may seem like a new technology, but CarMax has been using it for years. The Goochland County-based company is the country’s largest seller of used cars.

Dr. Anne Kress is president of Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA), the largest public educational institution in Virginia and the second-largest community college in the United States.

Timothy D. Sands is the 16th president of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, joining the university in June 2014. VEDP’s President and CEO, Stephen Moret, recently spoke with President Sands about exciting new developments at Virginia Tech.

Luiz DaSilva is executive director of the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) and Bradley Professor in Cybersecurity at Virginia Tech. Before coming to Virginia, he served as the director of CONNECT, a telecommunications research center at Trinity College Dublin.

Matt Calkins is founder and CEO of Appian, an enterprise cloud software company headquartered in McLean in Fairfax County. Calkins is a California native who founded Appian in 1999 and grew it into a publicly traded company.