Security News > 2021 > March > Whatever 'normal' is, global CEOs don't expect to see it return before 2022 and are ploughing funds into security

KPMG's latest survey of global CEOs shows widespread belief that the remote-working trend will linger into 2022 as the world gets to grip with COVID-19.

Almost half of bosses surveyed by the accountancy biz said they don't expect a return to "Normal" by next year.

With no definitive end to remote working, CEOs are increasingly focusing on data protection and resilience, and 52 per cent described data security measures as their primary area of investment.

This is an about-face from data seen at the start of the pandemic, when three-quarters of IT professionals quizzed by Sectigo claimed they had not improved their security positioning, and 43 per cent of UK respondents said they'd been forced to cancel planned security initiatives.

This affirmed findings from McKinsey published last July, which said that 70 per cent of CISOs expected their budgets to shrink during 2020, with funds earmarked for redteaming and "War games" directed to other security fundamentals like VPN access.

Gartner's mid-2020 forecast was slightly less bearish, expecting a 2.4 per cent spending growth driven by heightened demand for cloud and application security services, albeit with some sectors shrinking.

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https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2021/03/24/global_ceos_security_pandemic/