Top 10 Emerging Cybersecurity Technologies & Trends to Watch in 2026

Executive Summary: 10 Emerging Cybersecurity Technologies to Watch in 2026

1. AI-driven Autonomous Defense: AI-powered attacks rose sharply in 2024, including an 84% jump in infostealer-laden emails. CrowdStrike also recorded approximately USD 3.95 billion in revenue in 2025.
2. Passwordless and Modern Identity Authentication: Microsoft blocked 7000 password attacks per second in 2024. Also, Amazon, Google, and Sony enabled over one billion passkey-supported accounts, improving sign-in success by up to 30% and reducing time by 6 times.
3. Post-Quantum and Next-Gen Cryptography: The post-quantum cryptography market reached USD 1.15 billion and will grow to USD 7.82 billion by 2030, reflecting urgent migration needs. JPMorgan deployed quantum-safe encryption pilots that secured millions of records and achieved zero data loss in tests.
4. Zero-Trust Architecture (ZTNA): Gartner predicts ZTNA will support 70% of remote access deployments in 2025, replacing VPN-based cybersecurity technology solutions. The US DoD implemented 45 capabilities and 152 zero-trust activities, while Zscaler reported USD 647.9 million in quarterly revenue.
5. Security Automation and Self-Healing Infrastructure (SOAR): SOAR platforms reduced mean time to response by up to 95%, addressing the 4.8-million global cybersecurity workforce gap. A global bank cut incident resolution from 10 days to 5 hours, and IBM SOAR delivered a 444% ROI over three years.
6. Internet of Things (IoT) and Operational Technology (OT) Security: Connected IoT devices will hit 21.1 billion in 2025 and will reach 39 billion by 2030, widening the attack surface. Industrial ransomware cases rose 87% in 2024, with manufacturing comprising 70% of attacks.
7. Blockchain and Decentralized Identity: The decentralized-identity market will grow from USD 4.89 billion in 2025 to USD 41.73 billion by 2030. Blockchain-based identity systems reduce breaches by 80% and KYC onboarding time by 60%.
8. Cloud-Native and Multi-Cloud Security (CSPM/CNAPP/API Protection): The CSPM market grew 45.1% year-over-year, and the CNAPP sector expanded 42% in Q2 2024 to nearly USD 700 million. Misconfiguration incidents, which cause major breaches like Capital One and Toyota, dropped by 55% for enterprises deploying CNAPP/CSPM.
9. Software Supply Chain Security and SBOM Management: Over 76% of organizations experienced a supply chain attack in 2024, and global losses will reach USD 60 billion in 2025. The SBOM market hit USD 1.31 billion, while attacks such as Shai-Hulud infected 187 npm packages with 2 million weekly downloads.
10. Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) and Edge Security: The SASE market will reach USD 17.22 billion by 2030, as 51% of organizations prioritize remote connectivity use cases. Enterprises adopting unified SASE platforms report 5x faster performance, and multi-vendor usage is projected to drop from 82% to 58% by 2025.

How We Researched and Where This Data is From

Analyzed our 3100+ industry reports on innovations to gather relevant insights and create a new cybersecurity technology matrix.

Leveraged the StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, an AI and Big Data-powered innovation intelligence platform covering 9M+ emerging companies and over 20K+ technology trends worldwide, to confirm our findings using the trend analysis tool.

Finally, we cross-checked this information with external sources for accuracy.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is the growth rate of the market for emerging cybersecurity technologies?

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Security Spending Guide, global security spending is expected to grow by 12.2% year on year in 2025. Also, security spending is expected to see sustained growth throughout the 2023-2028 forecast period, reaching USD 377 billion in 2028.

You may also like – Cybersecurity Report: Key Data Insights and Innovations

2. What are the financial and operational impacts of delaying next-gen cybersecurity adoption?

The worldwide business losses from cybercrime are estimated at USD 10.5 trillion by 2025, rising to USD 15.6 trillion by 2029.

