Security and privacy products are the leading category in software products sold online, accounting for over 30% of online sales.
According to statistics from the H1 2017 benchmark report on Digital Commerce Trends in Software & Online Services Sales from 2Checkout (formerly Avangate), subscription-based software solutions, downloadable or as a service, maintain a strong upward trend.
Mark James, security specialist at ESET, told Infosecurity that a few factors will drive online sales of security products up and up: ransomware is a scary thought for a lot of people, not just business because often it is perceived as someone else’s problem to resolve (the tech team) but the consumer understands that some things just cannot be replaced.
“What at one time was perceived as a fairly safe haven for memories and private information, the home network is now a very low hanging fruit for opportunistic ransomware, and as security companies and law enforcement get better at shutting down servers and networks then the likelihood of you getting decryption keys gets less and less,” he said.
“People are understanding now that options are out there that will enable them to drastically reduce their chance of being infected and enable them to recover if they do end up a victim. Put that alongside the huge high profile data breaches we see daily, we have to protect against others using our credentials.”
The news of an increase comes after yesterday’s PwC Global State of Information Survey, which revealed that UK businesses have reduced cybersecurity budgets by a third, from £6.2m last year to £3.9m this year.
Tyler Reguly, manager of security research and development at Tripwire, said: “The interesting thing here is the contrast created between these two reports that should scare a lot of people. While individuals are investing in security and privacy products, likely spurred on by the ever-increasing news of breaches and data loss, enterprises are reining in their spending. We’re at a point where consumers feel that their data is in a more precarious state than ever before yet the companies entrusted with this data are doing less to protect it.”
Professor Giovanni Vigna, Co-founder and CTO of Lastline, said that reducing investments in cybersecurity is dangerous as security threats continuously evolve, and need to be matched by innovative approaches that can address the latest attack techniques.
Tim Helming, director of product management at DomainTools, added: “The fact that cybersecurity budgets have been slashed in the UK is somewhat baffling. All of the indications suggest that cybercrime of all forms is likely to grow in magnitude and severity in the coming years, so to make the decision to reduce a security department’s capacity to respond appropriately to these increased threats seems counterproductive.”