Driven by continued growth in the antivirus software market, worldwide security software revenue is expected to total $9.1 billion in 2007, a 10.7 percent increase over 2006 revenue of $8.2 billion, according to Gartner. Antivirus software revenue is expected to total $4.9 billion in 2007, and will account for 53.8 percent of the total security software industry.

"Prioritizing, choosing and maintaining security technologies will continue to be top issues for enterprises in 2007," said Nicole Latimer-Livingston, principal research analyst at Gartner. "This is being driven as companies and government agencies face continuing pressure to demonstrate compliance with the spirit and the letter of the law under various regulatory requirements, and to show business value and cost-effectiveness for security measures."