Therefore, investing in new cybersecurity technologies is vital, as organizations without adoption risk exposing themselves to rising direct and indirect costs.

3. How large is the talent gap in cybersecurity, and what does that imply for emerging technologies?

In 2024, the global cyber-workforce shortage was estimated to be around 4.8 million professionals. That shortfall means many firms will rely on automation, AI-driven tools, and self-healing infrastructure within emerging cybersecurity technologies to fill capability gaps.

Why Cybersecurity is More Critical than Ever in 2026

As we enter 2026, organizations face a surge in cyber risks, with the global average cost of a data breach reaching around USD 4.88 million, up 10% year-on-year.

In the first quarter of 2025 alone, the number of publicly reported ransomware compromises showed sharp increases compared with the previous year. These realities indicate why cybersecurity strategies are foundational to business resilience.

1. Increase in Data Breaches and Ransomware Attacks

In 2026, the frequency of data breaches keeps rising, with cybercriminals deploying advanced tactics such as double extortion, which involves encrypting data and threatening public release. Statistics show that ransomware victims in 2025 faced average incident response costs rising to between USD 5.5 million and USD 6 million.

These cyberattacks disrupt operations and demand urgent incident response. They also make prevention and rapid containment more important.

2. Expansion of the Connected Device Attack Surface

By 2026, the proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) and edge-computing devices will significantly widen the cyberattack surface. Many endpoints still lack strong built-in security, increasing vulnerability across networks.

A recent survey revealed that 75% of 1400 organizations in 2025 experienced a ransomware event. Organizations must now incorporate hardened endpoint and device-authentication strategies into their cybersecurity frameworks.

3. Growing Regulatory Pressure and Data Privacy Obligations

As global privacy laws evolve, organizations in 2026 face stricter compliance mandates, driving rapid adoption of stronger cybersecurity frameworks. Failure to comply now results in steep fines and reputational damage.

Therefore, cybersecurity leaders must align strategies with legal and ethical imperatives and also ensure adaptability to shifting regulations to sustain stakeholder trust and prevent penalties.

4. Rising Global Cost of Cybercrime

By 2026, cybercrime is expected to become the world’s third-largest economy, valued at USD 20 trillion.

Meanwhile, the industrial sector’s data breach costs rose by an average of USD 830K year-on-year. This highlights how cyber-risk is now a strategic business risk and not just a technical one.

Also read – Top 10 Cybersecurity Trends & Innovations

Recent Notable Cyberattacks

• In May 2025, a major UK retailer was hit by ransomware linked to the gang DragonForce, and the attack extended to adjacent supply-chain nodes across multiple brands.
• In July 2025, one German charity faced a ransom demand of 20 bitcoin (USD 2.1 million approx.) by the group Rhysida, which encrypted donor and organizational data.
• In Q1 2025, the group Cl0p was reported to be behind thousands of new ransomware victims as attacks jumped 46% in the industrial/OT space.

Top 10 Emerging Cybersecurity Technologies & Trends for 2026 & Beyond

1. AI-Driven Autonomous Defense

AI-powered cyberattacks exploit generative models to create polymorphic malware, automate phishing, and craft synthetic identities at scale.

Moreover, the global shortage of cybersecurity professionals leaves organizations struggling to maintain continuous vigilance. The World Economic Forum (WEF) report indicates a shortfall of 4 million cybersecurity professionals globally.

Also, the ISC 2024 Cybersecurity Workforce Study estimates a global gap of 4.8 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs worldwide. The IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2025 highlights an 84% year-over-year increase in emails containing infostealers in 2024.

To tackle these, CrowdStrike acquired AI-security specialist Pangea Cyber for approximately USD 260 million. This acquisition strengthens its ability to secure the entire AI lifecycle, including data, models, agents, and identities.

