Worldwide Cybersecurity Spending in 2017 to Exceed $86.4 Billion

Gartner has released a new report predicting worldwide cybersecurity spending in 2017 will reach $86.4 billion. The information security market is now the fastest growing sector and will increase by 7% by the end of 2017. Gartner predicts growth in the sector will be similar in 2018, with spending rising to $93 billion next year.

Within the infrastructure protection segment, Gartner says the biggest growth will be in security testing. Growth in emerging application security testing tools is expected to contribute to growth in the sector until at least 2021. Gartner predicts hardware support services will see slower growth as more companies switch to the cloud and SaaS.

Over the course of the past 12 months, the volume of cyberattacks has grown and the impact of those attacks has been made abundantly clear. The cost of mitigating attacks is now considerable and regulatory fines are being issued far more frequently. Those costs have attracted the attention of CEOs who have diverted more funds to cybersecurity budgets and have sanctioned the purchase of new security products and services.

The latest cybersecurity products can help organizations improve their security posture; however, technology is not the only solution that could be considered. There is a tendency for companies to invest in new products, yet fail to cover the basics such as performing regular backups, ensuring multiple data backups exist, training employees to be more security aware and segmenting the network.

Sid Deshpande, principal research analyst at Gartner said, “Organizations can improve their security posture significantly just by addressing basic security and risk related hygiene elements like threat centric vulnerability management, centralized log management, internal network segmentation, backups and system hardening.”

Gartner expects growth to be fueled by the need for compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which is likely to force companies to invest in data loss prevention technologies, or increase investment in this area if they have already deployed DLP technology.

Use of managed security service (MSS) contracts is also expected to grow, with 40% of contracts expected to be bundled with other security services by 2020. Gartner has also predicted an increase in IT outsourcing projects.

The new cybersecurity law in China is expected to have a major impact on sales of U.S. manufactured network security products, with 80% of large businesses in China expected to source their products locally by 2021. There has been a decline in price of those products, which is expected to continue. Local solutions will be increasingly chosen as prices become more competitive.

Author: Richard Anderson

Richard Anderson is the Editor-in-Chief of NetSec.news