After a year of high-profile data breaches, cybersecurity spending has soared globally by 10 percent to hit US$53 billion. According to analyst firm Canalys, the segment outperformed all other IT segments except business continuity and workforce productivity, which took precedence during the pandemic, reports ARN NET.
“Cybersecurity must be front and center of digital plans; otherwise there will be a mass extinction of organizations, which will threaten the post-COVID-19 economic recovery,” said Canalys chief analyst Matthew Ball. “A lapse in focus on cybersecurity already has major repercussions, resulting in the escalation of the current data breach crisis and acceleration of ransomware attacks.”
Last year saw several major enterprise and technology sector cyberattacks, with Canalys claiming more data records were compromised in just 12 months than in the previous 15 years combined.
The most high-profile of these was network monitoring vendor SolarWinds, which set off a wave of supply chain attacks following the breach. Hotel chain Marriott was also hit for the second time in two years.
According to Canalys, many businesses were forced to implement business continuity measures quickly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic last year. However, that was often at the expense of cybersecurity and bypassed longstanding corporate policies, the firm claimed, leaving many exposed to exploitation by sophisticated threat actors and opportunistic hackers.
Canalys also claimed cloud infrastructure services grew by 33 percent in 2020 to US$142 billion, representing an increase of US$45 billion in annual spend against 2019.
Source: ARN NET
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