Cybersecurity Trends 2027
By Axis Intelligence Research
Co-author: Marcus Chen | Last updated: October 29, 2026 | License: CC BY 4.0
Quick Answer:
Axis Intelligence Research projects worldwide information security spending of about $275 billion in 2027 in its base case (range $256–285 billion), up roughly 12.6% from Gartner’s $244 billion estimate for 2026. That sits 4.3% below the only 2027 total Gartner has published ($287 billion, February 2024). The driver to watch: how much of each non-AI-hardware IT dollar buyers set aside for security.
Key Findings
- Axis Intelligence Research projects $275 billion of worldwide information security spending in 2027 in its base case, up about 12.6% from Gartner’s 2026 estimate of $244 billion.
- Security’s share of total IT spending slips from 3.82% in 2026 to 3.74% in 2027 in the Axis base case, because Gartner expects data center systems spending to grow 55.5% next year.
- Published estimates of the same closed year disagree: for 2025, MarketsandMarkets ($227.59 billion) sits 6.8% above Gartner ($213.025 billion), an Axis Intelligence Research calculation; for 2026, IDC ($308 billion) sits $64 billion above Gartner ($244 billion).
- Gartner’s August 2024 forecast for 2025 landed within 0.7% of its July 2025 estimate, but only because Gartner restated the 2024 base up 5.2%; implied 2025 growth fell from 15.1% to 10.1%.
- Ransomware crews collected more than $820 million on-chain in 2025, down 8% from $892 million, while claimed victims rose 50%, per Chainalysis (February 26, 2026).
Here’s what actually happened in 2026. The money kept flowing into security, but it flowed faster into everything around it. Gartner’s October 21, 2026 IT forecast has worldwide IT spending reaching $7.35 trillion in 2027, and the fastest line in that forecast — data center systems, up 55.5% to $1,366 billion — is mostly AI hardware that no SOC (security operations center) analyst will ever be asked to patch. Security grows in dollars and shrinks as a share. That is the 2027 story, and the six trends below explain where the dollars land.
AI-specific security — protecting models and agents, shadow AI, the securing-AI market — has its own outlook: see our AI cybersecurity trends for 2027. This page covers the whole security market.
How Much Will the World Spend on Cybersecurity in 2027?
Axis Intelligence Research projects about $275 billion in 2027 in its base case, measured in Gartner’s scope: end-user spending on security software, security services and network security. Gartner has not published a 2027 worldwide total in any public release since February 2024. Its latest public figures are $244 billion for 2026 (February 5, 2026 forecast analysis, 11.6% constant-currency growth) and $322 billion for 2029 (September 26, 2025 update). No year in between is interpolated here.
The Axis Base Case formula
Most market forecasts apply one growth rate to a total. This one splits 2027 into two drivers that can each be checked against a separate Gartner series:
Security spending 2027 = Security spending 2026 × (1 + growth of the protectable IT base) × (1 + security intensity deepening)
- Protectable IT base = worldwide IT spending minus data center systems. The logic: AI server and storage purchases inflate IT totals without adding firewalls, endpoints or SOC seats in proportion. From Gartner’s October 21, 2026 table, that base is $5,512 billion in 2026 ($6,391 billion − $879 billion) and $5,986 billion in 2027 ($7,352 billion − $1,366 billion). Growth: 8.6%.
- Security intensity = security spending ÷ protectable IT base. In 2026 Gartner’s own figures imply 4.43% ($244 billion ÷ $5,512 billion). Intensity deepened by 3.6% in 2026: Gartner’s July 2025 table put 2026 security growth at 12.55%, against 8.59% growth in the protectable base backed out of the October 2026 table.
$244 billion × 1.086 × 1.036 = $274.6 billion, published as $275 billion. Intensity rises to 4.59% of the protectable base. Measured against total IT, security falls from 3.82% to 3.74%.
