- Hacking tops league table of security topics in the media -

London UK, 27 April 2010: Apollo Research’s latest report on how the media cover security shows an increasing interest in hacking, with hacking’s profile up seven per cent. When size of audience for the coverage is factored in, the jump is even more pronounced – the result of more mainstream media turning their attention to the issue.

Hacking is just one of many topics within a media landscape reflecting an increasingly diverse and sophisticated set of threats. At the same time, the picture emerges of a highly competitive security industry vying to provide solutions to the threats.

The top ten companies in terms of security-related media coverage over the past six months were as follows:

Microsoft
Google
Symantec
Apple
McAfee
Sophos
Kaspersky
Vmware
Trend Micro
Panda
It is noticeable that Microsoft, Google and Apple in particular are covered for their vulnerabilities as well as the solutions they provide.

According to Apollo Research, the speed of change within media coverage of security is accelerating. One feature of the change has been spam and data protection losing ground to hacking. As Richard Laven, Research Director at Apollo, comments, “Coverage of hacking has increased significantly in the last six months, largely as a result of the hacking activity in China and the conviction of Albert Gonzalez, and we fully expect this to be a key topic both at this year’s Infosecurity Europe and beyond.”

In addition to commenting on the key players associated with the show, Apollo Research has issued a warning about the lack of opportunity in the general market. As Laven concludes, “Our latest report on the sector shows that the complexity of the market is restricting opportunities for those outside of the top ten to be heard. With success in the industry largely dependent on articulating credible responses to emerging threats, the fact that 40.2 per cent of the coverage is by only ten industry players is a worrying trend.”

For more details of the report, call +44 (0)20 8979 4443

ENDS

Notes to editors:

About Apollo Research
Apollo Research provides PR measurement for the technology Industry, analysing over 170,000 articles written by over 10,000 journalists each month across 12 European Countries and the USA. Apollo tracks, evaluates and reports on over technology companies and 7,000 topics and themes. Apollo works for over 200 companies in the technology industry throughout Europe and the USA. Our tools help these companies measure their own and their competitors' media coverage. The result: critical information that tells companies how they are performing and where they can improve their future coverage.

For further details please contact:
Apollo Research.
Tel: +44 (0)20 8979 4443
Email: [email protected]

For media enquiries please contact:
Champion Communications
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7 268 3076
Email: [email protected]