The IT security sector has continued to achieve significant market growth in recent, with massive demand from across UK industry for more secure and comprehensive security solutions. The main drivers of this activity in recent years has been a combination of the increasing volume and sophistication of attacks on businesses and organisations, alongside continued high levels of publicity across mainstream media on any major breach of sensitive consumer information.
The attention that data breaches can garner from the media was highlighted vividly in 2013 with the revelations of state-sponsored hacking by the US National Security Agency (NSA) and the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). These revelations — themselves divulged via an internal data breach through former contractor and trusted organisation member Edward Snowden — outlined widespread monitoring of phone records and online activities, and even extended to the subversion of online Internet encryption technologies and tapping into the cable networks connecting global data centres. Ultimately, not only have these issues served to fuel the global debate on state-sponsored hacking activity, they have also highlighted the importance of internal processes for loss of data by staff members, and has served to damage confidence in some of the major, mainly US-based, global technology companies and their ability to protect sensitive personal data.
Given the massive media attention on personal data issues, the increasing volume and sophistication of attacks, and the continued proliferation of a variety of Internet-connected and vulnerable devices, the IT security market is expected to see further significant annual growth in market value in the foreseeable future.