For the fiscal year ended January 2025, CrowdStrike also recorded approximately USD 3.95 billion in revenue. The company highlights its Falcon platform as an AI-first cybersecurity ecosystem that processes vast volumes of endpoint, cloud, and identity signals and advances autonomous detection and response workflows.

Additionally, for the year ending June 2024, Darktrace generated about USD 782 million in revenue, primarily driven by its strong foothold in AI-powered threat detection and autonomous response solutions. On a trailing twelve-month (TTM) basis through mid-2025, the company reported USD 616.5 million in revenue, marking a 36% year-over-year rise.

Percentage of organizations per usage level for AI and Automation

Business Impact:

• Faster Detection: Organizations applying agentic AI reduce mean-time-to-detect and mean-time-to-respond by significant margins. Studies show a 54.3% improvement in controlled tests.
• Workforce Efficiency: With autonomous systems in place, security teams redeploy scarce human talent toward strategic tasks, and automation handles routine threat triage.
• Scalability: Agentic AI systems support the protection of sprawling attack surfaces. By 2033, the market reaching USD 322 billion signals large-scale corporate investment.
• Operational Resilience: Organizations that extensively use AI and automation in security had an average breach cost of USD 3.62 million, compared to USD 5.52 million for those that did not use those capabilities. That represents a cost savings of about USD 1.9 million.

Spotlighting an Innovator: N5S

Luxembourg-based startup, N5S, builds an AI-driven autonomous defense system that protects small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) from evolving cyber threats. White-hat hackers design their hybrid AI model, which enables AI agents to simulate attacker behavior and identify vulnerabilities in real time.

Moreover, the multi-agent system adapts its defense strategy continuously to counter emerging risks. The startup offers enterprise-grade protection at an affordable cost for self-learning, continuous cybersecurity for SMBs against AI-powered attacks.

2. Passwordless and Modern Identity Authentication

Microsoft reports 7000 password attacks per second in 2024, more than double 2023, which accelerates migration to passkeys and FIDO2-based methods. Adoption also tracks large-scale consumer rollouts. Amazon confirms 175 million customers enabled passkeys with six times faster sign-ins.

Also, Google reports 800 million accounts using passkeys with over 2.5 billion passkey sign-ins, and they have measured a 30% higher sign-in success rate and 20% faster sign-ins compared to passwords.

Enterprises adopt phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication (MFA) aligned with NIST SP 800-63B and federal cybersecurity guidance.

Moreover, workforce adoption rises as Okta shows multi-factor authentication (MFA) at 66% of workforce users and strong growth for phishing-resistant authenticators in 2024.

The surge in identity attacks and rising account takeover costs drives MFA adoption. In 2024 surveys, 90% of organizations reported identity-related incidents.

Sony Interactive Entertainment reported a 24% reduction in sign-in time on its web applications after enabling passkeys for its global PlayStation user base.

Likewise, TOKYU ID introduced passkey sign-in. By implementing passkeys, Tokyu reduced sign-in time by approximately 12 times, to an average of 12.2 seconds.

1Password autofilled 15.4 million passkeys and averages 2.1 million passkey authentications per month, indicating sustained workforce and consumer usage.

Microsoft Entra expands enterprise passkey support to strengthen identity protection across organizations. It now enables conditional access policies and phishing-resistant enrollment paths for secure user authentication.

Business Impact:

• Reduced Credential-Stuffing Losses: PayPal reported that when passkeys are used for authentication, Account Take-Over (ATO) rates for transactions are 70% lower compared to traditional password-based methods. The company also observed a 10%+ improvement in login success rate with passkeys versus passwords.
• Improved Workforce Productivity: KAYAK implemented passkeys in its Android and web apps. As a result, it reduced the average sign-in/sign-up time by 50% and observed a noticeable drop in support tickets for login issues.
• Enhanced Customer Trust and Retention: Dashlane saw passkey adoption increase by 400% during the year and reported that passkey usage improved successful sign-ins by 70% compared with traditional passwords.
• Cost Savings: A detailed economic analysis found that organizations adopting passwordless authentication systems reported average annual costs of USD 250 000 to USD 450 000 after the first year, representing savings of 50%-65%.