Base, upside and downside scenarios for 2027
| Scenario | 2027 security spending (Axis projection) | Protectable IT base growth | Intensity deepening | What would confirm it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Downside | about $256 billion | 5.0% | 0% | Gartner’s next IT update trims devices and services as memory-driven price increases suppress end-user demand; platform bundles discount renewals |
| Base | about $275 billion | 8.6% | 3.6% | Gartner’s December 2026 security update holds 2027 growth near the low teens |
| Upside | about $285 billion | 10.0% | 6.0% | IT forecast revised up again; post-quantum procurement rules and EU product-security deadlines pull budgets forward |
Source: Axis Intelligence Research calculation from Gartner (July 29, 2025 and October 21, 2026). Unrounded: $256.2B, $274.6B, $284.5B.
The downside is a demand story, not a threat story. Gartner’s October release warns that memory price inflation will support spending in dollars while suppressing end-user demand through 2027. Security budgets ride on the same procurement cycles as laptops and services contracts; if those stall, intensity is the only lever left.
Which assumption matters most?
Neither dominates — and that is the useful finding. Moving protectable-base growth 2 points either way shifts the result to $270–280 billion. Moving intensity deepening 2 points either way shifts it to $269–280 billion. A CISO’s budget share counts as much as the macro IT cycle. Plan against both.
How the base case compares with Gartner and IDC
The base case sits $12 billion (4.3%) below Gartner’s February 2024 projection of $287 billion for 2027. Reaching $287 billion from Gartner’s current 2026 estimate would require intensity to deepen 8.3% next year — more than double the 3.6% observed in 2026. Two caveats keep this from being a verdict on Gartner: the 2024 figure used a broader “information security and risk management” scope, and Gartner has since restated its history (see the track-record check below).
IDC is the bigger outlier on level, not on growth. Its March 3, 2026 guide puts 2026 at $308 billion, up 11.8%, with $430 billion by 2029. Growth rates of 11.6% (Gartner) and 11.8% (IDC) for 2026 are almost identical; the $64 billion gap is scope. Our 12.6% for 2027 runs slightly hotter than both 2026 rates, because 2027’s protectable base grows as fast as 2026’s while intensity keeps deepening.
Follow the budget side on our cybersecurity spending statistics and per-company ratios in our cybersecurity budget benchmarks.
Source: Axis Intelligence Research, Cybersecurity Trends 2027 (CC BY 4.0)
Why Do Cybersecurity Market Size Forecasts Disagree So Much?
Because “cybersecurity market” means three different things: end-user spending (Gartner, IDC), vendor revenue (MarketsandMarkets, Fortune Business Insights), and a hardware-heavy market model (Grand View Research). Put them on one row and the spread looks like disagreement. It’s mostly definition.
Cybersecurity forecast reconciliation table
| Firm | Published | Scope | Base-year value | Horizon value | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gartner | Jul 29, 2025 | End-user spending | $213.025B (2025) | $239.759B (2026) | Gartner |
| Gartner | Sep 26, 2025 | End-user spending | $244B (2026) | $322B (2029), 10.0% CAGR cc 2024–29 | Gartner abstract |
| Gartner | Feb 5, 2026 | End-user spending | — | $244B (2026), +11.6% cc | Gartner abstract |
| Gartner | Feb 29, 2024 | Security and risk management (broader) | — | $287B (2027), 11.0% CAGR cc 2022–27 | Gartner abstract |
| IDC | Mar 3, 2026 | Security hardware, software, services spending | — | $308B (2026), $430B (2029) | IDC |
| MarketsandMarkets | Jul 2, 2025 | Vendor market (solutions + services) | $227.59B (2025) | $351.92B (2030), 9.1% CAGR | MarketsandMarkets |
| Fortune Business Insights | updated Jul 13, 2026 | Vendor market | $218.98B (2025) | $248.28B (2026); $699.39B (2034), 13.8% CAGR | Fortune Business Insights |
| Grand View Research | Dec 2025 | Hardware, software, services (hardware 54.2% of 2025) | — | $663.24B (2033), 11.9% CAGR 2026–33 | Grand View Research |
| Axis Intelligence Research | Oct 29, 2026 | End-user spending (Gartner scope) | $244B (2026, Gartner) | $275B (2027), base case | This page |
Forecasts are copied at the precision each firm published. Grand View Research’s 2025 base appears only in reseller listings of its report, not in its own release, so it is not shown.
