Mogull said the message isn't about more security, but more security process.

"Security now has executive attention, and we need to treat it like a business issue, not just a technology problem," he added.

Also this week Gartner released its updated hype cycle for information security technologies, designed to help executives make decisions about how to allocate their security budgets.

It shows technologies such as spam filtering and Web services security standards moving rapidly towards broad acceptance, while the widespread adoption of biometrics remains more than 10 years away.

"Aside from the age-old need to 'keep the bad guys out', compliance with government and industry regulations is now playing a significant role in security spending decisions," Mogull said.