Cybersecurity market to exceed $100 billion by 2020

As shown by the hacks of Yahoo, Sony and Hillary Clinton, all infrastructures can be exploited through malicious programs that find their way into the system. With each cyberattack, distrust of companies and governments grows.

Recent cyber threats in the financial sector and the SWIFT hack have prompted the G-7 Cyber Expert Group to release some key elements to help countries build better cybersecurity strategies, because it”s only going to get worse. As fear turns out to be the biggest catalyst, IDC has released some predictions about global spending on improving cybersecurity, especially in the banking sector.

The fear of being hacked, of losing confidential information or state secrets, or of being blackmailed to get them back will drive annual global cybersecurity spending above $100 billion by 2020, according to IDC. Banking will make the most significant expenditure – $8.6 million – and the US will be the largest market.

“Today’s security climate is such that enterprises fear becoming victims of the next major cyberattack or cyber extortion,” said Sean Pike, program vice president, Security Products. “As a result, security has become heavily scrutinized by boards of directors demanding that security budgets are used wisely and solutions operate at peak efficiency.”

Cybersecurity budgets will be spent on hardware, software with endpoint security, identity and access management, user behavior analytics and services. It is forecast to develop into one of the most important divisions, with a 38 percent increase by 2020 delivered by banking, government, discrete and process manufacturing. With a 10.3% CAGR, healthcare will register the fastest growth in security investments, followed by telecommunications.

“The pace and threat of security attacks is increasing every year, especially across compliance-driven industries like healthcare, telecom, government and financial services,” said Eileen Smith, program director, Customer Insights and Analysis. “In addition to the traditional challenges of risk and regulatory compliance, digital transformation and the use of 3rd Platform technologies are putting even more pressure on organizations across all industries to develop and execute on a new generation of security measures.”