Over the next three years, companies across Europe plan to increase their IT security budgets by 10%, according to cybersecurity solutions provider Kaspersky in its latest IT Security Economics report. The primary drivers of cybersecurity investment for businesses of all sizes across Europe are a desire to increase the degree of specialized security skills and geopolitical or economic uncertainties, the report reveals.
According to a recent PWC study, the interest of businesses in cybersecurity has already contributed to improvements in their IT security postures. This is a result of the adopted use of digital technologies and the ever-changing threat landscape.
For their latest IT Security Economics-report, Kaspersky has conducted 3.230 interviews with businesses that employ more than 50 people in 26 countries to see what businesses are now investing in cybersecurity and what their plans are for future investments.
The survey results would show that IT budgets for cybersecurity will increase again over the next three years for both European SMEs and large enterprises to cover a range of issues. Large European companies had median IT budgets of about €6.2 million ($6.8 million), of which €1.8 million ($2 million) was allocated for cybersecurity. European SMEs invested median about 138,000 million euros ($150,000) in cybersecurity out of an overall IT budget of 345,000 euros ($375,000).
The main reasons for increasing IT security budgets were primarily the complexity of IT infrastructure (46 percent of SMEs, 54 percent of large enterprises), and a need to improve the level of specialized security expertise (36 percent SMEs, 34 percent large enterprises). New potential risks from increased geopolitical or economic uncertainty were cited by 28 percent of SMEs and 33 percent of large enterprises as reasons for increasing investment.
Key Factors for IT Security Budgets
The additional budgeting would hopefully help companies address the most worrisome IT security issues. This year, just over half (51 percent) of European companies consider data protection issues to be the biggest challenge. The second most important concern cited by nearly 36 percent of respondents is problems with cloud infrastructure deployment, followed by the security costs of increasingly complex technology environments (34%).
“Business continuity is increasingly dependent on information security. As infrastructure becomes more complex and cyberattacks more sophisticated, companies are becoming more aware of cyber issues and better understand the need to protect every asset within the organization,” said Ivan Vassunov, Vice President Corporate Products at Kaspersky. “State regulations are another important factor affecting growing information security budgets. These organizations require companies to keep their operations and data secure. Sometimes regulators tighten regulations for the entire vertical market or industry.”
The full report, ‘IT Security Economics 2022,’ is available for download here.
