That’s what INPUT predicts. But Zalud’s Blog heard at ASIS that government and homeland security spending will be impacted by the economic crisis that was not solved in the long-run by the Bush bailout.

Information security contract spending by the U.S. federal government will grow at a 7.9% five-year compounded annual growth rate, from $6.6 billion in 2008 to $9.6 billion by 2013, according to INPUT, the authority on government business. Growth in information security spending will outpace growth in overall federal IT spending due to the government’s continued need to address fundamental information security challenges at all levels.

“The federal government faces an information security ‘one-two punch’ of the continued danger of data theft and loss combined with an ever-increasing onslaught of cyber attacks from domestic and foreign sources,” said John Slye, principal analyst at INPUT. INPUT’s Federal Information Security Market Forecast, 2008-2013 examines ongoing challenges the government faces with frequent data losses, as well as explores key cyber security initiatives within defense, civilian, and intelligence agencies, including the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI), the Air Force Cyber Command, and other initiatives.

“Opportunities exist for vendors who can help the government achieve its drive toward real-time situational awareness of our national cyber security posture,” Slye added.“And a big part of that involves turning tons of data about network and application activity into useful, actionable information for those who are watching our backs.”

Security Operations is the largest segment of the information security market and the strongest area for future growth. Vendors offering security operations products and services, such as managed security services, patch management, and intrusion detection and response, stand to benefit over the next few years. Other key areas of anticipated investment, FISMA and HSPD-12 compliance, and Identity and Access Management, will also drive major growth over the next several years, according to the study.“As agencies press toward sharing information across entities, the need to securely manage access to this information becomes even more critical,” Slye said.

These findings and others were released in INPUT’s Federal Information Security Market Forecast, 2008-2013.More details are available at http://www.input.com/corp/library/detail.cfm?itemid=5437&cmp=OTC-fedinfosecfcst08.