IT security spending is set to rocket
It comes as no surprise that IT has become invaluable to many businesses, so hearing that IT spending is on the rise across UK businesses is no shock. However, you may be interested in finding out exactly where this extra money is being spent and what it can do for organisations.
What are the facts?
Gartner, a technology research company, has revealed that spending on IT security will soar to over $86 billion worldwide this year, which is the equivalent of more than £66 billion in today’s financial climate. This huge spend will typically be driven by influences like market growth and GDPR, a new regulation that organisations will have to abide by in the EU. An overview of GDPR can be found at https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-reform/overview-of-the-gdpr/.
What are the trends?
This huge figure is a 7% increase in spend within the same area in 2016, which is a positive sign that organisations are preparing for changes in the industry, like those that will become evident when GDPR is in full swing. It is expected that the increase rate will continue through to 2018, with spending being estimated at an impressive $93 billion.
Why the drastic change?
There are a number of factors that have driven companies to spend more on IT security, one of which is the aforementioned GDPR regulation that will, of course, lead to many changes in the way that businesses run. High profile data breaches, like the recent cyber attacks on the NHS for example, have also meant that companies have had to better understand security and put new measures in place to protect their assets.
What will the money be spent on?
Gartner predicts that security services will be the fastest growing segment in IT security spend because of the focus on business impact of security incidents at CEO level. Security testing using new applications and products, like file integrity monitoring (https://www.promisec.com/file-integrity-monitoring-software/) for instance, will, therefore, be at the forefront as well as the increase in outsourced security services.
Does spending more mean that incidents won’t happen?
Introducing advanced security will not stop incidents from happening altogether because companies need to be aware of getting the basics right. Even addressing seemingly unimportant matters like centralised log management, backups, internal network segmentation and system hardening can significantly reduce vulnerability and the likelihood of security threats.
