Security research firm Canalys reported that cybersecurity spending will remain as an essential expenditure for most organizations in 2020 as cyberthreats and vulnerabilities continue to affect the industry. In its analysis report “Global Cybersecurity 2020 Forecast,” Canalys revealed that cybersecurity spending across the globe is estimated to grow between 2.5% ($43.1 billion) and 5.6% ($41.9 billion) in 2020, depending on the economic impact . Organizations are investing to enhance their endpoint security, network security, web and email security; data security, vulnerability detection, and security analytics — to boost their security defenses in the wake of present remote working conditions.
While network security remains the largest segment in cybersecurity spending at 36%, the research stated that the endpoint security segment will witness high growth rates due to remote working practices.
“Cybersecurity will remain a top priority for most organizations in 2020, as threats and vulnerabilities persist and compliance, regulations and ecosystem requirements strengthen. It underpinned the mass shift to remote working during the lockdown by securing newly provisioned endpoints, providing secure access to corporate resources, and extending perimeter defenses beyond physical corporate networks,” the report stated.
Matthew Ball, the Chief Analyst at Canalys, said, “The shift to subscriptions will shield cybersecurity from immediate IT spending cuts, but additional expenditure will be affected for the rest of the year as organizations begin the next stage in their response to the pandemic. The switch from free trials to paid-for subscriptions will be a factor in maintaining cybersecurity growth. But the mix of cost containment measures, workforce reduction and cashflow issues will result in greater scrutiny of existing projects and smaller deals. Delays and cancellations of new initiatives will increase, except those that enable cost reductions and secure high-priority digital transformation initiatives.”
Budgets will be reprioritized to defocus spending on traditional appliance-based perimeter defenses. Spending on key areas of security will help address new vulnerabilities through multi-layer prevention, detection and response.
Ketaki Borade, Canalys Research Analyst, said, “The emergence of COVID-19 in January saw a surge in targeted phishing campaigns and malicious domains established to lure end users searching for information. These fell once lockdown took effect. But hackers continue to target organizations and individuals by compromising unsecured and poorly trained remote workers via numerous vectors, including email, social engineering and RDP brute force attacks. Organizations will to have reassess changes to workflows, application use, customer engagement and training for cybersecurity awareness in a more virtual workplace.”
