In addition, future spending on content security is not expected to improve, according to Forrester’s Content Security Predictions: 2011 and Beyond. The majority of companies, approximately 67%, plan to maintain existing spending on content security. Only 3% of companies plan to increase content security spending by more than 10%, and only 19% of companies plan to increase spending by 5% to 10%.
Chenxi Wang, Forrester security and risk analyst who authored the report, told Infosecurity that while most companies expect to maintain their current spending levels, new spending on content security is expected to decrease.
These results seem to conflict with the view among many IT executives that supporting Web 2.0 technologies should be a high priority for their company in the next 12 months
For the report, LinkedIn Research Network surveyed 2337 IT executives and technology decision makers for Forrester at firms in Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Wang said that the lack of resources being invested in content security was the result of “ignorance.” She said that many IT security professions believe they can address content security with their existing systems; but there are “a lot of new threats” coming from the Web and email, and security professionals “may or may not have grasped their importance.”
The Forrester report also predicts that product capabilities will continue to consolidate and drive toward content security platforms and mobile filtering will enter mainstream IT security.
The customer demand for integrated email and web products is driving a market consolidation that is predicted to continue beyond 2011. Forrester expects that the leading email and web security vendors, such as Websense and Cisco, will continue to expand, and smaller companies like Blue Coat and Proofpoint are likely to be acquired by the bigger players.
“Not only are security vendors going to be merging, also vendors who have both Web and email functions will increasingly look to integrate those two sides of functionality into delivering consolidated product suites and platforms”, Wang observed.
On the mobile filtering front, Forrester predicts that enterprise content security will expand behind the corporate firewalls to mobile devices. The company expects that mobile and remote filtering will be on IT’s radar next year and will become a core component of corporate internet access and content security strategy.
“The lines are blurring between mobile devices and PC functionality. So that means employees can do a lot more with their mobile devices now than they could before. The risk of data leaks becomes more prominent with these new mobile devices if they touch corporate data. We expect to see more sophisticated mobile applications rolled out to support the enterprise computing. As a result of that, we will see more security applications that offer functions, such as data leak prevention”, she said.
Wang offered two recommendations to security professionals to address these content security trends. First, “mobile security should be a priority item to work on for next 12 to 18 months.” Security professionals should lay out a roadmap of where they will establish filtering and malware functionalities.
Second, security professionals should investigate their current content security systems across the web and email. “Look for ways to optimize and leverage your existing solutions for a more consolidated platform to reduce redundancies and eliminate administrative overhead. Instead of moving ahead with new investment, optimize your current investment”, Wang concluded.