Spotlighting an Innovator: Zaperon

Indian startup Zaperon offers an identity-centric security service edge (SSE) platform that provides passwordless authentication and modern access control for enterprises.

It eliminates passwords and validates multi-factor authentication signals, including user behavior and device posture, to stop phishing-led account takeover at the identity layer.

The platform further enforces zero trust policies across SaaS, on-premise, desktop applications, servers, and network devices, including access from BYOD and unmanaged endpoints.

3. Post-Quantum and Next-Gen Cryptography

The global post-quantum and next-gen cryptography market is at USD 1.15 billion, with projections pointing to approximately USD 7.82 billion by 2030, indicating a CAGR of around 37.6%.

Quantum-threat awareness is a key driver of post-quantum cryptography adoption. About two-thirds of organizations believe quantum computing poses a critical cybersecurity threat within the next 3-5 years.

Moreover, standards and regulatory momentum add pressure. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) provided several quantum-safe algorithm standards, and government procurement programs now require quantum-resilient cryptography.

The lattice-based cryptography segment led the market in 2024, accounting for over 48% of global revenue, driven by security against quantum attacks and efficient performance in encryption and digital signatures.

Hybrid cryptographic bundles that pair classical algorithms with post-quantum cryptography (PQC) replacements enable smoother enterprise transitions. Quantum-safe key exchange and post-quantum digital signatures (for identity and authentication) are becoming standard across vendor offerings.

Similarly, end-to-end encryption solutions embed PQC libraries, and migration frameworks support legacy systems via secure firmware, hardware security modules (HSMs), and cloud services. For example, Vodafone Group partnered with IBM in 2025 to pilot quantum-safe encryption in its mobile network infrastructure.

Business Impact:

• Increased Enterprise Investment in Quantum-Safe Infrastructure: BT Group and Toshiba launched the world’s first commercial quantum-secure metro network in London. They secured over 6 million customer records with quantum key distribution and PQC protocols.
• Regulatory and Competitive Advantage: Governments are accelerating quantum-safe mandates, pushing enterprises to act early to maintain compliance and trust. In 2025, the US National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) launched the Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) Migration Project with 43 private-sector partners, including Cisco, Amazon Web Services, IBM, Microsoft, and Thales.
• Enhanced Cryptographic Resilience: With PQC in place, organizations are able to adopt higher-order security frameworks (such as zero-trust and agentic-AI defense) with less concern about foundational cryptographic vulnerability; in the migration market, cloud/SaaS integration leads with a 46% deployment share projected.
• Reduced Long-Term Breach Exposure: Financial and healthcare sectors are prioritizing PQC to mitigate future decryption risks and safeguard sensitive data with long retention cycles. For instance, JPMorgan Chase collaborated with IBM Quantum in 2024 to test quantum-safe encryption for interbank data transfers, achieving 100% message integrity and zero data loss across simulated quantum attacks.

Spotlighting an Innovator: ThinkQuantum

Italian startup ThinkQuantum creates quantum-secure cryptography systems through its Quantum Key Distribution platform QUKY and its Quantum Random Number Generator THIKE.

It generates encryption keys by transmitting single photons between dedicated transmitter and receiver units across fiber, free-space, and satellite links.

Moreover, it exposes any interception attempt through measurable disturbances in the quantum states used during transmission.

4. Zero-Trust Architecture

According to Gartner’s prediction, in 2025, at least 70% of new remote access deployments will be served by ZTNA as opposed to VPN services, up from less than 10% at the end of 2021.

Surveys indicate that about 63% of organizations worldwide have fully or partially implemented a zero-trust strategy. Among them, 78% allocate less than 25% of their total cybersecurity budget to zero-trust initiatives.

