Access member only content, take part in discussions with comments on blogs, news and reviews and receive all the latest security industry news directly to your inbox. Join now for free.
A confirmation email has been sent to your email address - SUPPLIED EMAIL HERE. Please click on the link in the email to verify your email address. You need to verify your email before you can start posting.
If you do not receive your confirmation email within the next few minutes, it may be because the email has been captured by a junk mail filter. Please ensure you add the domain @scmagazine.com.au to your white-listed senders.
IT teams are "safe" to reduce their security budgets this year, despite no let-off in the range and number of threats, according to Gartner.The analyst firm said that the share of IT budgets set aside for security could be reduced from nine percent to six percent this year without having a negative impact on the smooth running of a business.While all companies can afford to make this reduction thanks to maturing systems, those with an increased grasp of their hardware, or with recently updated security programs could trim their budgets by even more, Gartner added.Vic Wheatman, a research director at Gartner, explained that the average percentage of IT spending on security in 2010 is five percent, down from six percent last year."In 2009, in the face of a significant IT spending downturn, security spending grew slightly as a percentage of the IT budget, while many other IT spending areas were gutted," he added."With the economic situation projected to improve in 2010, organisations are ramping up investments in other spending areas faster than they are for IT security."However, Wheatman said that organisations will still spend money on systems and software offering endpoint security, next-generation firewalls, email and web security gateways and kit for branch offices."Determining how much a specific organisation spends on information security is not an easy exercise, particularly during a time of economic uncertainty," he said."However, regardless of industry or geography, we would urge organisations to use their best efforts to evaluate enterprise spending."Gartner said that money should be spent on business initiatives which may have been scaled back during the financial slowdown. Typical areas for investment here include access management and data loss prevention systems.More than 40 percent of organisations identified intrusion prevention, patch management, data loss, anti-virus and identity management as the top five security priorities for 2010, according to Gartner.
To begin commenting right away, you can log in below or register an account if you don't yet have one. Please read our guidelines on commenting. Offending posts will be removed and your access may be suspended. Abusive or obscene language will not be tolerated. The comments below do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of SC Magazine, Haymarket Media or its employees.