What can you afford NOT to do on IT security?

With the ailing economy putting a crimp in IT budgets, information security managers -- like just about everyone else in the tech world -- are feeling pressure to keep their costs in line.

Few expect to be hit with outright budget reductions, at least in the short term; regulatory requirements and the ever-expanding list of external and internal threats make it hard to devote less money to security efforts. But there is a growing push to curb or defer spending increases, according to IT managers and security analysts.

"It's imperative to squeeze every penny of value out of everything you do," said Jim Kirby, senior network engineer at DataWare Services, an IT services firm in Sioux Falls, S.D. This is a good time to stop working on "marginal" projects and redirect resources to security capabilities that are absolutely necessary, Kirby said.

Matt Kesner, chief technology officer at Fenwick & West LLP in San Francisco, said the law firm's security strategy for next year is to "focus on basics." Its 2009 IT budget doesn't call for reduced spending on security -- but neither does it include a funding increase.

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