Moreover, the US Department of Defense is implementing zero-trust at scale by mapping 45 capabilities and 152 activities across seven pillars to achieve advanced maturity by 2032.

The US Navy’s Flank Speed program onboarded over 560 000 users, and Army 365 integrated more than 1.4 million users under zero-trust controls.

In parallel, Zscaler, which is a leading zero-trust cloud security provider, reported USD 647.9 million in Q2 FY 2025 revenue, with a 23% year-over-year increase.

ZTNA integrates identity verification, least-privilege access, and micro-segmentation into unified control frameworks. Advanced zero-trust solutions now incorporate device-posture checks, adaptive MFA, and continuous risk assessment across endpoints and cloud workloads.

Further, a recent study introduced a novel zero-trust access-control protocol for mobile cloud-based IoT sensors. It achieved 93.6% accuracy in zero-day threat detection and reduced costs tenfold in healthcare-IoT deployments.

Business Impact:

• Reduced Breach Costs: Organizations achieving mature zero-trust deployment report an average breach cost of USD 3.28 million, which is USD 1.76 million lower than those without mature programs.
• Stronger ROI and Market Growth: The global average breach cost stands at USD 4.88 million in 2024, while the US average reached USD 10.22 million in 2025.
• Enterprise Adoption Momentum: The global enterprises are rapidly embedding zero-trust principles into multi-cloud and endpoint environments. For instance, Google’s BeyondCorp Enterprise, which operationalized zero-trust at scale, now protects over 250 000 employees and contractors across 50+ countries.
• Incident Response Efficiency: Organizations with fully deployed zero-trust frameworks identified and contained breaches 28 days faster on average than those without. They reduced the average containment time from 204 days to 176 days.

Spotlighting an Innovator: Surf Security

UK-based startup Surf Security specializes in a zero-trust enterprise browser and extension. It enforces identity-based access control directly at the point where users interact with applications and data.

Its SURF Enterprise Browser validates user identity and device posture before granting access to SaaS, on-premise, and cloud resources. It also isolates the work environment through endpoint encryption, sandboxing, and secure content rendering.

Moreover, the company offers the SURF Extension, which applies DLP, web filtering, phishing protection, and extension governance to mainstream browsers.

5. Security Automation and Self-Healing Infrastructure (SOAR)

The driver for SOAR adoption is the security workforce gap, with a global shortage of 4.8 million cybersecurity professionals in 2024.

Also, mature SOAR deployments are capable of reducing mean time to response (MTTR) by up to 95%.

Another major driver is alert overload, which continues to strain enterprise security operations centers (SOCs). According to Palo Alto Networks, an average SOC now faces more than 11 000 security alerts per day.

Moreover, another strong catalyst is hybrid-cloud complexity. 80% of organizations use multiple public cloud providers, and 73% combine public and private clouds.

Also, according to a 2025 survey by the SANS Institute, 76% of enterprises are now multicloud.

Additionally, regulatory pressure drives adoption. For example, NIST SP 800-61 (Incident Response Recommendations) requires documented incident-response processes and a structured incident life cycle for handling breaches.

Meanwhile, modern SOAR platforms combine orchestration, analytics, and self-healing mechanisms. Exaforce reports that organizations using automation saw a 60%+ reduction in alerts requiring human review.

Integration with security information and event management (SIEM), endpoint detection and response (EDR), and threat-intelligence systems centralizes data collection, analysis, and incident response across the enterprise. For example, Splunk states that the SOAR platform integrates across 300+ third-party tools and supports 2800+ automated actions.

Likewise, Palo Alto’s XSOAR reduces incident resolution time by up to 90% and cites 75% fewer incidents requiring manual interaction.

