A survey of business representatives¹ conducted by Kaspersky for the IT Security Economics report found that IT budgets for cybersecurity are set to increase over the next three years for both SMBs and enterprises to cover a range of issues. In the Middle East, Turkiye, and Africa region, median cybersecurity budgets for enterprises in 2022 were US $7,500,000 with over $18,000,000 allocated for IT in general, while for SMBs the figures stood at $150,000 for IT security and $375,000 for IT in general.
According to business representatives, the TOP-5 factors driving IT security budget increases in South African organisations are business expansion, the need to boost the level of expertise of IT security specialists, recent cybersecurity incidents, the increasing complexity of IT infrastructure and new risks due to geopolitical and economic uncertainty.
Budget increases would also help to counter the IT security issues that organisations currently face. The survey showed that 61% of businesses in South Africa reported the high cost of securing complex technology hardware and software to be the most challenging issue. 48% of local businesses reported problems with data protection: they experienced loss or exposure of corporate or customer data. Then followed issues with suffering downtime and loss of productivity (41%), low cybersecurity skills of employees (40%), cloud infrastructure adoption (33%), and business process outsourcing (22%).
“Business continuity is ever depending on information security. Nowadays when infrastructure becomes more complex and cyberattacks become more sophisticated, businesses are becoming more cyber aware and better understand the need for protecting every asset inside the organisation,” comments Ivan Vassunov, VP, Corporate Products at Kaspersky. “State regulations is another important factor influencing the growing budgets for information security. These organisations require businesses to keep their operations and data secure. Sometimes regulators tighten rules for the whole vertical market or industry.”
To maximise the efficiency of cybersecurity investments and minimise the risk of any attacks and data breaches for businesses, an effective endpoint protection with threat detection and response capabilities should be used. This essential level of endpoint protection is included in Kaspersky Optimum Security framework. For organisations with a mature IT security function, Kaspersky Expert Security framework additionally provides anti-APT, the latest threat intelligence, and dedicated professional training.