Security spending to buck the downturn

Cyber-terrorism threats will encourage UK companies to invest heavily in IT security in the coming year, according to new research from analyst Meta Group.

Despite current economic conditions and smaller budgets, developing a comprehensive security and privacy architecture has become a top priority for virtually all chief information officers (CIOs), even though most of their non-IT colleagues do not share the same sense of urgency.

Despite a predicted five per cent decrease in overall corporate IT spend over 2003, Meta Group predicts that corporate investments in IT security will buck the industry wide trend and increase substantially over the coming year.

"After 11 September, IT security focused primarily on back-up and recovery rather than implementing firewalls or authentication applications," said Meta Group vice president and lead security analyst, Tom Scholtz.

"Now, because of cyber-terrorism threats, CIOs are investing in more protective security software like intrusion detection applications."

Sixty-seven per cent of respondents to a 2001 study spent up to five per cent of their IT budget on security and a third spent five per cent or more.

In 2003, Meta predicts that just over half of companies will have moved into the five per cent plus category by year's end.

The findings are extracted from Meta Group's 2003 Worldwide IT Benchmark Report, an annual survey of technology trends and economics based on a survey of organisations in 34 countries.

Dr Howard Rubin, Meta Group executive vice president, and author of the report, said: "CIOs find themselves operating with limited IT budgets and are working to make the most out of past investments.

"Still, as recent events have heightened awareness of exposure to internal and external security threats, finding room in the budget for a security architecture is imperative.

"Because of this predicament, the current security spending numbers will continue to trend upward."