Global IT security budgets to rise by 9%, including in Pakistan: report

Companies worldwide, including those in Pakistan, plan to increase their IT security budgets by up to 9%, according to Kaspersky’s latest “IT Security Economics” report. 

The report highlights growing global investments in cybersecurity as organisations face rising financial losses from cyber incidents. The report shows large enterprises allocated a median of $5.7 million for IT security from a total IT budget of $41.8 million, while small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) spent $0.2 million on security out of an overall budget of $1.6 million. 

Organizations in Pakistan reported an average of 11 incidents over the past year, reflecting a similar global pattern of cybersecurity challenges.

The survey, which covered 27 countries including Pakistan, examined IT security spending, breaches, and challenges across regions such as Europe, the Middle East, Turkiye, Africa, Latin America, North America, and the Asia-Pacific.

Large enterprises reported an average of 12 cyber incidents this year, spending $6.2 million on recovery — 1.1 times their allocated IT security budgets. 

These enterprises, though better equipped to detect incidents, faced challenges in fully responding to threats, often taking several hours to mitigate them due to the complexity of their IT environments.

For SMBs, the impact of cyber incidents was even greater. They reported an average of 16 incidents, spending $0.3 million on recovery — 1.5 times their IT security budgets. 

According to Veniamin Levtsov, Vice President of Kaspersky’s Centre of Corporate Business Expertise, the rise in IT security budgets is driven by the increasing complexity of cyber threats, new government regulations on digital sovereignty, and higher salary expectations for cybersecurity professionals.