Visit by U.K.’s premier cybersecurity cluster showcases opportunities to expand into U.S. market

The Maryland Department of Commerce is hosting cybersecurity companies from the United Kingdom’s Midlands Engine region for a three-day visit. While in Maryland, the delegation is meeting with Commerce’s cyber team and economic development partners, hearing from Maryland cybersecurity companies, and attending the CyberMaryland Conference and other events focused on the cyber sector. At the CyberMaryland Conference today, Governor Larry Hogan welcomed the delegation during his opening remarks, and also visited the U.K. pavilion where he personally greeted Midlands Engine.

The visit is the result of a Memorandum of Understanding between Midlands Engine, a premier cybersecurity cluster in the U.K., and Maryland, the U.S. center of research and innovation in information assurance. The MOU was signed by Maryland Commerce Secretary Mike Gill and Midlands Engine Chairman Sir John Peace during Governor Hogan’s trade mission to the U.K. in June. The MOU includes an exchange program by which U.K. cyber companies will visit Maryland to explore the U.S. market and to establish or increase a presence in the U.S., and Maryland cyber companies will visit the Midlands region for similar purposes.

“Innovations coming out of Maryland’s cyber sector are being recognized and adopted across the nation and, as a result of our international trade missions, around the world,” said Secretary Gill. “Through our partnership with Midlands Engine, technologies developed in Maryland now reach global markets, and U.K. companies are able to explore U.S. markets as well as opportunities in Maryland’s cyber community.”

Before returning to the U.K. on October 13, the Midlands delegation is also scheduled to visit the Baltimore Cyber Range, a collaboration between Baltimore-based ETA and Israeli-based Cyberbit that was announced during the governor’s trade mission to Israel in September 2016.