Fear of Data Breaches Driving Big Businesses to Raise Spending on IT in 2019, Survey Shows

54 percent of companies will increase IT security spending in 2019, and almost a third will do so by 10 to 20 percent or more, according to a study by eSecurity Planet. The reason? Fear of data breaches and the penalties under new privacy regulations like Europe’s GDPR.

The survey of security engineers, CIOs and CEOs found that 69 percent of the biggest spenders on the list were mid-sized through very large organizations. Surveyors underscored that the respondents’ shopping lists were long.

For example, the top spending priorities were found to be network access control (NAC) solutions, web gateways and data loss prevention (DLP) tools. This mix indicates a dire need to balance external and internal threats, researchers noted. Furthermore, NAC topped the list of security technologies that users trust most. However, respondents were less enticed to invest in emerging technologies like deception technology, attack simulation tools or security orchestration automation and response (SOAR).

“The results point to robust demand for security products, as companies try to counter increasingly sophisticated attacks and protect data from breaches that could lead to steep fines under the EU's GDPR, with California soon to enact its own strict data privacy requirements, the California Consumer Privacy Act,” reads the report. “As the regulations cover any company doing business in these regions, they affect companies around the globe.”

Of the 46 percent of respondents who said their cybersecurity spending will remain the same, 62 percent were from companies with fewer than 100 employees.

Overall, 66 percent of respondents felt confident in their safeguards against potential cyberattacks and/or internal threats. The remaining 34% should reassess their controls, researchers said.

Across the board, respondents were most confident in their regulatory compliance preparedness. Fully 75 percent said they were comfortable with their compliance controls.