The market for IT security is growing to more than 9 billion euros

• Spending is expected to increase by around 13 percent in the coming year – and will breach the 10-billion-euro mark for the first time
• Europe’s largest trade fair for IT security starts today in Nuremberg

Berlin, 10th October 2023 - German businesses are gearing up to better fight cybercrime. For the first time, businesses in this country are spending more than 9 billion euros on IT security – with numbers continuing to rise. This was announced today by Bitkom, Germany’s digital industry association, at the opening of the “it-sa” IT security trade fair in Nuremberg. Spending on IT security climbed by 13 percent to 9.2 billion euros in the current year. In the coming year, a further increase of about 13 percent to 10.3 billion euros is expected. “It is a good sign that businesses are ramping up their spending on IT security. Any company can fall victim to cyberattacks. But companies can protect themselves – and they should,” says Udo Littke, member of the Bitkom board. “Most recently, German companies have seen annual losses of 206 billion euros due to sabotage, espionage, and data theft, 148 billion euros of which were caused by cyberattacks. Attackers are becoming more and more professional and specialised, with the boundaries between organised crime and nation-state actors becoming blurry.”

The largest share of the expenditures was spent on IT security software at 4.3 billion euros (up 18 percent). This is closely followed by spending on IT security services, which increased by 12 percent to 4 billion euros. IT security hardware continues to account for just under 0.9 billion. “IT security must be an ongoing task for all companies and should be anchored in top-level management,” according to Littke. “At the ‘it-sa’ trade fair, businesses can get a comprehensive overview and insights into novel IT security technologies.” After its opening today, “it-sa” will take place until 12 October on the exhibition grounds in Nuremberg. Bitkom is supporting the event again this year as a conceptual sponsor. Find more information on the trade fair at www.it-sa.de and all information on Bitkom’s participation at it-sa here.