US government allots 8% of 2012 IT budgets on security

By eGov Innovation Editors | Nov 27, 2011

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A new IDC Government Insights report showed that US federal government agencies have allotted 8 percent of their total IT budget for 2012 on average.

The report entitled "Perspective - Benchmarking FY12 US Federal Government IT Security Spending by Agency" examines the information technology (IT) security budgets set by each agency and reveals how much each organization actually spends on security-focused products and services.

IDC said, however, that the budget allocation significantly lags behind most industries.

"A 2007 IDC survey found that organizations, across all industries, spent an average of 19 percent of their total IT budgets on security solutions. While that number may have spiked in the last few years, 19 percent is realistic for most organizations," the report said.

"While some mission-critical government networks are state of the art when it comes to IT security, the federal government as a whole lags behind most other industries when it comes to IT security investments," it added.

IDC said government agencies need a clear idea of how much of their IT budget should be spent on security-related IT solutions, especially compared with how much other government organizations spend on security.

"For agencies, this report provides a baseline for security spending, and a way to compare themselves against other agencies," said Shawn McCarthy, research director for IDC Government Insights. "For vendors, it is a chance to measure the size of the IT security market in the federal government."