A cybersecurity company based in South Whitehall Township says it has landed a nine-year deal with the Department of Homeland Security worth $168 million to handle IT and cybersecurity work at law enforcement training centers in four states. Netizen Corporation says it beat out 28 other bidders for the award, which covers Federal Law Enforcement Training Center locations in Georgia, South Carolina, Maryland and New Mexico.
According to the company's own announcement on its Netizen Blog and News site, the contract encompasses 19 core service areas, including information security, cloud computing, data center management, networking, systems engineering, service management and end-user support. The deal runs on a four-month base transition period followed by nine twelve-month option periods, stretching the full engagement out to more than nine years. Netizen says it has partnered with two Virginia-based subcontractors, The Fila Group, LLC and NIS Solutions Corp., to carry out the work.
It's worth noting that the dollar figure attached to this award doesn't match an earlier report on a separate Netizen-DHS contract. A previous report from WFMZ.com described a Netizen DHS contract for FLETC IT and cybersecurity work as worth $179 million, while Netizen's own announcement describes this FLETC award as worth $168 million. The available evidence doesn't establish whether those two figures refer to the same award or explain the difference between them.
Company Founder Points to Wider Law Enforcement Impact
Michael Hawkins, who founded Netizen in 2013 and serves as its CEO, said the contract touches nearly all federal law enforcement training operations and numerous state and local law enforcement agencies. Hawkins is a U.S. Army veteran who built the company from its headquarters in South Whitehall Township, and the company now also maintains offices in Virginia and South Carolina.
Hawkins said Netizen is in the process of hiring several dozen new employees at nationwide locations to support the new contract, the company's announcement states. The hiring push follows a pattern of rapid growth for the firm, which according to the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation built its early business on defense contracts, some as big as $12 million, before growing into a firm that now serves the military, manufacturers, regional banks and health care providers with security monitoring, compliance assessments and penetration testing.
A Pattern of Growing Federal Work
This FLETC award is not Netizen's only recent brush with major federal money. Washington Technology reported that the company also won a separate potential 10-year, $178.6 million DHS task order for enterprise IT support services, work that previously belonged to Abacus Solutions under a five-year order originally awarded in February 2020 and extended by DHS in March 2025. Per that same outlet, DHS had obligated $31.5 million in volume to Abacus ahead of that earlier order's planned sunset.
Netizen has also moved into diplomatic security work. The company says it won a five-year blanket purchase agreement with the Department of State's Bureau of Consular Affairs for cybersecurity solutions valued at up to $303 million, according to Lehigh Valley Business. That deal, for which Netizen was one of six awardees chosen from more than 14 bidders, supports consular technology systems at State Department facilities in the Washington, D.C., metro area, at field locations and at foreign posts.
Cybersecurity Work Expands
Hawkins expected the company to roughly triple in size over the following 12 months, an expectation rather than a confirmed outcome. The growth comes amid broader concerns about cybersecurity.
Netizen's government work includes Homeland Security training operations in four states and consular technology systems spanning the country and abroad. The company's footprint has expanded well past its South Whitehall Township roots even as its headquarters remains local.
