4 Major Trends Fueling the Demand For Network Security Post-COVID-19

Network security is an umbrella term that covers several technologies, devices and processes. Network security, in the simplest term, is a set of configurations created to protect the integrity, confidentiality, and accessibility of computer networks and data.

Every organization, regardless of industry, size or infrastructure, needs network security solutions to protect data and systems from cyber-attacks.

A recent technology named edge computing has gained traction within commercial sectors as it helps in reducing the latency in accessing and importing data from respective servers. The technology has paved the way for several parallel technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing.

One of the critical aspects of installing network security solutions is a rise in cyberattacks. As per the 2018 Cisco report on cyber security, 87% of companies in the EMEAR (Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Russia) region admitted that they are exposed to cyber-attacks. 48% of the cyberattacks in EMEAR organizations have caused damage over $500,000. Recently, a major multinational company of Japan, Panasonic, suffered from a cyber-attack. While conducting an internal investigation the company realized that some data from a file server was accessed during the intrusion.

The impact of COVID-19 on the network security industry

The COVID-19 pandemic however has widely impacted how cybersecurity is offered to organizations and users. The pandemic has fast-tracked remote workforce support and cloud adoption. As several companies adopted work from home policy, there’s an increased demand for cloud-based systems. This has built a strong foundation for the network security market.

Cybercriminals have taken advantage of the pandemic to target company’s confidential data by leveraging the weakness of severs and capitalizing on the chaos created by the pandemic in the economy. This has motivated many companies to boost their spending on security and improve their existing network security infrastructure and offer data security to their employees who are working from home.

To do this, companies need a solution that can detect the potential threat. Skybox Security has recently announced a new vulnerability management solution for the operational technology (OT) landscape. The Skybox Security Posture Management Platform will help eliminate cyber exposure across the entire enterprise environment. The company planned to launch new capabilities based on the result of the Skybox Security 2021 research study where it realized that 83% of organizations that run on OT infrastructure suffer security breaches.

As per the research report published by Allied Market Research, the global network security market is expected to reach $63.39 billion by 2027, manifesting a CAGR of 16.7% from 2020 to 2027.

4 network security trends driving market growth

Below are a few crucial trends that are expected to drive the global network security market:

1. Automation

Cybersecurity threats are frequent and no human being can track them manually. In such scenarios, automation is the next big thing in network security. Automation helps in building security mechanisms and reduces damage in case malware attacks the system.

Red Hat, Inc., a leading service provider of open source solutions, recently announced the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform on Microsoft Azure. The motto is to use it for hybrid cloud automation to fulfil computing demands at a hybrid cloud scale. This collaboration between Red Hat and Microsoft offers customers the flexibility to adopt automation.

2. Rise in concerns around 5G

5G is a next-gen cellular network and is about to take over the internet. However, this leap of technology seems to attract a lot of controversies as the international community has concerns about the potential impact it could have on cybersecurity.

The 5G network is open-source and it can be misused as a gateway to steal sensitive data from users and hamper their privacy. This trend in network security is expected to fuel the global network security market as organizations and government authorities will need to protect data and find potential threats in advance. To do so, countries must either develop 5G network indigenously or associate with trusted sources.

3. Increase in use of smart devices

The increase in the use of smart devices is yet another trend that has caused a generation of huge amounts of data. The number of active IoT devices is expected to increase to 22 billion by 2025. In other words, a single person will own three to four smart devices soon. This will increase the need for strong network security measurements.

4. Hacking attempts on supply chains

A rise in the number of attacks on supply chain and retail companies has fuelled the demand for the network security market. There were nearly 300 cybersecurity incidents that hampered supply chain entities last year. Most of these attacks were in the form of company-crippling ransomware. As ecommerce platforms gain more popularity, hackers will take advantage of unprepared supply chain organizations to install malicious software and exploit platforms’ cybersecurity vulnerabilities.