IT Security spending set to grow significantly

The 2006 Global Information Security Survey by analyst firm Accenture found that 50 percent of U.S. respondents said they expect to spend more on security technology than last year, as did 57 percent of respondents in India, 42 percent in China and 25 percent in Europe.

The survey of 2,000 IT security professionals from eight countries also highlighted ongoing concern about hackers, malicious coders, customer data breaches and identity theft.

The vast majority think their companies are no more vulnerable than before or about the same, a higher level of confidence than in last year's survey.

However, when asked whether their companies are more vulnerable to attacks and breaches than a year ago, only 11 percent of respondents with U.S. companies, 13 percent of respondents in Europe, 16 percent in China and 25 percent in India thought so.

IT professionals gave a long list of priorities they've identified including raising user awareness (41 percent), enforcing security policies (36 percent), controlling system access (26 percent) and obtaining more resources (23 percent).