Business Impact:

• Faster Detection and Response: A global bank reduced its incident response time from 10 days to 5 hours after deploying a SOAR platform.
• Operational Efficiency Gains: A study by Forrester Research on the total economic impact of IBM Security SOAR reports a risk-adjusted present value (PV) of benefits of USD 4.611 million over three years. The study also showed an ROI of 444% for the composite organization.
• Reduced Human Error: A 2024 report states that there was a 57% reduction in false positives for phishing incidents after deploying Cortex XSOAR. It led to 21 000 fewer incidents a year.
• Resilience and Cost Avoidance: A DOE report on AI for Energy-Opportunities for a Modern Grid and Clean Economy mentions that US businesses incur USD 150 billion annually in costs from outages on the grid.

Spotlighting an Innovator: SDefender

SDefender is an Israeli startup that builds its SIEM SOAR PLUS platform to automate threat detection and response in real time across on-premises and cloud environments.

It collects and consolidates data flows from diverse network sources and applies advanced analytics to identify early-stage malicious activity. Also, the platform executes defensive actions automatically without human intervention.

Moreover, the platform reduces false positives through precise risk analysis and supports rapid deployment without complex configuration or lengthy onboarding.

6. Internet of Things (IoT) and Operational Technology (OT) Security

Connected IoT devices reached 21.1 billion in 2025, up 14% year over year, and are expected to hit 39 billion by 2030.

Ransomware pressure on industrial firms keeps rising. Dragos logged 1693 industrial ransomware attacks in 2024, an 87% increase from 2023, with manufacturing at 70% of observed cases.

IBM’s 2025 index shows ransomware at 28% of malware cases in incident response data.

Organizations face high-volume OT ransomware and supply-chain exposure across plants and

Expanding device counts outpace manual oversight and legacy flat networks.

Compliance and insurance requirements elevate patch cadence and network segmentation across ICS.

Modern IoT/OT security stacks unify asset discovery, passive network monitoring, and segmentation to contain lateral movement. Vendors add anomaly detection on industrial protocols and least-privilege remote access for engineers.

Dragos’ sector analysis highlights targeting across transportation 69 incidents and ICS equipment and engineering (58 incidents), indicating the need for protocol-aware detection.

Meanwhile, Denmark’s Energinet detailed expanded cybersecurity across electricity and gas facilities, which reflects continuous investment in grid OT hardening.

In the OT domain, Claroty revealed that 78% of organizations detected vulnerabilities in their OT or industrial control systems. It found that 90% of reported CVEs carried high or critical severity ratings.

Moreover, the report noted that 71% of exploits targeted vendor remote-access components, highlighting weak network segmentation and continued dependence on outdated VPN infrastructures.

Business Impact:

• Reduced Production Disruption: Johnson Controls confirmed a ransomware incident with over USD 27 million in expenses tied to disruption and recovery. Firms harden building automation and OT networks to avoid similar impacts.
• Stronger Sector Readiness: EU utilities report rising threat activity. EU power-sector analysis noted a doubling of attacks from 2020 to 2022, prompting larger security budgets and joint response frameworks.
• Focused Ransomware Defense: Dragos observed industrial ransomware clustering in manufacturing (70%) and then transportation (11%), guiding control priorities and tabletop scenarios.
• Policy-Driven Patch Acceleration: CISA’s ICS advisories and the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog push asset owners to patch and segment OT.

Spotlighting an Innovator: Invictux

Invictux is a UAE-based startup that specializes in IoT and operational technology (OT) security. It protects industrial environments through a unified network, endpoint, access, and monitoring capabilities.

The startup secures OT networks by deploying firewalls, segmentation policies, and IDS/IPS systems. It also uses encrypted communication protocols to limit unauthorized access and reduce exposure to operational disruption.

It also strengthens asset management by tracking controllers, sensors, and other critical devices. This approach maintains visibility and enables early anomaly detection.

7. Blockchain and Decentralized Identity

The global decentralized-identity market is projected to be at USD 4.89 billion in 2025, growing to USD 41.73 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of 53.48%.

