Milan — According to the Worldwide Security Spending Guide published by International Data Corporation (IDC), European security spending will grow by 12.3% in 2024, marking another year of strong momentum with double-digit growth. Spending in the region is expected to increase at a steady pace throughout the whole 2022-2027 forecast period, reaching $84 billion in 2027. Security thus proves to be a key IT investment area for European organizations, which will have to continue facing the constant threat of cyberattacks, securing hybrid cloud environments, and ensuring compliance with both national and international regulations (e.g., NIS2 and DORA).

The significant security spending growth trend will characterize the whole European region in 2024, with Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries having the highest growth rates (for example, 15.4% in the Czech Republic and 13.4% in Hungary) driven by the constant rise of the software market. In fact, security software and services are expected to be the key growth areas across all European countries, including the top spenders — U.K., Germany, and France — which together account for more than 50% of the European market.

“European organizations face unprecedented cyberthreat levels, driven by a huge and voracious cybercrime economy, the proliferation of every attack tool and service imaginable on the dark web, and a turbulent geopolitical landscape," says Mark Child, associate research director, IDC European Security. "The European Union is striving to drive a regionwide improvement in cyber resilience through a host of legislative measures that will, notably, also bring much greater involvement of executive management in cybersecurity strategy. Nevertheless, addressing the threat requires substantial and holistic engagement from all organizations. Cybersecurity investment strategies need to coalesce around improved cyber risk quantification, a balance of preventive and proactive measures, consideration of all user groups and business processes, and the availability of requisite skills and resources both in-house and sourced from third parties.”

Banking, central government, local government, telecommunications, and retail will spend the most on security this year. These five industries combined will represent almost 38% of the total European security market. The fastest growing industries in 2024 will be banking (14.2% year-on-year growth), media and entertainment (14.0%), and aerospace and defense (13.8%).

“The increasingly sophisticated tools available to cybercriminals — now including generative AI — are transforming security from a technical requirement to a key strategic factor for companies across all industries to stay competitive on the market. This is even more true for verticals like banking, media, defense, telecommunications, and government, where cyberattacks can have dire consequences on both business operations and on the organization's reputation," says Stefano Perini, research manager, IDC European Data and Analytics. Small and medium-sized businesses, which are traditionally less prepared than larger companies in terms of cybersecurity, will also be particularly exposed to the rising tide of cyberattacks. In response to this, they will increasingly focus on managed services, as well as on training their employees to deal with the new security risks.”

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Banks will continue to face a growing number of cyberthreats like ransomware, extortionware, and exfiltration, and will increasingly invest to secure existing business processes and protect new digital transformation initiatives. Media and entertainment firms will have to secure themselves from a growing number of malicious attacks that can be more damaging than for other industries, owing to their high public visibility. Because of the ongoing geopolitical tensions in the region, the aerospace and defense industry will increasingly focus on securing both IT and OT assets and protecting them from data breaches.