The recession had little impact on professionals working in the IT security sector, with more than half (52.8%) of employees receiving pay rises during 2009, figures published by security certification body (ISC)2 show.

A survey of 3,000 professionals conducted by the body suggests that fewer than 5% of staff lost their jobs in the midst of the recession, while 53.2% of global security managers said they planned to hire additional staff during the coming year – primarily within operations security.

More than a third (36.9%) of those who took part in the research claimed that the economic downturn had made no impact on their company’s information security budget whatsoever.

“Security is recession-proof in times like this, [because] the threats escalate,” said Hord Tipton, executive director of (ISC)2. “You have to reinvent business, you have to watch who goes out the door, you have particular concerns about data leakage – a lot of things that have to be managed differently in a downturn."