Another study finds that blockchain-based identity management systems reduce data breaches by 80% through decentralized credential validation. They also achieve up to 6 times faster verification speeds, processing around 90 transactions per second (TPS) in 2025 implementations.

Organizations across sectors face identity fraud, account takeover, and onboarding delays that cost billions annually.

Blockchain and decentralized credentials (verifiable credentials) enable user-controlled wallets, reduced reliance on central identity databases, and stronger privacy controls. For example, DID frameworks integrate cryptographic proofs and selective-disclosure attributes.

Blockchain-based identity systems provide self-sovereign identifiers (DIDs), verifiable credentials (VCs), selective disclosure, and portable identity wallets. They enhance efficiency in onboarding, KYC/AML, supply chain partner verification, and cross-domain trust. A recent architecture described blockchain, AI, Merkle-tree verification, achieving lightweight client-side credential checks, and compatibility with legacy ID formats.

Business Impact:

• Reduced Breach Exposure and Faster Verification: Organizations deploying blockchain-based identity management systems reduced data-breach incidents by approximately 80% in live environments.
• Operational Efficiency Across Regulated Sectors: A case study by Persistent Systems showed that its blockchain-based digital identity wallet enabled reusable credentials across banking, insurance, and healthcare.
• Government-Backed Decentralized Identity Deployment: Germany’s IDunion consortium moved beyond pilots by deploying dozens of public-service programs utilizing decentralized identifiers (DIDs) and verifiable credentials (VCs).
• Cross-Border Ecosystem Expansion: A 2024 analysis by Finextra Research found that blockchain-based identity pilots in the Nordics and Singapore improved onboarding efficiency. These pilots reduced Know Your Customer (KYC) onboarding time by 60% through the use of decentralized, verifiable credentials.

Spotlighting an Innovator: CyberLeaf Technologies

Canadian startup CyberLeaf Technologies introduces a blockchain-powered authentication product, the CyberLeaf 2FA mobile application. It strengthens identity security through decentralized verification.

The application generates time-based authentication codes on the user’s device and records verification events across a distributed ledger. This ensures that identity data remains tamper-resistant and independent of centralized servers.

The application also removes reliance on shared secrets by using cryptographic proofs stored on blockchain nodes, reducing exposure to credential theft and replay attacks.

8. Cloud-Native and Multi-Cloud Security (CSPM/CNAPP/API Protection)

As organizations deploy applications across multiple clouds and create thousands of APIs, complexity and misconfiguration risks rise. For instance, reports indicate the CSPM market grew from USD 1.64 billion in 2023 with a 45.1% year-over-year growth, highlighting how fast the demand is rising.

According to an industry update, the cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP) market grew 42% in Q2 2024, reaching nearly USD 700 million in that quarter alone.

In parallel, Palo Alto Networks’ Prisma Cloud business surpassed USD 500 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in 2019, driven by enterprise CNAPP deployments across AWS, Azure, and GCP.

CSPM tools continuously monitor cloud configurations and permissions to detect policy violations, while CNAPP integrates runtime workload protection, identity governance, and threat detection within a unified pipeline.

In 2024, 61.7% of CNAPP deployments used a SaaS delivery model to simplify management, and public cloud implementations accounted for 68% of spending in North America.

Meanwhile, real-world incidents underline the need for proactive cloud security. Capital One’s 2023 misconfiguration breach, affecting over 100 million customer records, remains a case study in how missing posture management leads to exposure.

Similarly, Toyota’s 2024 data leak incident stemmed from an exposed cloud endpoint left unmonitored.

Additionally, over 78% of respondents utilize two or more cloud providers, indicating the growing importance of multi-cloud approaches to enhance resilience and leverage specialized capabilities.

