Investment in cybersecurity up 10% to $53 billion in 2020: Report

Cybersecurity investment increased significantly compared to other segments in the IT industry in 2020, according to a two-part report, ‘Now and Next for the cybersecurity industry’ by Canalys.

As per the report, cybersecurity investment grew 10 per cent to $53 billion in 2020. However, the threat of data breaches remains significant.

This comes as business continuity and workforce productivity took precedence over security during the pandemic, as per the report.

According to Canalys estimates, investment in cloud infrastructure services increased 33 per cent in 2020 to $142 billion. This is an increase of $45 billion in annual spend as compared to 2019.

Cloud software services increased over 20 per cent during the same period.

Organisations must look to also prioritise cybersecurity as the data breach crisis escalated in 2020. According to Canalys, more records were compromised in just 12 months than in the previous 15 years combined.

As per data based on public sources, nearly 30 billion records were compromised within 12-months.

“Ransomware attacks surged with tragic consequences, as hospitals were specifically targeted. Several high-profile organisations went out of business in 2020 and surviving organisations had to implement business continuity measures quickly in response to the Covid-19 pandemic or face ruin. This was often at the expense of cybersecurity and bypassed longstanding corporate policies, leaving many exposed to exploitation by highly organised and sophisticated threat actors, as well as other more opportunistic hackers,” Canalys said in an official release.

“Prioritise cybersecurity and invest in broadening protection, detection and response measures or face disaster,” said Canalys Chief Analyst Matthew Ball.

“Cybersecurity must be front and centre of digital plans, otherwise there will be a mass extinction of organizations, which will threaten the post-Covid-19 economic recovery. 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,” added Ball.