The Axis reading
For 2025 — a year already closed — three estimates sit within 7% of each other: Gartner $213.025 billion, Fortune Business Insights $218.98 billion (2.8% above Gartner) and MarketsandMarkets $227.59 billion (6.8% above). The real divergence shows up past 2030, where the long-dated vendor models (Grand View Research to 2033, Fortune Business Insights to 2034) hold double-digit growth for eight or nine years. Nothing in today’s budget data can confirm year nine. Treat any “$700 billion cybersecurity market” headline as a compounding exercise, and ask for the scope line.
Track record: how Gartner’s last forecast for 2025 held up
Gartner’s August 28, 2024 release forecast 2025 at $211.552 billion, up 15.1%. Its July 29, 2025 release put 2025 at $213.025 billion — within 0.7%. Looks like a bullseye. It isn’t quite. In the same edition Gartner restated 2024 from $183.872 billion to $193.408 billion, up 5.2%, so the implied 2025 growth rate fell from 15.1% to 10.1%, an Axis Intelligence Research calculation. The level held; the growth story was rewritten underneath it. When a vendor deck quotes “15% annual growth in security spending,” check which edition it came from.
IDC’s call held up too: its March 2023 guide expected security spending of nearly $300 billion in 2026; its March 2026 edition puts 2026 at $308 billion [older data — the 2023 edition is the only earlier IDC figure for 2026 found].
Trend 1: Will Security Lose Share of the IT Budget in 2027?
Yes, on Gartner’s own numbers. Security’s share of total IT spending falls from 3.82% in 2026 to 3.74% in 2027 in the Axis base case, even as security dollars grow about 12.6%.
The mechanism is the denominator. Gartner’s October 21, 2026 table has data center systems up 73.8% in 2026 and 55.5% in 2027, while software grows 14.6% and services 4.9% in 2027. AI infrastructure is pulling the total up faster than anything a security team buys. Against the protectable base, intensity still rises, from 4.43% to 4.59%.
Why it matters for 2027 budgets: boards that benchmark security as “percent of IT” will see the ratio fall and may read it as under-investment — or, worse, as room to cut. Neither reading is right. The ratio fell because the AI build-out inflated the denominator, not because security spending shrank. Benchmark against IT excluding data center systems, or against revenue.
Watch the AI build-out on our AI capex tracker and AI data center tracker.
What would prove it wrong: Gartner revising 2027 data center systems growth sharply down in its January 2027 IT update. Who it affects: CISOs defending budget ratios; vendors that price against “share of wallet.”
Trend 2: When Do Post-Quantum Cryptography Deadlines Hit?
They stopped being “someday” in 2026. Executive Order 14412, signed June 22, 2026, requires US federal agencies to move high-value assets and high-impact systems to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) for key establishment by December 31, 2030 and for digital signatures by December 31, 2031. It also directs the FAR Council to propose a rule requiring covered contractors to comply with NIST’s PQC standards by December 31, 2030, and NIST to complete a pilot migration by December 31, 2027, per the White House text.
Post-quantum cryptography means algorithms designed to resist attack by both quantum and classical computers. The threat that makes it urgent now is “harvest now, decrypt later”: traffic recorded today, decrypted once a capable quantum computer exists.
NIST finalized IR 8547 on October 27, 2026 — two days before this page went live — as the technical roadmap supporting the order.
The national-security side runs on an older, product-by-product clock. NSA’s Commercial National Security Algorithm Suite 2.0 (CNSA 2.0) advisory expects traditional networking equipment such as VPNs and routers to support and prefer quantum-resistant algorithms by 2026 and use them exclusively by 2030, operating systems to support and prefer them by 2027 and use them exclusively by 2033, and the whole National Security Systems transition to be complete by 2035, per the NSA advisory. That puts operating systems inside the 2027 window, and it reaches every vendor that sells into defense.
