The present global spending on cybersecurity products (both hardware and software) and services is $114 billion, a leading data and analytics companyData has revealed.
GlobalData believes that this figure is expected to have passed $140bn by 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6 percent, adding that spending on services accounted for 68 percent of total spending in 2017 and this share will remain relatively steady through 2021, despite the CAGR of the services segment (4.9 percent) being outstripped by that of products (7.7 percent).
Many of these money will be spent on artificial intelligence (AI) -infused cybersecurity tools, which is set to increase significantly over the coming years.
According to Cyrus Mewawalla, Head of Thematic Research at GlobalData, the frequency of cyberattacks is only likely to accelerate over the coming years, therefore it is vital that senior executives have a full understanding of the inherent risks and implications. The losers will be those companies whose boards do not take cybersecurity seriously, as they run a higher risk of being hacked.
Mewawalla urged that in today’s digital economy, it is essential that companies of every size can collect, store and adequately protects customer data and proprietary secrets, warning that failure to do so will significantly damage a company’s brand and reduce the quality of the product it produces, with concomitant impact on revenues and profitability.
‘‘Traditionally, most companies have adopted a prevention-based approach to cybersecurity, but recent advances in technology areas like machine learning are enabling a move towards active detection of threats,’’ Mewawalla continued.
She said this measure allows pre-emptive action to be taken to stop breaches before they occur and also serves to free up resources currently occupied with chasing false positives from existing, more reactive systems.
GlobalData identifies the key cybersecurity technologies as network security, unified threat management, artificial intelligence, behavioural analytics, SIEM, endpoint security, mobile security, identity management, data security, application security, email security, cloud security, managed security services, post breach consultancy services.