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Viewing report
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IT Security Market Report 2003
Key Note Publications Ltd, April 2003
In 2003, we estimate that the cost of security breaches in the UK will be worth £44.18bn, having grown by 46.3% on the figure for 2002. The market for security breach prevention (security products and services), as defined in this report, was worth £2.67bn in 2003, having grown by 12.6% over the year. In contrast with most other sectors of the computer industry, the market is still registering strong annual growth, albeit at a much slower rate than that seen in previous years. The amount spent on security products and services, designed to prevent a security breach, looks small when set against the cost to the UK of security breaches, which have risen at an alarming rate in recent years. Not only have the number of breaches increased significantly in recent years, but the cost of each breach has also advanced.
IT security is now a growing priority among organisations in the UK, although a worryingly large proportion of UK businesses still regard security as an overhead, rather than as an investment. The growing realisation among company boards of the key role played by IT systems, part inspired by the publicity surrounding the `Millennium Bug' and the 11th September 2001 tragedy, has led to increased investment in, and attention on, protecting those systems. At the same time, changing business practices, such as outsourcing, globalisation, teleworking and e-business, have led to the development of distributed corporate structures and greater networking of computers within, and between, organisations. These developments have made modern IT systems both more complex and more vulnerable to maliciously-inspired attacks.
The market for IT security is now changing in three important ways: clients are looking to buy integrated platforms/appliances, rather than individual best-of-breed products (i.e. 'the perfect security box') the firewall is becoming more intelligent, so as to cope with the growing deployment of web services and as the focus shifts from preventing access to systems towards allowing access in a controlled manner, so there is a growing importance being placed on identity and access-management solutions.
In early 2003, there are too many products on the market, in addition to an abundance of suppliers, many of which have little in the way of a track record. Consequently, purchasing clients increasingly look beyond the technologies offered by companies, instead paying particular attention to a vendor's financial records and management histories. In some cases, users shun buying a best-of-breed product, but instead opt for a slightly inferior one, often one that is supplied by a company that is likely to survive and support its products in the long term.
To 2007, spending on security products and services and the cost of breaches will rise strongly. The market will consolidate rapidly, with key growth areas being role-based access control, secure content management and mobile and wireless security.
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