Europe set three dated milestones in its coordinated roadmap (version 1.1, June 11, 2025; published by the Commission June 23, 2025). By December 31, 2026, every Member State should have an initial national PQC roadmap and pilots under way for high- and medium-risk use cases. By December 31, 2030, the transition for high-risk use cases should be complete and quantum-safe software and firmware upgrades enabled by default. By December 31, 2035, medium-risk use cases should be done and low-risk ones as far as feasible, per the EU roadmap.
The deployment data is lopsided. Cloudflare reported in October 2025 that more than half of human-initiated traffic through its network used post-quantum key agreement, but only 3.7% of customer origin servers supported it (company-reported) [older data — Cloudflare's latest annual PQ review]. Browsers moved; back ends did not. That gap — the origin, the internal service mesh, the hardware security module — is where 2027 PQC money goes.
What would prove it wrong: the FAR proposed rule slipping past its 180-day window, or agencies reporting no funded migration plans. Who it affects: federal contractors first, then PKI owners, HSM vendors and anyone running long-lived encrypted data.
Trend 3: Is Ransomware Becoming Data Extortion Without Encryption?
For a large share of cases, yes — and it’s paying less. Chainalysis counted more than $820 million in on-chain ransomware payments in 2025, down 8% from a revised $892 million, while claimed victims rose 50% and the share of victims paying fell to an estimated 28%, a potential all-time low (February 26, 2026).
Verizon’s breach data points the same way from a different population: in the Verizon 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report, 69% of ransomware victims didn’t pay, and the median ransom paid fell to $139,875 from $150,000 a year earlier. Two unrelated datasets — on-chain payments and confirmed breaches — now put the paying share at roughly three in ten (28% in Chainalysis’s estimate, 31% implied by Verizon), an Axis Intelligence Research reading. That convergence is the strongest evidence yet that refusal to pay is the norm, not a sampling quirk.
Coveware by Veeam’s Q3 2026 report, published October 28, 2026, shows the shift in tactics. Data exfiltration appeared in 71% of the incidents it handled, and roughly 80% of pure data-exfiltration incidents were resolved without a payment. The median payment rose to $400,000 while the average fell to $1,025,278, and the median victim had 1,121 employees — attackers moving up-market without taking on hardened enterprises.
One counter-signal matters for 2027. Impact — encryption or service disruption — rose to 50% of Coveware’s Q3 cases, and Coveware expects some groups to return to encryption because pure exfiltration pays unpredictably. Read 2027 as two markets: high-volume, low-yield data theft against mid-market firms, and a smaller set of disruptive attacks where downtime forces the payment decision.
The US complaint data shows how little of this surfaces. The FBI’s IC3 logged 3,611 ransomware complaints with $32.32 million in reported losses for 2025 — a rounding error next to Chainalysis’s on-chain total, because victims rarely report payments. Full ransomware figures live on our ransomware statistics page; follow new victims on our data breach tracker.
What would prove it wrong: Chainalysis’s 2027 report showing payments rising faster than claimed victims. Who it affects: legal and professional services, healthcare and mid-market firms in regulated sectors.
Trend 4: How Are Attackers Getting In — Exploits or Stolen Logins?
Both, depending on whose data you read. The Verizon 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), built on more than 31,000 incidents and more than 22,000 confirmed breaches between November 1, 2024 and October 31, 2025, found exploitation of vulnerabilities was the initial access route in 31% of breaches, up from 20% — a 55% increase — and now the most common entry point. Credential abuse, the previous leader, fell to 13% from 22%; Verizon notes it would have been 16% without a methodology change that now counts pretexting (social engineering by phone, text or email conversation) separately, per Verizon.
