The cybersecurity industry has witnessed exponential growth over the last decade. As the cyber threat became more imminent and challenging, companies across the board invested heavily to shield themselves against insidious and malicious cyberattacks. According to Fortune Business Insight, the overall value of the global cybersecurity market stood at approximately $172 – $190 Bn in 2023. The different segments within cybersecurity grew at an annual rate of 9% – 14% from 2015 to 2025, as per a rough estimate.
Driven by the impressive and optimistic growth, the last decade saw the emergence of scores of cybersecurity startups and companies while the job market also continued its upward trajectory. However, as is the case with everything, the cybersecurity industry is not without its share of problems and concerns, with some sceptics claiming that the future may not as rosy as the decade gone by.
There is one inevitable question that dominates the discourse of such sceptics and cautious experts: is cybersecurity oversaturated?
While it is always good to be optimistic, sometimes it is not really bad to exercise caution and introspect skepticism to unravel hidden truth. On this note, let’s try to find out if there is any semblance of truth to the hypothesis of cybersecurity being oversaturated.
When does market become oversaturated?
To get to the heart of the matter, we first need to clearly understand when any market get oversaturated? Actually, the term ‘oversaturated’ is pretty self-explanatory, which in this case means that either the market is witnessing overwhelmingly high competition or the demand for the service is seeing a steady stagnation.
Conventionally, in such a pessimistic scenario, the market won’t be able to absorb new players, and the job market also sees a sluggish growth.
While all industries go through unpredictability and cyclic growth, oversaturation implies that there is no stopping the downward trajectory and the chances of upswing is either very low or have completely diminished.
Listed below are the key indicators of an oversaturated market.
- Continuously steady decline in sales and revenue.
- Companies facing persistent difficulty in increasing their market share.
- Retaining existing customers becomes immensely challenging.
- Aggressive price war in the wake of cutthroat competition.
- The overwhelming need for continuous innovation for staying relevant and maintaining competitive edge.
Now the important question to be asked is whether any or all the above-mentioned indicators apply to cybersecurity industry. In other words, whether the cybersecurity industry is showing any sign, indication or symptom of saturation.
We’ll conclusively answer this question. But before that we’ll briefly look into the factors that is driving this hypothesis.
Factors that are driving the oversaturation
Basically, when people ask ‘is cybersecurity oversaturated?’ Most of them are essentially referring to the possibility of negative sentiments existing in the job market; implying that there might be low demand for cybersecurity jobs in the market.
Therefore, in the below point, you’ll find overwhelming reference to the job market. However, keeping a holistic approach, we’ve tried to expand the focus on the entire cybersecurity industry.
High number of entry level job seekers
Currently, the cybersecurity industry is unable to absorb the overwhelmingly high number of entry level job seekers. Cybersecurity is not an exception in this case as virtually every notable industry faces this classic problem.
Most of the entry level job seekers are high on theoretical knowledge while low on practical knowledge. This makes them uncompetitive, with most companies obviously preferring professionals having hands down practical knowledge about cybersecurity.
While it is hard to predict the future of these entry level job seekers, their unabated and growing numbers in the job market could have played a role in creating a negative perception about the industry.
Unpredictability due the rise of AI
While many are excited about AI’s potential impact on the cybersecurity industry, there is also lurking fear that it might gobble up jobs. While so far this fear is unfounded and many even downplay the negative impact of AI, there is no denying that AI has created a existential threat for job seekers as well as existing employees working in the cybersecurity industry.
The general perception is that the unprecedented rise of AI has created a cloud of uncertainty and this uncertainty is likely to persist unless we don’t know exactly what and how much of an impact AI will have on the entire industry.
Incessant pressure of innovation:
Although AI may have emerged as a game changer, the constant pressure for innovation and adopting to newer challenges remains high as ever before. After all, cybersecurity is a dynamic field where new threats keep emerging at rapid pace, putting incessant demand for creating efficient tools that can circumvent these emerging threats. This constant pressure creates an environment of unpredictability and uncertainty, potentially creating hinderance and impedance to industry’s growth. And wherever there is impedance to growth, there is also a lurking fear of saturation.
Boom in cybersecurity courses and programs:
This point is related to the first point, which dealt with entry level job seekers. The high number of entry level job seekers is reflection of the easy accessibility to cybersecurity courses and programs. The scores of universities and colleges running these courses are trying to cater to the job market’s huge demand for cybersecurity professionals.
