Recent years have seen security take a prominent place on the political and corporate agenda. Organised crime, terrorism, disruption of global supply chains, computer viruses – all have played a role in raising people’s awareness of the risks they face in today’s world.
 
The result has been the emergence of a USD 100 billion market for security goods and services fed by growing demand from governments, businesses and private households. With globalisation and technological progress continuing at a rapid pace, the security economy is expected to expand further in the years ahead. New identification and surveillance technologies such as biometrics and radio frequency ID are coming on stream, and satellite-based monitoring is set to play an ever greater role.

How large are the potential economic costs of major disruptions to transport systems and information networks? What is the overall cost of tighter security? Are there trade-offs between higher levels of security and economic efficiency? What are the future implications for society of the growth of surveillance in terms of its impact on privacy and other democratic liberties? This report tackles those and many other questions critical to the security economy of the 21st century.