Every IT position is also a cybersecurity position now. Every IT worker, every technology worker, needs to be involved with protecting and defending apps, data, devices, infrastructure and people.

There will be 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs globally in 2024 — enough to fill 50 NFL stadiums — according to Cybersecurity Ventures. This is up from Cisco’s previous estimation of 1 million cybersecurity openings in 2014.

The cybersecurity unemployment rate is at zero percent (for experienced workers, not entry-level positions), where it’s been since 2011.

Surging cybercrime will result in a similarly large number of unfilled positions over the next 5 years.

4. Global ransomware damage costs are predicted to exceed $265 billion by 2031.

Global ransomware damage costs were predicted to reach $20 billion annually in 2021, up from $325 million in 2015, which is a 57X increase. In eight years from now, the costs will exceed $265 billion.  

Cybersecurity Ventures predicted that a business fell victim to a ransomware attack every 11 seconds in 2021, up from every 14 seconds in 2019.  This makes ransomware the fastest-growing type of cybercrime.

The frequency of ransomware attacks on governments, businesses, consumers, and devices will continue to rise over the next 8 years and reach every two seconds by 2031.

5. The world will need to cyber protect 200 zettabytes of data by 2025.

Total global data storage is projected to exceed 200 zettabytes by 2025. This includes data stored on private and public IT infrastructures, on utility infrastructures, on private and public cloud data centers, on personal computing devices — PCs, laptops, tablets, and smartphones — and on IoT (Internet-of-Things) devices.

Cybersecurity Ventures predicts that the total amount of data stored in the cloud — which includes public clouds operated by vendors and social media companies (think Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, etc.), government-owned clouds that are accessible to citizens and businesses, private clouds owned by mid-to-large-sized corporations, and cloud storage providers — will reach 100 zettabytes by 2025, or 50 percent of the world’s data at that time, up from approximately 25 percent stored in the cloud in 2015.

6. The cyberinsurance market is predicted to hit $14.8 billion annually by 2025.

The increasing rate of cyberinsurance adoption is expected to surge over the next decade, as the growing profile of large-scale cyberattacks — and the accompanying financial risk they impose — prompts company directors and executives to move to limit their company’s exposure to cybersecurity compromise.

Cybersecurity Ventures predicts the cyberinsurance market will grow from approximately $8.5 billion in 2021 to $14.8 billion in 2025, and exceed $34 billion by 2031, based on a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 15 percent over an 11-year period (2020 to 2031) calculated.

7. Cryptocrime is predicted to cost the world $30 billion annually by 2025.

Rapid growth in the use of decentralized finance (DeFi) services is creating a new soft spot for global financial systems, fostering new methods of cryptocrime for cybercriminals whose “rug pulls” and other attacks will, Cybersecurity Ventures predicts, cost the world $30 billion in 2025 alone.

That’s nearly twice the $17.5 bilion lost in 2021 — and expected to grow by 15 percent annually as the cryptocurrency market continues to expand, fueling cybercriminals’ increasing interest in pilfering cryptocurrency stores.

Cybercriminals’ attention to crypto is manifesting in a range of ways, including direct exchange hacks and scams designed to trick people into handing over their cryptocurrency holdings for any number of false purposes.

8. Women are predicted to hold 30 percent of cybersecurity positions globally by 2025.

Women held 25 percent of cybersecurity jobs globally in 2022, up from 20 percent in 2019, and around 10 percent in 2013.

We predict that women will represent 30 percent of the global cybersecurity workforce by 2025, and that will reach 35 percent by 2031. This goes beyond securing corporate networks and includes IoT, IIoT and ICS security, and cybersecurity for medical, automotive, aviation, military defense, and other.

The gender gap becomes a chasm when we consider the top roles in cybersecurity. For example, women hold only 17 percent of chief information security officer (CISO) roles at Fortune 500 companies.

9. 90 percent of the human population, aged 6 years and older, will be online by 2030

Roughly one million more people join the internet every day.

There were around 6 billion people connected to the internet interacting with data in 2022, up from 5 billion in 2020 — and we predict there will be more than 7.5 billion internet users in 2030. 

If street crime grows in relation to population growth, so will cybercrime.

10. The world will need to secure 338 billion lines of new software code in 2025.

We estimate the world will need to secure 338 billion lines of new software code in 2025, up from 111 billion lines of new code in 2017, based on 15 percent year-over-year growth in new code.

This little-known statistic has been one of the most important for CISOs and security leaders to take note of over the past 5 years.

Organizations globally have a major application testing and scanning chore on their hands which has been created (in part) by self-taught and renegade programmers who’ve generated a massive amount of insecure code.

Stay tuned for ongoing updates with more cybersecurity market research from the editors at Cybersecurity Ventures.