Virus fears and hack attacks drive IT spend

NEWS IT security spending in Western Europe is set to double from $2.1bn this year to over $4bn by 2004, according to a report. The research, led by analyst house IDC, predicts concerns over hacking, DoS and virus attacks have pushed security so far up the boardroom agenda it will fuel the markets growth. One of the key trends forecast for the growth could benefit small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs). With limited budgets and in-house security, managed service providers offering services such as network management and monitoring are predicted to bring the overall costs of e-security to SMEs down. For related news see:
Napster stigma holds back European p2p growth
http://www.silicon.com/a45477
Mobile phone firm leads firewall market growth
http://www.silicon.com/a45300
Directors told to take security seriously
http://www.silicon.com/a45199