Rising threats to boost government IT security spending

Technavio analysts expect global government IT security spending to exceed USD 42 billion by 2020, growing at a CAGR of over 9%.

“The global IT security spending in the government sector is likely to witness significant growth during the forecast period because of the growing need for a high level of data and identity security in the government sector. With an increase in the number of attacks and threats from hackers, the need for advanced security solutions is growing rapidly,” says Amrita Choudhury, a lead research analyst at Technavio.

Increased use of mobile devices

With the adoption of BYOD policies among federal agencies, many federal employees are using their personal mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops for work purposes. This has increased the demand for uninterrupted connectivity between corporate networks and employees’ devices. Employees need to access and store confidential information on mobile devices, which has increased the need to protect data.

The rise in mobility of employees is leading to an increased use of mobile devices. However, these devices are not secure, and it is easy for hackers to gain unauthorized access to them in corporate networks. This may lead to fraudulent activities and misuse of critical business data. Therefore, the government sector is increasingly adopting IT security solutions to protect its networks and provide employees with secure access to confidential information.

High-profile data breaches

With the rapidly changing IT environment, attackers have found new ways to access valuable information and disrupt businesses. Increased dependency on web applications has led to an unprecedented rise in cyberattacks, such as identity theft. In addition, with the increasing popularity of social networking sites, it has become easy for attackers to extract users’ information.

Rise in network security threats

Increased dependency on web applications can also lead to cyber-attacks that can affect the IT infrastructure of an organization and are generally intended to target critical infrastructure such as government websites, customer databases, and web servers. Such threats can cause more harm than other types of cyber threats.

Moreover, advanced persistent threats can be detected only after an attack. To ensure better security of their networks, government organizations across different industry verticals are adopting IT security solutions, which is driving the growth of the global IT security spending in the government sector.

Need to adhere with regulatory requirements

The major factor leading to the adoption of IT security solutions among corporate bodies and government organizations is the increase in regulatory compliance requirements such as the Payment Card Industry-Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), the Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX Act), the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act (GLBA), the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act), and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

All these regulatory compliances enable merchants and financial institutions to protect their payment systems from breaches and theft of cardholder data. A compliance breach may result in financial loss and reputational loss, which may lead to customer attrition. Therefore, organizations are proactively securing their network perimeters and applications to prevent any compliance breaches.

“In addition, with the increase in cases of data theft and insider fraud, regulatory authorities are likely to tighten the compliance regulations, which will drive more end-users to adopt IT security solutions,” says Amrita.