The research house attributed this to Hong Kong's negative GDP growth in 2008 and its maturing IT environment.

The Asia Pacific security market grew at a solid rate of 28.3 percent in 2008, down from 36 percent in 2007, Gartner said.

"This growth is remarkable considering in the fourth quarter of 2008, global economies began to feel the impact of the credit crunch and the global economic downturn," said Matthew Cheung, senior research analyst, Gartner. "Double digit growth in a challenging economic climate confirms that security remains a key priority for Asia Pacific CIOs and IT security leaders."

Data security and privacy, along with the need to protect IT infrastructure from the ever increasing rise in sophisticated and targeted attacks in Asia Pacific, were among the key drivers fueling the growth of IT security software spending, said Gartner.

For organizations operating in mature markets such as Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong, compliance was a major driver, the research firm added.