VeriSign has published the results of a survey which appears to buck the current doom and gloom economic trend. Instead it concludes that, in the UK at any rate, IT security professionals do not expect to see budgets cut over the next year.

The key word here being security, I suspect, as this is one area where businesses simply cannot afford to cut corners. The bean counters will have already calculated the risk factors and realised that leaving the business exposed to lawsuits and regulatory slaps will cost more than the short terms savings to be made.

Eighty-two percent of those asked said that a reduction in IT security spending in the downturn will hurt businesses in the long run.

However, those same IT professionals did concede that they are being pressured ever increasingly to demonstrate value and efficiency to the business. So at least there is some good coming out of this awful credit crunch then.

Yet while 63 percent believe that there will be no budget cut backs over the coming 12 months, some do still think budgets will be cut. These, remarkably, remain fairly positive with 77 percent of them saying that cut will be less than 20 percent.

When pressed as to where those cuts would happen, 75 percent expected staff to take the brunt of the bashing along with overhead costs.

Mike Davies, director of Identification and Authentication Services, VeriSign EMEA, said, "As consumer confidence erodes in the economic downturn, it's important that businesses encourage trust in online services. Security and trust need to be top of mind for businesses wishing to maintain the recent boom years of online transactions in today's economic climate."