Cybersecurity Market Size: Spending Surges Toward $300B by 2028

A market defined by scale—and speed

In the Cyber Security sector, Global demand for cyber defense has entered a new phase of scale and urgency. The cybersecurity market is projected to grow from roughly $190 billion in 2023 to nearly $300 billion by 2028, driven by persistent ransomware, cloud adoption, and AI-enabled threats, according to industry analysts at MarketsandMarkets. That implies a high single‑digit compound annual growth rate—well above many broader IT categories—as security remains one of the few non‑discretionary line items in technology budgets.

While methodologies differ, multiple datasets point in the same direction: up. Information security technology and services are set to top the $200 billion mark in 2024, with the long‑term trajectory remaining positive through the second half of the decade, based on data from analysts. These totals capture a widening perimeter that now spans cloud, SaaS, operational technology (OT), connected devices, and data security posture management.

The investment intensity reflects a structural shift. Organizations are moving from point solutions to integrated platforms and managed services in search of faster time‑to‑value and lower operating complexity. That transition is reshaping vendor lineups and elevating providers that can secure identities, endpoints, networks, and cloud workloads under a unified architecture.

Breach economics and regulation are setting the pace

Security spending is increasingly justified by hard economics. The average cost of a data breach rose again in 2024 to nearly $4.9 million globally, with detection, escalation, and post‑incident recovery driving the bulk of expenses, according to IBM’s 2024 Cost of a Data Breach Report. For many boards, the expected value of prevention now outweighs the downside risk of disruption, fines, and reputational damage.

Policy is amplifying that urgency. In the U.S., publicly listed companies face stricter reporting obligations under new SEC cybersecurity disclosure rules, which require timely disclosure of material incidents and expanded transparency around risk management, strategy, and governance. The compliance mandate is accelerating investment in governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) tooling, incident response, and third‑party risk platforms—especially in sectors with complex supply chains.

Globally, executive oversight has tightened. Boards are taking a more active role in cyber resilience, and security leaders are being asked to translate technical risks into business terms. This alignment is boosting outlays on measurement frameworks, tabletop exercises, and cyber insurance—adjacent markets that reinforce the core spend on controls.

Where growth concentrates: cloud, identity, endpoint, and SASE

Under the headline growth, buyers are concentrating dollars in a few high‑velocity segments. Cloud security—particularly workload protection, posture management, secrets, and API security—continues to outpace on‑premise controls as enterprises re‑platform. Identity is another anchor: zero‑trust architectures have made identity and access management (IAM), privileged access management (PAM), and identity threat detection mission‑critical as the primary enforcement plane.

Endpoint and extended detection and response (EDR/XDR) remain foundational, but the value proposition is shifting from standalone agents to correlating signals across endpoints, identities, and networks. That’s pushing customers toward platforms from names like Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike, Cisco, Zscaler, Okta, and SentinelOne that promise consolidation, lower total cost of ownership, and better mean‑time‑to‑detect.

Network security is consolidating around the cloud as secure access service edge (SASE) and security service edge (SSE) deployments replace legacy appliances with scalable, policy‑driven services. As operational technology and IoT footprints expand, specialized OT security is also seeing faster growth from a smaller base, particularly in manufacturing, energy, and critical infrastructure.

The next leg: AI, talent, and regional dynamics

AI is both tailwind and headwind. Attackers are weaponizing generative tools to scale social engineering and malware iteration, but defenders are embedding AI into detection, response automation, and analyst workflows. The net effect: higher near‑term spend as organizations upgrade telemetry, labeling, and model governance to safely operationalize AI in security operations centers.

Beyond tools, people remain a constraint. The global shortage of skilled cyber professionals continues to elevate managed detection and response (MDR) and co‑managed models. Board‑level recognition of the talent gap and resilience imperative is climbing, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2024, which underscores the need for sustained investment in upskilling and public‑private collaboration.

Regionally, North America retains the largest share of spend, but Asia‑Pacific is the fastest‑growing theater as cloud adoption, data localization laws, and digitization initiatives widen the addressable market. Europe’s privacy‑first regulatory environment continues to steer investment toward data protection, encryption, and sovereignty‑aware cloud controls.

Outlook: durable growth with platform consolidation

The market’s center of gravity is shifting from tool accumulation to platform strategies that can demonstrate measurable risk reduction. Consolidation—through M&A and vendor rationalization—is likely to continue as buyers target fewer control planes, integrated data layers, and unified policy engines. That favors vendors with broad telemetry, open ecosystems, and the ability to interoperate across hybrid environments.

Macro risks persist, but cybersecurity budgets have proven resilient across cycles because the alternative—unmitigated operational risk—is costlier. With information security spend set to remain on an upward trajectory through 2028, as industry reports show, the sector looks positioned for durable, above‑IT growth. The near‑term watchlist: execution on platform roadmaps, AI safety and efficacy, regulatory harmonization, and the cadence of high‑impact incidents that keep cyber at the top of the board agenda.

For investors and operators alike, the message is clear. Cybersecurity is not merely a cost center—it’s an enabling layer for digital transformation. As forecasts point to a market approaching $300 billion by mid‑decade, the winners will be those that pair breadth with depth, translating sophisticated defense into provable business outcomes, as reflected in industry analysts’ projections.