The market for IT security products and services in Asia-Pacific will expand 15.5 per cent per year to reach $5.9bn by 2011, and broadband adoption in China will be a key driving factor, new forecasts predict.

"The potential in China's security solutions market is underpinned by the large number of companies starting to build out IT infrastructure, and rapidly increasing broadband internet adoption," said Willie Low, a senior market analyst at IDC.

Low predicts that security vendors will be earning 30 per cent of their Asia-Pacific revenues in China by 2011, up from 22 per cent now.

The growing market will knock Australia, the current security sales leader, into second place, while Korea, India and New Zealand will enter the top five sources of IT security revenue in the region.

IDC's definition of Asia-Pacific excludes Japan, a considerably larger market than any other in the region.

"Ubiquitous use of IT for daily work, the increasing reliance of business operations on IT, and the quickening pace of rolling out new applications and systems, all add to the risk of security breaches," said Low.

"These factors are driving enterprises to continue investing in IT security, and IDC recommends buyers to take the data-centric approach when designing the security framework, as information assets are often the crown jewels of an organisation."

However, Low warned that, despite the risks, firms in the region still tend to have a reactive rather than proactive attitude to security, presenting a challenge to vendors.