Bad Economy but Bright Future for Some Info Technology Pros

Software as a service, mobile applications and data security should continue to flourish during the recession.

That’s the gist of a story posted on The Wall Street Journal website:

While the spending slowdown is expected to hit many technology categories, some pockets of tech—such as online software, mobile applications and security—may see increased investment and attention.

Companies investing more in all three of these tech categories make sense. Also known as a variation of cloud computing, software as a service—online apps that replace those housed on PCs, laptops and servers—provide similar benefits at much lower costs. With more people using wireless devices, creating new mobile applications helps drive productivity. And, as The New York Times reported earlier this month—in an article entitled "Thieves Winning Online War, Maybe Even in Your Computer"—securing corporate computers and networks are more crucial than ever.

With vast resources from stolen credit card and other financial information, the cyberattackers are handily winning a technology arms race. “Right now the bad guys are improving more quickly than the good guys,” said Patrick Lincoln, director of the computer science laboratory at SRI International, a science and technology research group.

The Journal's report concurs:

The economic downturn is heightening cyber security problems. Phishing attacks—emails that pretend to be from banks or some other legitimate source—are growing in sophistication. Cyber criminals capitalized on the collapse of several financial institutions this year by sending emails claiming that customers of failed banks needed to log on to a Web site and update their account information. The Web sites were really controlled by cyber criminals.

With the right skills, prospects for many IT pros look solid in these recessionary times.