Global spending on information security products and services will reach $86.4 billion this year, according to US-based technology research and advisory firm Gartner, Inc.

This figure is an increase of 7 per cent over 2016, and is expected to grow to $93 billion in 2018.

Security services, especially IT outsourcing, consulting and implementation services, are predicted to be the fastest growing segment of the security market. Gartner also forecasts fast growth in the security testing market due to data breaches and growing demands for application security testing.

Gartner predicts slower growth in the market for hardware support services. The need for hardware support declines as consumers adopt virtual appliances, public cloud and software as a service editions of security solutions.

It is no surprise that security spending is increasing as cyber threats grow and consumers seek better protection from those threats. Spending is also driven by increased regulation, such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation, which regulates how companies must protect personal data.

What is surprising is that security spending isn’t increasing even faster than Gartner predicts. We are seeing an increasing number of data breaches that could have been avoided by a greater emphasis on security and testing to ensure there are no vulnerabilities in security systems.

Read more here and here.

Olivia Coburn contributed to this article.