According to Global Market Insights, a research and consulting firm, cybersecurity will be a $300 billion global market by 2024. That’s up from $120 billion in 2017.
On an enterprise level, one driver is the rapid adoption of networking technologies such as cloud platforms, which heighten potential exposure to data breaches, the report notes. As for consumers, their widespread use of “smart” devices has led to more cyber attacks on those devices.
Cybersecurity companies soaked up $5.3 billion in venture capital investments globally in 2018, according to a new report by research firm Strategic Cyber Ventures. That’s up about 20% from 2017 and more than double the total two years earlier.
Still, this rate of VC growth is “not sustainable,” the report warns. Many “zombie” companies exist, having raised massive investments but watched their growth stall. These firms “will eventually float to the surface over the next few years with less than desirable outcomes for investors and founders,” Strategic Cyber Ventures projects.
To be sure, financial news from the cybersecurity sector isn’t uniformly positive. On January 18, antivirus and encryption company Sophos Group cautioned investors about a modest drop in billings, as Reuters reports. Shares tumbled by 25%. In contrast, the British company’s U.S. competitors Symantec Corp. and Fire Eye each recently posted strong quarterly earnings.
Cybersecurity was to be on the lips of the movers and shakers at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos the week of January 21. Officials and technology executives, including India’s Information Technology Minister Lokesh Nara and Microsoft President Brad Smith, were scheduled to discuss a global framework for addressing cyber risks, as Abu Dhabi’s The National reports.
Back in the U.S., an Accounting Today op-ed calls for the federal government to offer incentives on cyber security, much as it does to consumers and businesses for solar energy. Dror Liwer, founder of cybersecurity firm Coronet, argues that most small business simply don’t have the capacity to invest in the cybersecurity precautions they need.
With the government shutdown in the spotlight, even despite the recent temporary deal, cybersecurity credits might not be Congress’s top priority. But a recent op-ed in the The Hill contends that lawmakers can find bipartisan agreement on a number of other cybersecurity initiatives. David Hickton and Kiersten Todt of the University of Pittsburgh Institute for Cyber Law, Policy and Security, urge Congress to pass measures on election security, data privacy, infrastructure protection and cybersecurity workforce development.