Unsafe Web Browsing Means More Web Security Spending

Few think much about that mid-morning pause to check out a YouTube (News - Alert) video full of cute kittens, or a stop at a Facebook page to post a few notes about the morning's progress. But a new report from IHS suggests that Web security spending is likely to climb in the next few months, thanks in large part to unsafe practices when it comes to Web browsing.

The IHS study—known as the “IHS Infonetics (News - Alert) Next Generation Threat Prevention Strategies and Vendor Leadership North American Enterprise Survey”—examined the thoughts of 132 security purchase decision makers about a variety of points, ranging from strategies to trends to the best vendors in the field. From that field, 64 percent of respondents said that there were plans in place to boost spending on Web security, as well as several complementary solutions ranging from sandboxing to virtual execution tools to see just what might happen when some files make contact with a system.

The biggest priorities, the report noted, were actually somewhat different in scope. While a clear priority was, unsurprisingly, to protect against things like data theft and data leaks, another major priority was just to upgrade security so that it was commensurate with the overall performance of the network proper. The biggest barrier to making upgrades wasn't really a surprise either: sheer cost. But businesses' expectations are changing as well; more and more businesses expect to handle security via a combination of products and services, using products in some cases and software-as-a-service (SaaS (News - Alert)) options in others. But when it comes to who's top-of-the-heap in security technology, the answers won't prove a surprise: the big three are Microsoft, IBM (News - Alert) and Cisco.

IHS cybersecurity technology research director Jeff Wilson offered up some comment on the study, saying "Even during the last major recession, which impacted spending in all areas of IT, none of the core threat mitigation markets contracted. The constant game of cat and mouse played by attacker and attacked leads to technology innovation and increased investment. For security technology vendors in a crowded market, the best way to separate from the noise is to help buyers consolidate their disjointed security infrastructures, move security to the cloud, reduce threat exposure windows by embracing orchestration and automation, and discover even the most advanced threats.”

While it might be oversimplifying to say that unsafe Web surfing is the major cause of all these security upgrades—the sheer number of data breaches seen of late should underscore that point nicely too—the cause really doesn't matter near so much as the response does. Protecting systems is what's important in the end, and delivering on that knowledge with augmented security systems just makes sense. It's the kind of thing that needed to be done anyway, and that so many companies are actually getting behind the concept is gratifying. The more security we have on hand now, the lower the likelihood of breaches in the future. Plus, augmented security improves the likelihood that people will do business with companies, as there's a better perception of security on hand; data is protected and thus less likely to fall into the wrong hands.

The number of businesses stepping up to the plate in the name of data protection may be a good sign of things to come, and of improved future security.