Research from Databarracks has found that over half (55 per cent) of UK businesses have seen their IT security budgets either stay the same or decrease in the last 12 months, with just a third (33 percent) seeing an increase. This is down on last year when 36 percent reported growth in budget, and bucks a trend of continuous growth over the previous four years.
The findings were taken from Databarracks’ annual Data Health Check survey.
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In previous years, we’ve seen a steady increase in security budget growth. This time it’s different.
Cyber incidents are becoming more prominent as a cause of both IT downtime and data loss, and attack types like ransomware are causing significant disruption – particularly for manufacturing and the public sector. These developments underline that now is not the time to reduce investment in cyber resilience. We are adjusting to a new reality. This is a cyber-arms race and unless we continue to match the investment and commitment of the cybercriminals with a corresponding investment of our own, we will lose the battle.
The types of safeguards businesses invested in this year stayed largely the same as the year before. Employee Awareness Training is the top action again. Less than 10 percent of organizations increased their cybersecurity headcount.
Dealing with the cyber challenge can seem overwhelming. New, high-profile breaches or strains of malware are being reported continually and it can feel like swimming against the tide. Improving an overall security posture is possible, but it takes work. It demands commitment from the highest levels of the organization and the resources to deliver – both budget and time.