Cybersecurity continues to be a priority investment for companies. In Latin America, the share of IT security in the overall IT budget grew from 22% in 2019 to 30% in 2020 in SMBs and from 27% to 34% in larger companies. Likewise, 59% of organizations expect to increase their cybersecurity budget in the next three years.
This is according to the report Adjusting investment: aligning IT budgets with security priorities, released by the company Kaspersky. Such estimates come despite the fact that, in general terms, during the COVID-19 pandemic, IT spending, and cybersecurity spending in particular, has been cut, especially among those SMEs most economically impacted.
Companies’ IT priorities can be conditioned by certain external events. Such is the case of the crisis resulting from the COVID-19 lockdown, which has led organizations to adjust their plans to adapt to new needs, from urgent digitization to cost optimization.
Kaspersky conducted this study, based on a survey of more than 5,000 IT and cybersecurity professionals in 31 countries, which analyzes the latest economic trends in IT security and their relationship with what happened this year.
According to the research, the IT budget dedicated to security continues to grow year after year in the countries of the region: from $114,000 in 2019 to $250,000 in 2020 in the case of Latin American SMEs, and from $13 million in 2019 to $20 million in 2020 in large companies.
However, a small percentage of enterprises, 9% of SMBs and 13.5% of large Latin American companies plan to reduce IT security spending in the next three years.
Of the latter, 28% allege that senior management sees no reason to invest so much in IT security, while another 28% commented that they can make this decision, because IT Security functions have been taken over by outsourcing companies.
Tips for Staying Safe
Kaspersky suggests that businesses follow the following recommendations to stay secure, even with limited budgets:
• Always keep the team aware of IT security risks, such as phishing, web threats, banking malware, and others that can affect employees in their daily work routine.
• Make sure all systems, software, and devices are up to date. This will help prevent malware infiltrations into corporate systems, through, for example, an operating system without update patches.
• Establish the practice of using strong passwords to access corporate services. Use multi-factor authentication for access to remote services.
• Ensure that all corporate devices are protected with strong passwords and that they are changed on a regular basis.
• Use proven cloud-based services and platforms when transferring business data. Make sure that you password-protect all shared files, such as in Google Docs, or make them available to a limited circle within a workgroup.
• Use a free endpoint security tool, such as Kaspersky Anti-Ransomware Tool for Business, which offers protection for both PCs and servers against a wide range of threats, including ransomware, cryptominers, adware, pornographic software, exploits, and more.
• There are also some useful tools that could help cover specific cybersecurity needs, such as checking suspicious files, IP addresses, domains, and URLs.
At Itera we can help you.
Contact a specialist: seguridad@iteraprocess.com
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