Europe Cyber Security Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The European Cyber Security Market is expected to register a CAGR of 12.32% during the forecast period . The adoption of cybersecurity solutions is expected to increase with the increasing penetration of the internet throughout Europe's major countries. Also, the expanding wireless network catering to mobile devices has enhanced data vulnerability.

Key Highlights

• The implementation of EU legislation and actions stemming from the National Framework and the National Cybersecurity Plan is expected to facilitate the market's growth in the region. As part of its Digital Agenda, the Italian government plans to make considerable investments in digital identity protection to increase digital transactions' security levels and, subsequently, ground consumers' trust by protecting citizens' identities.
• Germany is pushing itself as a technologically independent country like the United States and China in terms of cybersecurity. In August 2020, the country announced a federal agency dedicated to handling cyberattacks and strengthening the country's digital security. The agency is also slated to receive total funding of USD 412 million by 2023 to continue innovation and solutions to cyber-attacks.
• Furthermore, telecommunication companies are increasing their investment in cybersecurity to deal with the rapid increase of cyber threats. For instance, Telefonica launched Telefonica Tech Ventures in October, 2020 to find strategic start-ups along with development of its investments capabilities to invest on markets for Telefonica in Germany along with other countries of Europe.
• The region is also witnessing an increase in cybersecurity measures due to the outbreak of COVID-19. The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has issued a public alert and fresh guidance as more cybercriminals are targeting the potential of COVID-19 to gain sensitive information from users spending significant time on the internet owing to the lock-down situation. The NCSC mentioned that it is witnessing an increase in the registration of websites relating to the coronavirus. In the past few days, NCSC has added new automation measures to identify and remove sites using the coronavirus as bait to serve malware to unsuspecting visitors.

Key Market Trends

Retail Sector Expected to Witness Significant Growth

• The European retail sector witnessed significant growth due to supermarkets and hypermarket's expansion into omnichannel and e-commerce business models. The retail industry growth is expected to impact cybersecurity, investing heavily in customer satisfaction and retention. The use of software and digitization, with necessitated internet connectivity, makes retail an ideal cybersecurity market segment.
• Concurrently, retail IT infrastructure has a considerable rise in the region, including POS checkout terminals, self-checkout units, information or web kiosks, PCs, and back-office servers. Thus, their rising dependency on IT, from wholesalers and distributors to manufacturers and suppliers, demands greater consumer data security. Further, the need to secure the end-point systems, avoid any data or security breaches and ensure PCI compliance within their stores across all IT systems that store, transmit, or track credit card data drives the implementation of cybersecurity applications in retail stores.
• The growing penetration of technology facilitators in the region, coupled with increasing acceptance of virtual shopping, has bolstered the e-commerce ecosystem. However, they have increased the need for a robust network to secure the online website itself and ensure the customers' financial data and sensitive information.
• Additionally, Cybercriminals have also noted the rise in online shopping and are targeting online shopping sites and retailers. Apart from the vast amount of money generated within the online retail space, the sensitive personally-identifying information (PII) needed for most transactions is also attractive to cybercriminals. Names, birthdates, addresses, and credit card numbers can fetch high prices on the Dark Web. This factor showcases the requirement of robust cybersecurity solutions in the regional retail industry and further driving the market scope.

United Kingdom Expected to Witness Significant Growth

• The country has identified phishing as the most common kind of attack outlined by the United Kingdom Government in 2020, followed by impersonation and malware or viruses. The region has also noted that the drop in reporting breaches or attacks from 62% in 2019 to 39% in 2020 amongst small businesses with large businesses registering decrease from 75% in 2019 to 64% in 2020 with possible factors of COVID-19, increase in defensive behavior to report a breach, change in attacker behavior and concentration of attacks in mid-sized business. 49% of the companies that reported breaches mentioned these attacks at least once in a month or more often, with 27% experiencing cyberattacks at least once a week.
• The National Cyber Security Strategy adopted by the United Kingdom for 2016-2021 is a five-year plan of investing GBP 1.9 billion to defend systems and infrastructure by protecting both companies and its citizens by making the country resilient to cyber threats by 2021. This body functions as a bridge to provide proper guide and support involving cyber threats between various industries exposed to it and the government.
• Further, in March 2021, the UK Cyber Security Council launched itself as an independent entity that will provide an inclusive and unbiased platform to skilled professionals in cybersecurity matters.
• With the growing 5G and full fiber broadband networks in the country, the government, in collaboration with telecommunication companies, is taking initiatives to tackle the cyberattacks and improve security standards and practices across the United Kingdom’s telecoms sector.

Competitive Landscape

The Europe Cybersecurity market is moderately competitive owing to several regional market players offering cybersecurity solutions. The market players are viewing strategic partnerships and acquisitions as a lucrative path towards expanding their market share. Also, several global cybersecurity providers are expanding their presence and strengthening their foothold in the European region.

• March 2021 - Check Point Software partnered with SimilarWeb to increase Consumer Security Awareness. The collaboration enables Check Point and SimilarWeb to provide proactive detection and enriched threat intelligence assessment, assisting in the prevention of phishing attacks.
• March 2021 - Fortinet Acquired Cloud And Network Security Startup ShieldX. The combination of Fortinet and ShieldX aimed to create an integrated offering that addresses lateral movement prevention as well as the convergence of OT, campus, and multi-cloud data center segmentation.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
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