Following a 6.4% increase in worldwide security and risk management spending in 2020, Gartner analysts have said the predicted continued growth in 2021 reflects continuing demand for remote worker technologies and cloud security.

In the Gartner 2021 CIO Agenda Survey, cyber security was the top priority for new spending, with 61% of the 2,000+ CIOs surveyed increasing investment in cyber/information security this year.

Security services including consulting, hardware support, implementation and outsourced services represent the largest category of spending in 2021, at almost $72.5 billion worldwide.

“Organisations continue to grapple with the security and regulatory demands of public cloud and software as a service,” said Lawrence Pingree, managing research vice-president at Gartner.

“Looking ahead, we’re seeing early market signals of growing automation and further adoption of machine learning technologies in support of AI security.

“To combat attacks, organisations will extend and standardise threat detection and response activities.”

Meanwhile, the smallest but fastest growing market segment is cloud security, particularly cloud access security brokers (CASB).

Pingree continued: “The pace of client inquiry indicates that CASB is a popular choice for cloud-using organisations.

“This is due to the growing popularity of using non-PC devices for interacting with core business processes, which creates security risks that can be mitigated effectively with a CASB.

“CASBs also enable safer interaction between SaaS applications and unmanaged devices.”

Integrated risk management (IRM) technology is also seeing robust double-digit growth resulting from risks highlighted during the global pandemic crisis.

“Areas of significant risk driving near-term demand include the advent of new digital products and services and the related health and safety uses, as well as third-party risks such as customer data breaches or supply chain attacks,” commented John Wheeler, senior research director at Gartner.