In light of the economic downturn and rising cybercrime attacks as indicated in Finjan's Web Security Trends Report Q4 2008, Finjan conducted an online survey among 200 IT and security professionals. The survey focused on determining the trends for allocating IT budgets in 2009 compared to 2008.

The results reveal that the total IT budgets for 2009 tend to be reduced compared to 2008. However, the IT security budget outlook was more optimistic since organizations intend to dedicate a larger part of their total IT budgets to IT security.

Key findings from the survey

38% of all respondents stated that they do not expect a change in their 2009 IT budgets, while 34% indicated that they expect them to be Slightly smaller - reflecting the general declining trend in corporate budgets.

34% of the respondents indicated that their IT security budgets for 2009 will increase, indicating a general trend that organizations will allocate a larger part of their overall IT budget to IT security. 43% of all respondents expect their IT security budget for 2009 to remain the same.

The survey also found that the upward trend in IT security budget allocation was more pronounced in the financial and governmental sectors than in others.

Yuval Ben-Itzhak, CTO at Finjan said:

During an economic downturn it is to be expected that all budgets come under scrutiny. Organizations are trying to get the most out of their spending and reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of their IT investments - efficiency being the name of the game. While 2008 saw IT security departments facing new challenges in protecting valuable business data against an ever-increasing wave of cybercrime attacks, 2009 is adding a further economic challenge to the mix. As a result, organizations are looking for a comprehensive security solution with low TCO that covers all their Web security needs and is also simple and easy to manage.