Around the world, many CIOs at various levels of governments expect an increase in cybersecurity spending in 2019, according to new research from Gartner, says Alia Mendonsa, co-author of the report.

Gartner's survey of 528 government CIOs worldwide found that almost half expect spending on cybersecurity to increase in 2019, which means it ranks as one of their top priorities for funding growth, Mendonsa explains in an interview with Information Security Media Group.

"Security is really fundamental to the delivery of digital services overall, and government's greatest asset is data," Mendonsa says. "As the stewards of the public's data, they really need to do everything in their ability to retain that trust."

In this interview (see audio link below photo), Mendonsa discusses:

The motivation for governments' security funding increases; Why government CIOs consider artificial intelligence/machine learning, data analytics, cloud and IoT as "game changing" technologies in 2019; What governments around the world have in common when it comes to funding for digital innovation and security.

Mendonsa is senior director and analyst for the government research team at Gartner. She joined the team after serving as an executive partner within Gartner's executive programs for over nine years.