Contractors move to save cybersecurity funding

The Pentagon may be slashing its wartime budget as all of official Washington works to avoid the fiscal cliff, but there’s a growing sense that cybersecurity spending might be spared — and some major companies are fighting for the lucrative contracts.

Federal officials have made it clear that funding to fight off foreign hackers should survive the mandatory cuts about to wrack practically every agency in the Beltway. That’s millions in government dollars up for grabs, as Washington rushes to secure its computer systems and the Department of Defense prepares to develop the tools it needs to dominate in cyberspace. Recognizing the shift in budget priorities, companies like Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and SAIC are among many players betting big on cybersecurity. That puts them now in direct competition sometimes against tech firms like IBM and HP to offer the feds their cybersecurity products, personnel, services and solutions. As they do, some of them are hitting the pavement hard on Pennsylvania Avenue, lobbying aggressively this year to protect — if not expand — what has become for so many firms an important new line of revenue.