Security to defy IT spending drop

Upbeat readings of both their budgets and pay indicate IT workers with core security skills are among the best placed to avoid the pinch from the fall in tech spending.



Almost nine out of ten tech companies say the recession won't force cuts to their spending on cyber security this year, and more than half of these plan to increase it.



Among those setting smaller security budgets, the cuts exceeded 5 per cent, though most were eying a marginal drop, typically 2 per cent, when compared with last year.



This anticipated growth in spending on security contrasts that for straight IT, which more than two-thirds (69%) said they would cut, says a study by InfoSecurity Europe.



A fifth of the companies will buck the spending downturn and increase their IT budgets, while one in ten said they would freeze IT expenditure at last year's level.



"Even though overall IT budgets may be reduced and the economic crisis continues to deepen, spending on information security will continue to grow", said analyst IDC.



Growth will be led by the surge in security threats, particularly by organisations whose security response is in "catch up mode," said Eric Domage, IDC security researcher.



It will be driven by concern over data leakage and data integrity, notably in new areas of the outfit, such as mobile and remote access, which many are still grappling with.



Partly as a result, Western Europe's information security market will grow by 7 per cent in 2009, IDC said, while its overall IT market will shrink by 7.5 per cent.



Tamar Beck, a director at InfoSecurity Europe, said: "The economic climate, lack of effective legislation and under resourced crime prevention have created a time bomb for cybercrime, cyber terrorism and cyber activism all of which are stretching IT departments in the government and commercial sectors.



"There is still a huge requirement to invest in information security which is resulting in robust budgets for information security even if overall IT budgets may remain static or even shrink slightly."



Event partner Computer Weekly said another poll at InfoSecurity found 56 per cent of IT security staff had a pay rise in the last year, seeming to confirm the resilience of the sector.



Almost two-thirds of security staff earned £50,000, with bonuses reportedly adding between £10,000 and £100,000 to their basic salary, which averaged £53,600.



However the poll also found 72 per cent of the respondents had their budgets reduced in the last six months, in spite of 43 per cent saying their firm was currently hiring extra cyber security personnel.



It added that core security skills were most in demand, such as information risk management, operations security, access control systems, applications and systems development security.