The latest quarterly Canalys cybersecurity forecast predicts spending will increase 10 per cent worldwide in the best-case scenario in 2021.
Cybersecurity will remain a high priority this year as the range of threats broadens and new vulnerabilities emerge. The frequency of attacks is unlikely to subside and Canalys cybersecurity market global forecast assumes that current investment trends will continue.
Covid-19 vaccine approvals and the start of mass vaccination programs have set a timeframe for reopening economies and a sustained global recovery from mid-year.
The overall cybersecurity market value is expected to reach US$60.2bn in 2021.
Even in Canalys’ worst-case scenario, the outlook for annual growth is 6.6 per cent. This forecast assumes a deeper and protracted economic impact from lockdowns and considers the emergence of new variants of the virus.
Despite the continued growth in cybersecurity investment, the number of data breaches and records being compromised, as well as ransomware attacks, reached an all-time high last year.
Over 12 billion records, containing a range of information were reportedly compromised in 2020, while the number of known ransomware attacks increased by nearly 60 per cent.
Ongoing mass remote working and learning, and the acceleration of digital transformation projects will maintain this trend in 2021.
Canalys chief analyst Matthew Ball said: “The biggest threats are always those not yet known.
“The discovery of the SUNBURST advanced persistent threat campaign at the end of 2020, stemming from malicious code injected into the widely used SolarWinds Orion IT management platform and subsequent infiltration into other systems, highlights this.
“Cybersecurity professional services engagements in response to this latest issue will be one of many factors contributing to sustained investment this year, especially in newer solutions to mitigate emerging threats.
“Growth in add-on subscriptions providing new features, products to secure the cloud and delivered from the cloud, and upgrades to existing solutions will be key drivers for expansion.
The need for organisations to adopt multi-layered and holistic approaches, combining employee awareness training, data protection, and backup, threat, and vulnerability detection, and response will remain critical.”
Canalys forecasts web and email security will grow 12.5 per cent in 2021, one of the highest growth segments, as disparate technologies converge to secure persistent connections between users and cloud services.
Vulnerability and security analytics will increase 11.0 per cent, expanding beyond logging and monitoring to threat intelligence, behaviour analysis, and automated response.
Growth in endpoint security will slow to 10.4 per cent after a strong 2020.
