Virus fears drive up security spending

By RICHARD PAMATATAU

As virus attacks and concerns about data integrity escalate, spending on security software, hardware and services will increase to $173 million this year - 25 per cent more than 2003.

Graeme Muller, an analyst at research company IDC, said security had jumped up the IT managers' issues list from 14th place to fourth in the last year, and as a consequence businesses would spend more on security systems.

The move is significant because while New Zealanders will spend about $4.3 billion on IT this year, that is a relatively small increase on last year's $4.19 billion.

Muller said the $173 million did not include retail spending in the home market, which was expected to be about $400 million.

Companies such as Computer Associates and Symantec were shifting their existing security business into the services market, in a bid to offer customers more integrated services, he said.

An example was Computer Associates' recent deal with IBM to provide schools with a security system for their personal computer networks.

For businesses, the biggest security threats were internal, said Muller, but external incidents such as last week's MyDoom virus attack brought matters to people's attention.

Both Computer Associates and Symantec have released new security products and many internet providers offer spam and virus filtering services.