Thanks to a never-ending stream of attacks and threats, cybersecurity is about as hot a technology sector as any these days. Allegis Capital thinks it’s only getting started.

That’s why the San Francisco-based venture capital firm is doubling down on cyber, as it’s known for short. For one, the firm, which has also invested in the “internet of things,” virtualization and a variety of other sectors, today is rebranding itself AllegisCyber, focusing exclusively on cybersecurity startups and growth companies.

More important, it has hired a cyber rockstar as a managing director. Dave DeWalt, former chief executive of FireEye Inc. and former CEO of McAfee, will invest in later-stage companies looking to scale up. He also will become a board adviser of DataTribe, a Maryland-based “cyber startup studio” co-founded in 2016 by Allegis Managing Director Robert R. Ackerman Jr., that “co-founds” seed-stage cybersecurity companies.

“It’s hard to imagine a better addition to the team,” Ackerman said in an interview, given DeWalt’s 20 years experience in cybersecurity. He’s on the board of a raft of cyber companies, such as Callsign Inc., ForgeRock Inc. and soon-to-go-public ForeScout Technologies Inc.

Cybersecurity to looks to see a record year for investment in 2017. In the second quarter, the number of cybersecurity deals hit 145, just one shy of the first quarter’s record 146, according to CB Insights. Some $1.6 billion was invested in the companies.

So it’s no surprise that several cyber-focused VC funds have sprouted up in the last year or so. In January, for instance, Alberto Yepez closed a new fund, Trident Capital Cybersecurity, raising double the $150 million he had originally planned.

Allegis isn’t new to the game, however. It raised a $100 million fund in 2015 dedicated to cyber. “When we did that, a lot of people looked at us and said, ‘Cyber, isn’t that a little nichey?’” he recalled. They’re not saying that anymore. “It’s about protecting the entire digital substrate the economy rests on,” Ackerman said.

AllegisCyber aims to create a steady flow of opportunities for later-stage funding that DeWalt will lead from DataTribe’s seed-stage investments, which tap into talent spawned by federal government investment in cybersecurity in the Washington, D.C. region.

DataTribe typically provides about $1.5 million in funding along with business savvy that engineers often lack, Ackerman said. For instance, it funded security startup Dragos Inc., which then got a Series A funding from Allegis. “We’re pulling DataTribe even closer to Allegis,” Ackerman said.

All this cybersecurity investment raises the spector of overfunding, which can result in too many companies chasing the same opportunities — which Ackerman said is happening in some cases. But he thinks emerging domains for security products such as social media, satellite communications, industrial and cloud computing remain eager for better products. “This is good guys against bad guys,” Ackerman said. “I don’t see that changing.”

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