Although these courses and programs are only able to impart basic skills, unable to fulfill industry’s huge demand for specialized skills. Today the industry’s clamour for specialized skills is getting more desperate but the void is only getting bigger.
Unless there is a drastic quality improvement in cybersecurity courses and programs, the colleges and universities will have to take a huge blame for creating a negative perception about the industry, especially with regards to the oversaturation of the market.
How much of this blame is fair or unfair remains debatable but the general perception is that these courses are not in sync with industry’s actual requirements.
Why cybersecurity market continues to grow?
We will now look at other side of the debate for finding a decisive answer to our pressing question ‘is cybersecurity oversaturated?’ As you may have guessed, the other side of this enraging debate is more positive and rosy.
Despite nagging insecurities, the overwhelming perception and forecast about the cybersecurity industry remains upbeat. Many experts have unwavering belief that despite stiff challenges, the cybersecurity industry will continue to witness a robust growth.
This positive hypothesis is built on apparently some strong arguments, which have been duly covered below.
Cybersecurity is too broad & diverse:
Cybersecurity is a dynamic field where new trends keep emerging and newer segments and subsegments keep adding up. This only reflects the diversity and its appetite for growth, which apparently gives this industry a robust immunity against any saturation and regression in the future.
To highlight the industry’s diversity, we’ve mentioned some of its important segments and branches.
- Cloud security.
- Network security.
- Threat intelligence.
- Ethical hacking.
- Penetration testing.
Increase government spending on cybersecurity:
Not just private companies but even the government of several key respective countries have realized the importance of building a robust cybersecurity infrastructure. In the wake of this realization, governments are expected to spend billions for safeguarding the confidential data of their citizens.
To give a perspective, according to a report prepared by Statista, the global government spending on cybersecurity had reached $80 Bn while this figure was expected to surpass $87 Bn.
To cite another example, according to the European Cybersecurity Organization Report, in 2020 the UK government had spent whopping $2.3 Bn on ramping up its online security infrastructure.
What could also propel the government spending is the imminent danger of cyberwar, where country’s vital digital infrastructure is targeted by the enemy state.
Overall, the continued government spending is expected to drive investment and growth of the cybersecurity industry in the coming years.
Estimated future projections are bright:
Let alone any signs of saturation, the estimated future growth of the cybersecurity industry looks pretty solid and bright. According to report by Modor Intelligence, the value of cybersecurity is expected to reach $234 Bn by end of 2025 and will reach $424 Bn by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 12.3%.
Persistent threat of cyberattack:
The one irrefutable fact is that the threat of cyberattack is going to remain persistent even in the future. In fact, in the ensuing years cybercriminals may get more embolden and deploy more sophisticated and insidious strategies. This means that the government and organizations will have to remain hypervigilant. This basically implies that governments and organizations across the board will continue to spend a big quantum of their budget in building an online security infrastructure and hiring the best cybersecurity professionals.
Ever increasing importance of data privacy:
Today there is more awareness about data privacy than ever before. As the internet and technological penetration continues to grow in the future, so will be the awareness about data privacy. This heightened awareness will obviously help in increasing the demand for cybersecurity solutions.
Pressure of regulatory compliance:
As the importance of data security will increase in future, this could possibly pave way for stricter regulations, for instance the GDPR. Stricter regulations and laws in future will likely make it mandatory for organizations to deploy stringent cybersecurity measures, driving the demand for cybersecurity services and solutions.
Rise of emerging industries:
Today the world is witnessing the rise of many emerging industries where data security will play a crucial role. These industries will be heavily reliant on data collection and processing, making data privacy a key component of their business. In other words, the rise of these emerging industries will bode well for the future of the cybersecurity industry.
Some of these emerging industries include:
- Fintech and digital banking.
- Smart cities and IOT.
- Blockchain and decentralized finance.
- Autonomous vehicles.
Conclusion
We would like to conclude that the cybersecurity industry isn’t oversaturating. In fact, there are no strong signals about any potential saturation or stagnation. Although challenges persist – especially with regards to skill gap and the requirement of skilled employees – the industry will most likely continue to grow at an impressive pace.
None of the conditions or factors defining or implying market saturation – as discussed above – can be currently associated with cybersecurity industry
Above all, the ever-growing realization about the importance of data security across the organization and governments firmly puts cybersecurity industry at the forefront of the growth trajectory. Therefore, the future of cybersecurity industry looks immensely bright.
