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Companies in Asia-Pacific have been forced to confront the hacking threat after a series of high-profile attacks in recent months. Photo: Shutterstock

Global cybersecurity market may hit US$170 billion by 2020 amid hacking fears

Spending on cybersecurity will more than double from US$74.5 billion this year to US$170 billion by 2020, according to analysts. 

North America and Europe are currently the biggest markets, but Asia-Pacific is increasingly investing in this area amid concerns about hacking. 

Regional spending is tapped to hit US$32.95 billion by 2019, with a compound annual growth rate of roughly 14.1 per cent from 2013 until this date, InfoSecurity Magazine reported. It based its findings on the combined predictions of Visiongain, Gartner and Marketandmarkets.

Asia-Pacific was one of the fastest growing spenders, beaten only by Latin America, which had a predicted annual growth rate of around 17.6 per cent for the same period. 

Spending is expected to be particularly heavy in aerospace, defence and intelligence, according to analysts at TechSci Research.

Fears have been heightened in the region following a spate of recent revelations. 

In April, cybersecurity firm FireEye reported that China-linked hackers had been spying on governments and businesses in Southeast Asia and India uninterrupted for a decade. 
This month, universities in Hong Kong and a number of other Asian countries were caught up in major cyber attack which targeted more than 100 institutions and businesses around the world.
A leading cybersecurity expert has warned that companies in Asia-Pacific are ill-prepared to deal with the threats posed by cybercriminals. 

The number of detected cyber attacks worldwide rose 48 per cent on-year in 2014, according to a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers report. They are expected to keep rising at a similar rate this year. Over 100,000 attacks currently take place every day, PwC said.

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