Dive Brief:
- The highest growth in information security spending over the next four years will come from security testing, IT outsourcing and data loss prevention (DLP), according to a new Gartner report.
- Gartner’s worldwide information security spending forecast, released Tuesday, predicts 90% of organizations will implement at least one form of integrated DLP by 2018, up from 50% currently.
- Overall, worldwide spending on information security products and services will reach $81.6 billion this year, Gartner said. That’s an increase of 7.9% over 2015.
Dive Insight:
Most organizations will expand spending on IT security in coming years, but some areas will see more growth than others. Gartner predicts that preventive security will grow rapidly, but warned that organizations will need a variety of strategies to protect themselves from evolving cyberthreats.
"Organizations are increasingly focusing on detection and response, because taking a preventive approach has not been successful in blocking malicious attacks," said Elizabeth Kim, senior research analyst at Gartner. "We strongly advise businesses to balance their spending to include both."
Gartner also predicts security spending will become more service-driven as organizations continue to grapple with cybersecurity talent shortages. Overall, Gartner predicts security testing, IT outsourcing and DLP will be the biggest areas of growth until 2020.
"Organizations have been deploying DLP to address regulatory compliance, intellectual property (IP) protection and data visibility and monitoring," according to the report. "Newer solutions that include user entity and behavior analytics, image analysis, machine learning and data-matching techniques are being used to augment existing solutions."