The patching side got worse, not better. Only 26% of vulnerabilities in CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog were fully remediated by organizations in 2025, down from 38%, and the median time to full resolution rose to 43 days from 32. Breaches with third-party involvement rose 60% to 48% of all breaches, and only 23% of third-party organizations fully fixed missing or weak multifactor authentication on their cloud accounts, per the Verizon 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report. Put the two numbers together and the 2027 problem is plain: the entry point that grew fastest is the one defenders are closing slowest.
Coveware’s ransomware caseload points the other way: phishing and social engineering led initial access at roughly 29% in Q3 2026, and the report argues identity abuse dominates. The two aren’t contradictory. Verizon counts all confirmed breaches; Coveware counts extortion cases it negotiated, where help-desk calls and stolen sessions are the cheap way in. The Axis reading: exploitation wins on volume across the whole breach population, identity wins inside the extortion economy. Budget both — patching cadence for edge devices, and phishing-resistant authentication for the help desk.
Track exploitation live on our CISA KEV tracker and zero-day tracker. Exploit timing and AI-assisted vulnerability discovery are covered in our AI cybersecurity trends.
What would prove it wrong: DBIR 2027 showing credential abuse back on top. Who it affects: anyone with internet-facing VPNs and firewalls; suppliers whose access is now half the breach story.
Trend 5: Will Cybersecurity Consolidation Continue in 2027?
The two largest deals in the industry’s history closed in 2026. Google completed its acquisition of Wiz on March 11, 2026 for $32 billion, per Google’s antitrust counsel Cleary Gottlieb; Alphabet’s own release confirmed the closing and that Wiz keeps its brand across AWS, Azure and Oracle Cloud. Palo Alto Networks completed its CyberArk acquisition on February 11, 2026, paying $45.00 in cash plus 2.2005 Palo Alto Networks shares per CyberArk share, according to its Form 8-K.
The buyers’ logic is visible in what they bought: cloud security and identity — IDC names cloud-native application protection platforms (CNAPP) and identity and access management software among its fastest-growing categories in 2026, alongside data security software. IDC expects software to exceed half of security spending in 2026 and grow 14%.
For buyers, consolidation cuts both ways. Platform bundles lower the line-item price; they also make security spending harder to see, which is why the downside scenario above assumes zero intensity deepening. Compare SIEM platforms on our SIEM Scoring Matrix.
What would prove it wrong: a large independent vendor IPO or raise that keeps a category standalone. Who it affects: procurement teams renegotiating multi-product renewals in 2027.
Trend 6: Which Cyber Reporting Rules Take Effect in 2027?
The EU moves on schedule; the US does not. The EU Cyber Resilience Act’s reporting duty has applied since September 11, 2026 — a 24-hour early warning and 72-hour notification for actively exploited vulnerabilities and severe incidents, per the European Commission. The regulation’s main product obligations apply from December 11, 2027 under Article 71 of Regulation (EU) 2024/2847.
In the US, the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act (CIRCIA) still has no final rule. CISA’s page states that reporting is not required until the final rule’s yet-to-be-determined effective date; when it lands, covered entities will report substantial incidents within 72 hours and ransom payments within 24 hours, per CISA.
Insurers are writing their own rules meanwhile. Munich Re estimates the global cyber insurance market at nearly $15 billion in 2025 and around $28 billion by 2030 (April 22, 2026). See our cyber insurance statistics.
What would prove it wrong: a CIRCIA final rule with a 2027 effective date (upside for US compliance spending). Who it affects: EU-market product manufacturers now; US critical infrastructure operators once CISA publishes.
How Big Is Cybercrime Compared With Cybersecurity Spending?
It depends entirely on which number you pick, and the gap between them is the most misquoted ratio in the field.
| Measure (2025) | Value | What it counts | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Modelled global cybercrime cost | $10.5 trillion | Estimate including lost productivity, IP theft, reputational harm | Cybersecurity Ventures (estimate) |
| Worldwide security spending | $213.025 billion | End-user spending on security | Gartner (estimate) |
| Losses reported to the FBI | $20.877 billion | 1,008,597 complaints, mainly US | FBI IC3 |
| Cyber insurance premiums | nearly $15 billion | Global premiums | Munich Re (estimate) |
| On-chain ransomware payments | more than $820 million | Traced crypto payments | Chainalysis (estimate) |
The modelled cybercrime figure is about 503 times the losses reported to the FBI, an Axis Intelligence Research calculation — a measure of how different the scopes are, not a finding about crime. Security spending is about 14 times global cyber insurance premiums. The FBI’s reported losses rose 26% in 2025; that is the hardest “cost of cybercrime” growth number available, and it comes with the caveat that it counts only what victims report. More on our cybercrime statistics.
