Cybersecurity Spending By Industry (and Stats, Projections)

How much should your business spend on cybersecurity to prevent a truly damaging cyber attack? One way to answer that question is to take a look at what others are spending. Cybersecurity spending by industry, as well as statistics and projections, can help you create a budget that supports your cybersecurity plan. You know well that a plan without the financial support to implement it is doomed to fail. And a security failure could be the end of your business.

Spending On Cybersecurity

Spending on cybersecurity is going through the roof. That’s likely not much of a surprise to those who have been reading the headlines regarding social engineering attacks, malware, ransomware, and regular old hacking. According to Cybercrime Magazine, the cybersecurity market grew by thirty-five times from 2004 to 2017, to over a $120 billion industry. So, which industries are spending the most on cybersecurity? Here are a few, along with some other interesting statistics and projections:

Top Spending Industries (Source: Deloitte)

1. Financial Utility: $4375 per year per employee
2. Service Providers: $3266
3. Banking: $2688
4. Consumer/Financial (nonbanking): $2348
5. Insurance: $1984

Other Cybersecurity Spending Statistics and Trends

1. Companies are spending over 10% of their IT budget on security (Deloitte)
2. 55% of organizations will increase overall IT spending in 2020 (CSOonline)
3. Energy companies invest less than 0.2 percent of their revenue in cybersecurity (Cybercrime Magazine)
4. The drivers in spending include regulatory compliance (69% of responses), reducing incidents and breaches (59%), keeping up with the evolving threats (57%), maintaining reputation in the industry (43%), and investigating and responding to events and incidents (40%) (Infosec Resources)
5. Spending will continue to grow in 2021. According to Infosecurity Magazine, “Web and email security (12.5%) will grow the most in 2021 with vulnerability and security analytics (11%) not far behind. Data security (6.6%) and network security (8%) are set to bring up the rear in terms of growth.”

What Industry Is The Most Highly Targeted For Cyber Attacks?

Guess which “industry” is at most risk of a cyber attack? That’s right - small business. According to an SBA survey, “88% of small business owners felt their business was vulnerable to a cyber attack.” And they’re right to be worried. Nearly half (43%) of all cyber attacks focus on small businesses.

Here are the industries most likely to endure an attack:

• Small Business
• Healthcare
• Financial
• Energy
• Banking
• Education
• Government

How Much Does Cybersecurity Cost?

Your budget will likely range from 1-13% of your total IT spending, as that is the overall average across industries. There are two major components to cybersecurity spending, depending on your level of preparedness: prevention and the cost of a breach. The cost of a breach can run 4x to 5x the cost of prevention, which makes a strong case for prevention being a smart investment. Look to spend $700-1000 per month on security for your small business. Larger businesses will spend closer to $1000 per year per employee.

Read more: Your Small Business Cybersecurity Budget

How To Prevent A Cyber Attack

The best way to prevent a cyber attack in your small business is to have a cybersecurity plan, implement it, and train your entire organization up on keeping your customers, your intellectual property, and your data safe from attackers.

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