Welcome to The 2021 Security Benchmark Report, which includes comparisons of all security organizations, sector reports, annual top trends and leadership profiles.

Benchmarking Security

More in-depth data from the report will be discussed and shared in The Security Benchmark webinar later this month. For more information, visit: www.securitymagazine.com/events/3008-the-security-benchmark-report-2021

We are very excited to share this year’s Security Benchmark Report. The purpose of The Security Benchmark Report is to allow security teams and organizations to compare themselves with their peers, both among the industry as a whole, as well as among individual sectors for even better comparison.

The majority (66%) of this year’s Security Benchmark Report leaders saw increases in their security budgets compared with 2020. Placing value on security seems to be a theme for many organizations in this year’s survey. Spending on technology, training, COVID-19 response, intelligence and other initiatives was a focus for many security leaders, with more than $72 billion spent collectively on security-related training last year for security staff, targeted functional groups and/or across the entire enterprise.

In this year’s Security Benchmark Report survey, we asked respondents about overall enterprise revenue or operating budget, security budgets, number of guarding personnel, security technologies, roles, responsibilities, reporting structure and much more. This year’s report also includes averages on “security budget as a percent of revenue” and “security budget per employee.”

We asked this year’s respondents which metrics were most important to their security programs and the enterprise as a whole, as well as what specific services they provided to the enterprise. (For more on which metrics security leaders find most beneficial to their programs, visit this month’s Security Talk).

Throughout the pages of the 2021 Security Benchmark Report, you will find:

• Main tables, charts and graphs from all respondents; rankings: security-related training spends, biggest technology spends, largest security budgets as a percent of revenue and more;
• Sector reports and rankings for more insight and comparison among industry sector’s security programs;
• Security Benchmark profiles, for which Security speaks with a few of our Security Benchmark Leaders for insight into their security programs, their biggest initiatives, critical issues and more.

Our editorial goal is to provide security professionals with comparisons for their roles, responsibilities, budgets, initiatives and more. We will continue to evolve and grow the program year after year.

Read on to learn more about how your security program measures up to your peers. For further data and comparisons beyond what is reported on these pages, fill out The Security Benchmark Report survey next year. Participants receive more data for more detailed insights with a free copy of the survey results.

For more information on The Security Benchmark Report and its methodology, visit the More About The Security Benchmark Report sidebar.

Below, you will find the following graphs, charts and data:

1. Top 10 Issues / Concerns for Security Leaders
2. Where Security Lives Within the Enterprise
3. Title of Senior-Most Security Executive
4. Security Roles, Responsibilities and Functions
5. Geographic Security Responsibility
6. Security Functions: Centralized, Decentralized, Regional
7. Security Policies, Metrics and More
8. Security Executive Insights
9. Security Budgets
10. Budget as a Percent of Revenue
11. Budget as a Percent of Revenue Ranking
12. Security Operations Center Services
13. Security-Related Training
14. Largest Security Training Spends
15. Security Systems and Technology
16. Biggest Security Technology Spends
17. Metrics-Driven Programs Ranking