Cybersecurity’s next leap: What’s driving the world’s fastest-growing tech sector?

Cybersecurity is the fastest-growing technology industry in the world, with the angst of cybersecurity driven by the increasing rate of digitisation of business, governments, and consumer devices as well as the rise in the number and sophistication of cyber threats. Due to the increased amount of critical infrastructure, IoT devices, and other common-place technologies being linked to the internet, the attack surface is broadening, compelling organisations to spend a lot of money in protection. Also within artificial intelligence, risks and defenses are increasing, so cybersecurity is an ever-changing challenge and a source of innovation and development.

The report by Cybersecurity Ventures with Evolution Equity Partners on the 2026 Cybersecurity Market, sees the cybersecurity product and services market spending globally hitting 1 trillion dollars per year in 2031 due to the growing risks associated with cyberattacks, as well as the growing digitalisation of critical infrastructure and customer gadgets.

According to the report, the world is increasingly spending on cybersecurity due to the increasing connection of everything to the internet, businesses and governments among other gadgets and cars. This translates to increased opportunities for hackers to create trouble thus businesses and individuals are investing in enhanced defence. Artificial intelligence is also increasing the intelligence of cyber threats and defences as well. This is making cybersecurity evolve rapidly and continue to evolve to match the evolving threats and technology.

Cybersecurity market growth 

Cybersecurity Ventures projects a 15 percent annual growth over the next five years, and the industry is projected to spend 522 billion dollars in the year 2026, and this is an increase in comparison to 260 billion dollars in 2021. This has been driven by the need to secure businesses, governments, internet of things gadgets, industrial control systems, semiconductors, medical devices and consumer electronics against cybercrime.

Almost15 percent of corporate cybersecurity expenditure is now external to the chief information security office (CISO), and non-CISO spending is projected to increase at a 24% CAGR in the next three years. More than 70% of the world security expenditure in 2025 will be in the U.S and Western Europe, although other areas such as Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, and the Middle East and Africa are also growing at a fast pace.

Cybercrime costs 

Cybersecurity Ventures estimates that cybercrime will result in the world spending 10.5 trillion dollars every year by 2025 in the third-largest economy after the U.S. and China. The report highlights that with the improvement of AI and digital technologies, the attack surface will only continue to grow, and next-generation cybersecurity solutions have to be continually invested in.

Major tech giants such as Microsoft, Cisco, and Google are major investors in cybersecurity, with Microsoft making about 37 billion in a single fiscal year in cybersecurity revenue by fiscal 2025. Consolidation of the market is also taking place with the 50 biggest publicly-traded IT security firms having a consolidated market worth of more than 700 billion dollars.

The road ahead

The Cybersecurity market globally will experience an unprecedented growth in the future due to the presence of technology, the growing threats of cybercrime, and the necessity to protect every industry strongly. It is in the best interest of organisations to invest in cybersecurity to protect against the changing risks in the dynamic environment as well as to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the changing environment.