Expensive Security Keeps Breaches Away
UK companies have tripled their spendings on information security defenses in the past three years, fact that has caused reported security breaches to drop by a third. That means 300% more money spent gets you to 30% less breaches.
According to the most recent edition of the UK government-sponsored Information Security Breaches Survey, quoted by the Register, the number of companies reporting a security breach is now at roughly the same level as in 2002, after reaching a peak in 2004.
Expenditure on information security has increased from two per cent to seven per cent of the IT budget on average over the last six years. But this increase in spending is uneven with a significant minority (21 per cent) of companies spending less than one per cent of their IT budget on information security.
Nonetheless, the security landscape has improved markedly over that period with 94 per cent of wireless networks now encrypted, versus only 47 per cent in 2002. More than half (55 per cent) of UK companies have a documented security policy, versus 27 per cent in 2002. Two in five businesses provide ongoing security awareness training to staff – twice as many as six years ago.
