SMEs 'placing an increased focus on security'

29 May 2012

Posted by Samuel Couratin

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are spending larger amounts to ensure their operations are secure.

This is the claim made in a new report, which notes smaller firms in the US are investing in technology in this field and the amounts committed are likely to rise sharply over the coming years, with growth in security appliances and software-as-a-service sales in particular.

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), which has produced the report, spending on security in the nation will exceed $5.6 billion (£3.6 billion) in 2015, rising at more than double the overall SME IT investment rate of between five and six per cent a year.

Major areas for growth in the SME security technology market include network, web, messaging, identity and access management, endpoint and messaging.

"[SMEs] are more focused on security as a way to gain access to more capabilities, but less focused on security as a cost to be reduced once minimum standards are met," commented Ray Boggs, IDC Vice President for Small and Medium Business Markets Research.

Firms identified security as a key IT spending priority and were found to be a growing target for cyber criminals, with products needed that meet their particular requirements.

However, it is not only small businesses that need to ensure systems are safeguarded against online attacks, as a major new international threat has been identified.

IT security specialist Kaspersky Lab has issued a warning after research by the firm and the International Telecommunication Union detected a malicious program identified as Worm.Win32.Flame.

According to the company, the new cyber weapon is a sophisticated malicious attacker that has been used against bodies in a number of countries around the world. The advanced malware is described by Kaspersky as exceeding "all other cyber menaces known to date", stealing valuable information such as stored files, contact data and audio conversations.

The program has not been detected previously by security software because of its considerable complexity and has been in operation since March 2010.

Its detection comes after another attacker known as Wiper deleted data on systems in western Asia. It has yet to be discovered and Kaspersky has been conducting analysis of the incidents to identify the malware in question.