Study: Billions of dollars spent on security

Large U.S. businesses will spend $61 billion on security by the end of this year, representing 7.3 percent of total IT budgets in the country, according to a new report from Info-Tech Research Group. Between $21 billion and $27 billion of that total will go on the acquisition of new security technologies and services. The balance will be disbursed on operations, primarily staffing costs, the researchers said.

The top spenders are the business services, financial services and government sectors, which each will lay out around $10 billion, Info-Tech Research Group said. IT security has become a higher priority over the past years, with a greater proportion of overall IT budgets being spent on security equipment and services, the researchers said.