70% of Organizations to Increase Cybersecurity Spending Following COVID-19 Pandemic

With coronavirus crisis creating new opportunities for cybercriminals, 70 percent of organizations are seeing the value of increasing their investments in cybersecurity solutions.

According to a LearnBonds.com report, besides boosting their cybersecurity spending, as the top IT priority this year, around 55 percent of major organizations will boost their investments in automation solutions, revealed HFS Research survey conducted in April. Smart analytics, hybrid or multi-cloud and artificial intelligence follow, with 53 percent, 49 percent and 46 percent of those bodies asked naming them as their leading IT investments this year.

The statistics show spending on augmented and virtual reality technology, blockchain and edge computing is under pressure this year, with just 32 percent, 30 percent and 27 percent of enterprises planning to increase their spending on these technologies in 2020. Though recent years have witnessed a surge in the use of artificial intelligence, helping businesses to improve their efficiency, quality and speed, statistics show artificial intelligence solutions are set to witness a massive drop in spending this year, with 23 percent of major enterprises planning to cut their investments on these technologies. Blockchain follows with an 18 percent share among those asked downsizing their IT budgets.

Steve Durbin, managing director of the Information Security Forum, cautions about organizations reducing their cyber workforce at a vulnerable time. “It is more likely that businesses will be exposed because they neither have in-house, nor external access to the necessary skills to deliver their business operations with a remote workforce.  I don’t see a short term altering of spending, but clearly this will come for many organizations as the COVID-19 crisis continues.  It would extremely short sighted for business leaders to reduce cybersecurity staff and budget at a time when the majority of the workforce is critically dependent on cyber to function.”