What Could Change This Outlook?
| Signpost | Date | Pushes toward | Watch it on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gartner 4Q26 information security forecast | expected December 2026 (4Q25 edition: Dec 18, 2025) | Base if 2027 growth holds in low teens | cybersecurity spending statistics |
| Gartner quarterly IT spending update | expected January 2027 | Upside if protectable base raised; downside if devices and services cut | — |
| EU Member State initial PQC roadmaps and pilots due (EU Milestone 1) | December 31, 2026 | Upside for PQC spending in Europe | — |
| FAR proposed rule on contractor PQC compliance | within 180 days of June 22, 2026 | Upside for federal-contractor spending | — |
| Coveware Q4 2026 report | expected late January 2027 | Trend 3: payment rates near lows confirm | ransomware statistics |
| Chainalysis 2027 ransomware chapter | expected late February 2027 (2026 edition: Feb 26) | Trend 3 | — |
| IDC Worldwide Security Spending Guide | expected March 2027 (2026 edition: Mar 3) | Reconciliation update | — |
| FBI IC3 2026 report | expected April 2027 (2025 report: Apr 6, 2026) | Cost-of-crime baseline | cybercrime statistics |
| Verizon DBIR 2027 | expected May 2027 (2026: May 19) | Trend 4: exploitation share above 31% and KEV remediation below 26% confirm | KEV tracker |
| NSA CNSA 2.0: operating systems support and prefer quantum-resistant algorithms | 2027 | Trend 2 | — |
| NIST PQC pilot completion | December 31, 2027 | Trend 2 | — |
| EU Cyber Resilience Act full application | December 11, 2027 | Upside timing for product-security spend | — |
Expected dates are inferred from each publisher’s previous release and labeled as such.
How Axis Intelligence Research Built This Outlook
Inputs. Every figure was fetched from its producer on October 29, 2026 and is logged with URL and retrieval date in the dataset. No figure was taken from a published Axis page. Gartner, IDC, Chainalysis, Munich Re and the market-research firms are measurement firms; their figures are estimates. Coveware, Cloudflare, Verizon and Palo Alto Networks figures are company-reported; Verizon figures are cited as the “Verizon 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report” per its citation terms. Coveware is owned by Veeam, which sells backup and recovery; its caseload is still the most-cited ransomware payment series.
Why this formula. Gartner’s 2027 security total is not public, but its 2027 IT forecast is. Linking the two through the protectable IT base uses only Gartner series, which keeps scope consistent, and isolates the one assumption that is genuinely Axis’s: intensity deepening.
Limitations. The 2026 starting value ($244 billion, February 2026) and the intensity history (July 2025 security table, October 2026 IT table) come from different Gartner editions; Gartner’s detailed quarterly files are not public. Intensity deepening rests on one year of history. The upside (10% base growth, 6% deepening) and downside (5%, 0%) values are Axis assumptions chosen to bracket plausible outcomes; readers can substitute their own. Current-dollar figures move with exchange rates; Gartner’s stated growth rates are partly constant-currency.
Excluded. Vendor-blog figures attributed to Gartner’s paid 2Q26 and 3Q26 detailed forecasts were excluded because they could not be verified in a public Gartner document.
Grade-back. We will compare this projection with reported outcomes in January 2028, using the first Gartner edition that reports 2027 as a historical year. That comparison will open the 2028 edition of this page, right or wrong. This is the first edition of this outlook.
