India's cyber security market booms to $3 billion by 2022
Growth in India’s digital market is expected to drive up the need for cyber security products and services, according to a new report by PwC and DSCI. Booming demand will see the market grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 16% till 2022, reaching a value of more than $3 billion.
India is manifesting itself as a major technology hub, not only through a rapidly expanding domestic digital market, but also due to increased interest in the country from markets across the globe.
While technology is leading to an economic windfall, it comes with considerable risks too. Businesses are increasingly vulnerable to cyber attacks, and poor data handling exposes them to data breaches or losses.
This in turn is leading to a spike in the demand for cyber security products. Currently, this market stands at a value of just over $1 billion, but by 2022, it is expected to reach an estimated value of $1.6 billion, according to a PwC report commissioned by the Data Security Council of India (DSCI).
Of the products that are expected to drive this growth, the biggest investment is likely to go into data security, followed by endpoint security.
Data security products include encryption, tokenisation, data masking, data loss prevention, information rights management, file and data access monitoring.
The endpoint security market is made up of products such as anti-virus and antispam software, host intrusion prevention software (HIPS), exploit protection, behavioural analysis of memory and continuous monitoring.
Other areas that businesses in India are expected to invest in include identity and access management, network security and security incident detection and response.
Cyber services
Aside from shoring up their operations against attacks and vulnerabilities, businesses are also looking to develop better response mechanisms. Experts have suggested that a company’s response in the wake of an attack, and the speed with which it closes the floodgates is just as crucial as the security framework in the first place.
At present, the market for cyber security services stands at just under $950 million, contributed mostly by security operations and implementation.
By 2022, this segment is expected to be valued at just over $1.4 billion. Security operations services involve managing and monitoring the configuration and health of security devices.
Meanwhile, security consulting services include planning of security strategies, policy development, building security architecture, compliance and risk, security awareness and conducting training.
The implementation segment is all about getting the delivery right. Here, new forms of knowledge transfer will prevail. “Security awareness and training delivery mechanisms will see a drift from classroom and web-based training modules to more interactive ones, such as gamification, simulations and on-demand training,” said the report.
Main industries
The study estimates that the cyber security market in India will be defined by three key sectors – banking and financial services industry (BFSI), information technology (IT) and information technology enabled services (ITeS), and government. These sectors will constitute 68% of the cyber market share.
The BFSI sector is expected to increase its expenditure to $810 million from the existing $518 million by 2022, at a CAGR of 16.1%. The growth can be attributed to several factors such as tightened directives from regulators, rapid adoption of technologies like digital lending, utility payments, e-commerce, online insurance marketplaces and mobile banking – to drive operational efficiency and customer convenience
The cyber security market in the government sector is estimated to grow from $395 million in 2019 to $581 million by 2022, at a CAGR of 13.8%. This growth is primarily driven by increased focus on digitisation of government systems and rising cyber attacks on critical state infrastructure.
Concluding, the report's authors highlighted the crucial need for India's government and businesses to beef up their cyber security frontiers. “The cyber security market is crucial to ensuring India’s stature as one of the world’s leading investment hubs, as well as the security of its major sectors, and is expected to become more pronounced and grow exponentially.”