At the start of the year, I wrote a piece for this site asking a simple question: How Strong Is The Cyber Security Industry? Going into 2020 it seemed that, with predictions estimating a growth of about 8-10pc or higher, the industry would continuing to thrive throughout the year and beyond. However now, factoring in the significant impact of COVID-19 and the fears of a prolonged global recession, the cyber security industry is expected to only see minimal expansion this year.
What figures are now predicted?
Whilst figures differ slightly between researchers, most agree that growth rates for cyber security firms will take a sizeable hit. Whilst Canalys has predicted that growth rate could still be as high as 5.6pc (with a low estimate of 2.6pc) this year, some groups are less optimistic. From instance, analysis from Gartner has projected that industry growth for cyber security will be as low as 2.4pc in 2020.
Explanations for this follow a similar pattern – COVID-19 has negatively impacted businesses, and in turn company IT budgets are expected to be drastically reduced for the foreseeable future. A seemingly inevitable recession is also feared to contribute to the stagnated growth figures currently predicted in the cyber security industry.
How will the cyber security industry react?
Many cyber security firms will see this slowdown as expected, given the hit the majority of business sectors have taken during COVID-19. Companies are also aware that cyber security will remain a prominent industry, as digital attacks have continued to increase uninterrupted during 2020. What some will fear, however, is that companies with tighter budgets will expect more cost-effective services. This could mean fiercer competition between cyber security companies, as firms across the globe will be attempting to provide more protection for less.
Yet, there still has to be some optimism that if cyber threats continue to become more elaborate in design, digital security will still become an essential service in the long-term. This means that, whilst the industry might not be going from strength to strength for a while, cyber security firms will hopefully have a better chance of recovery from the year’s events.
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