Cybersecurity in 2027: Frequently Asked Questions
How much will companies spend on cybersecurity in 2027?
About $275 billion worldwide, in Axis Intelligence Research’s base case (range $256–285 billion). That compares with Gartner’s 2026 estimate of $244 billion. Gartner has not released a public 2027 total since its February 2024 figure of $287 billion.
Is cybersecurity spending still growing faster than IT?
No — not in 2027. Gartner forecasts total IT spending up 15% in 2027; the Axis base case has security up about 12.6%. The difference is AI data center hardware, forecast to grow 55.5%.
What percentage of the IT budget goes to security?
Globally, about 3.8%: Gartner’s $244 billion security estimate is 3.82% of its $6,391 billion IT forecast for 2026. Excluding data center systems, the share is 4.43%.
Why is IDC’s cybersecurity number bigger than Gartner’s?
Scope. IDC’s Worldwide Security Spending Guide counts security hardware, software and services across 38 technology markets and put 2026 at $308 billion. Gartner’s end-user forecast put 2026 at $244 billion. Their 2026 growth rates are nearly identical: 11.8% and 11.6%.
Is the “$10.5 trillion cybercrime” figure real?
It’s a model, not a measurement. Cybersecurity Ventures estimates $10.5 trillion for 2025 by including lost productivity and reputational harm. Losses actually reported to the FBI in 2025 were $20.877 billion.
What is the post-quantum cryptography deadline?
For US federal high-value systems: December 31, 2030 for key establishment and December 31, 2031 for digital signatures, under Executive Order 14412. Covered federal contractors face a proposed requirement to meet NIST’s post-quantum standards by December 31, 2030.
Are fewer ransomware victims paying?
Yes. Chainalysis estimates 28% of victims paid in 2025, potentially an all-time low, and the Verizon 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report found 69% of ransomware victims didn’t pay. Coveware reports roughly 80% of pure data-theft extortion cases in Q3 2026 ended without payment.
How long do companies take to patch actively exploited vulnerabilities?
A median of 43 days to full resolution in 2025, up from 32 days, according to the Verizon 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report. Only 26% of vulnerabilities in CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog were fully remediated, down from 38%.
Is the cybersecurity job market shrinking?
Not shrinking, but not loosening either. ISC2’s 2025 study of 16,029 professionals found budget cuts at 36% and layoffs at 24% of respondents’ organizations, each down one point, with AI the most-cited skills need at 41%. Check pay by role with our cybersecurity salary calculator.
About This Dataset
cybersecurity-trends.csv holds 168 rows: the forecast reconciliation table (Gartner, IDC, MarketsandMarkets, Fortune Business Insights, Grand View Research, 2024–2026 editions), Gartner’s October 2026 IT spending table, every Axis base-case input, scenario and sensitivity result with its formula, the track-record calculations, and the dated indicators and regulatory milestones cited above. Every row carries its source organization, URL, retrieval date, a primary-source flag and, for Axis rows, the method. License: CC BY 4.0.
How to cite this page
- APA: Axis Intelligence Research, & Chen, M. (2026). Cybersecurity trends 2027: Spending nears $275 billion while security loses share of the IT budget. Axis Intelligence. https://axis-intelligence.com/cybersecurity-trends/
- MLA: Axis Intelligence Research, and Marcus Chen. “Cybersecurity Trends 2027.” Axis Intelligence, 29 Oct. 2026, axis-intelligence.com/cybersecurity-trends/.
- Chicago: Axis Intelligence Research and Marcus Chen. “Cybersecurity Trends 2027: Spending Nears $275 Billion While Security Loses Share of the IT Budget.” Axis Intelligence, October 29, 2026. https://axis-intelligence.com/cybersecurity-trends/.
For present-day numbers, start with the full cybersecurity statistics pillar or browse all Cybersecurity & Digital Trust outlooks.
Review trigger: Gartner’s next information security forecast, the FAR PQC proposed rule, or a CIRCIA final rule — whichever comes first.
Found an error? [email protected] — corrections are dated and published at the bottom of this page.