Companies to Spend $124 Billion in 2019 on Cybersecurity, Gartner Says

Total spending on information security products and services will reach more than $114 billion globally in 2018, an increase of 12.4% from last year, according to advisory company Gartner.

Analysts predict an increase of almost 9% to $124 billion in the next year, with detection, response and privacy driving demand for security products and services.

Gartner estimates that at least 30% of companies will spend on GDPR-related consulting and implementation services through 2019. In addition, risk management and privacy concerns within digital transformation initiatives will drive additional security service spending through 2020 for more than 40 percent of organizations. Meanwhile, services (subscription and managed) will represent at least half of security software delivery by 2020.

A previous Gartner survey revealed that the top three drivers for security spending are security risks, followed by business needs and industry changes.

"Security leaders are striving to help their organizations securely use technology platforms to become more competitive and drive growth for the business," said Siddharth Deshpande, research director at Gartner. "Persisting skills shortages and regulatory changes like the EU’s Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are driving continued growth in the security services market. Security and risk management has to be a critical part of any digital business initiative."

According to a recent Bitdefender survey, 43% of IT security professionals in the US and Europe say they have a big enough budget to efficiently secure infrastructures. While half of Swedes and Italians would rate budgets as sufficient (58% and 54% respectively), less than 30% of French and Brits (31%) say the same. Meanwhile, a third of UK, US and German respondents (33%, 34% and 33% respectively) say their budget could not accommodate infrastructure expansion, and 24% of Germans say their budgets could not support a future increase in headcount.