Survey: IT Security Budgets Increasing In Financial, Government Sectors

• Jan 14, 2009

In light of the economic downturn and rising cybercrime attacks, Finjan conducted an online survey among 200 IT and security professionals. The survey focused on determining the trends for allocating IT budgets in 2009 compared to 2008.

The results reveal that the total IT budgets for 2009 tend to be reduced compared to 2008. However, the IT security budget outlook was more optimistic since organizations intend to dedicate a larger part of their total IT budgets to IT security.

Key findings from the survey:

• 38 percent of all respondents stated that they do not expect a change in their 2009 IT budgets, while 34 percent indicated that they expect them to be Slightly smaller -- reflecting the general declining trend in corporate budgets.
• 34 percent of the respondents indicated that their IT security budgets for 2009 will increase, indicating a general trend that organizations will allocate a larger part of their overall IT budget to IT security. 43 percent of all respondents expect their IT security budget for 2009 to remain the same.
• The survey also found that the upward trend in IT security budget allocation was more pronounced in the financial and governmental sectors than in others.