US firms now spending 20 per cent of total IT budgets on security

Spending on security technology, training, assessments and certification in the US now accounts for a fifth of total technology budgets, according to new research.

A Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) survey of 1,070 organisations found that they spent an average 20 per cent of their technology budget in 2006 on security-related expenses, up from 15 per cent in 2005 and 12 per cent in 2004.

Polled organisations indicated that they expect to increase spending across all areas related to security in the next 12 months.

Nearly half of respondents to the survey intend to increase spending on security-related technologies, and a third expect to increase spending on security training.

Among those expecting to increase spending, the average increase is in the range of 19-23 per cent regardless of area.

About 42 cents of each dollar spent on security is allocated for technology product purchases, 17 cents for security-related processes, 15 cents for training, 12 cents for assessments, nine cents for certification and the balance on other items.

Antivirus software, firewalls and proxy servers continue to be the top technologies for security enforcement, used by nearly all organisations.

The past two years have seen a "significant increase" in the use of multiple security enforcement technologies to combat attacks, according to CompTIA.

These include firewalls, proxy servers, intrusion detection systems, physical access control, multi-factor authentication and other technologies.