IT security spending increasing, research suggests

Written by James Gardiner

New research has shown that spending on security software increased last year.

Figures from IT analyst Gartner revealed that worldwide security software market revenue in 2008 reached $13.5 billion (£8.2 billion).

The organisation explained that this shows an 18.6 per cent increase on the $11.3 billion which was recorded in 2007.

Ruggero Contu, principal research analyst at Gartner, commented: "In 2008, the security market did not show any noticeable impact from the economic downturn."

He added that this growth demonstrates that chief information officers and IT leaders continue to recognise the importance of security despite the ongoing economic downturn.

The study also suggested that the requirement to defend IT infrastructure from targeted attacks and data security and privacy are the main drivers for security spending.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, recently said that firms place themselves at risk if they do not allocate enough resources to their IT teams.