Business Impact:

• Reduced Misconfiguration Risk: Enterprises implementing CNAPP and CSPM platforms reduce misconfiguration incidents by 55%, preventing multi-cloud drift and reducing average breach impact by USD 1.8 million.
• Enhanced Regulatory Compliance: Continuous posture monitoring allows organizations to meet regional data-sovereignty mandates and improve audit readiness across clouds.
• Operational Efficiency Gains: Automated detection and remediation workflows reduce manual policy checks by 40-60%, freeing engineers to focus on strategic projects.
• Proven Market Momentum: Investment and adoption in cloud-native and multi-cloud security continue to surge. CrowdStrike announced the acquisition of Flow Security to enhance its cloud data runtime security capabilities and bolster its Falcon Cloud Security offering.

Spotlighting an Innovator: CloudDefense.AI

CloudDefense.AI is a US-based startup that provides an AI-native cloud and application security platform that secures multi-cloud environments through its products QINA Clarity and QINA Pulse.

It merges SAST, DAST, API testing, SCA, CSPM, CWPP, and CIEM into a single workflow that analyzes source code and scans cloud configurations. It also evaluates workload behavior and inspects API vulnerabilities with real-time accuracy.

Moreover, the platform monitors cloud posture continuously while protecting containers and serverless workloads at runtime. It also classifies sensitive data to maintain compliance with SOC 2, ISO 27001, and global privacy frameworks.

9. Software Supply Chain Security and Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) Management

A 2024 BlackBerry survey reports that over 76% of organizations experienced a software supply chain attack in the previous year. Also, Gartner predicts that 45% of organizations worldwide will suffer such attacks by 2025, three times the 2021 level.

Software supply chain attacks will cost the world USD 60 billion in 2025, indicating why this segment now sits at the core of emerging cybersecurity technologies.

Moreover, regulation and transparency mandates further accelerate adoption. The SBOM management and software supply chain compliance market is projected to grow from USD 2.8 billion in 2025 to USD 9.7 billion by 2035, at a 13.2% CAGR.

The SBOM market alone is expected to reach USD 1.31 billion by 2025, growing at a 24% CAGR through 2033. Likewise, by 2025, 60% of organizations building or buying critical-infrastructure software will mandate SBOMs.

Additionally, the 2025 software supply chain security report found critical flaws in widely used open-source packages, with a median of 27 vulnerabilities per package. Likewise, it identified an average of two critical flaws across components downloaded more than 650 million times.

High-profile attacks such as the Shai-Hulud npm worm, which infected at least 187 packages with over 2 million weekly downloads, illustrate the scale and automation of supply chain compromises in 2025.

Business Impact:

• Attack Surface Reduction and Risk Visibility: Organizations that implement SCA and SBOM-driven policies gain full visibility into third-party components and reduce exposure to zero-day flaws embedded in dependencies. The 2025 supply chain security report links the 742% attack surge directly to unmanaged open-source stacks, which SBOM-centric controls specifically target.
• Regulatory Compliance and Customer Assurance: 2025 is described as the year of SBOM compliance deadlines, with PCI DSS 4.0 enforcement and rising SBOM expectations across the payment, healthcare, and critical infrastructure sectors.
• Cost Avoidance and Faster Remediation: Cybersecurity Ventures estimates USD 60 billion in global losses from software supply chain attacks in 2025. Chainguard’s work with Sourcegraph shows how hardened base images and signed artifacts enabled inbox-zero CVEs for container images for the first time in two years, materially shrinking patch backlogs.
• Vendor and Ecosystem Momentum: Software supply chain security startup Chainguard raised USD 356 million in its Series D round in April 2025, followed by an additional USD 280 million in October 2025, pushing its total funding above USD 600 million. This surge in investment, along with partnerships, reflects a rapidly maturing ecosystem built around SBOM-powered security and trusted open-source software.

Spotlighting an Innovator: Endor Labs

Endor Labs is a US-based startup that offers a software supply chain security platform. It analyzes an organization’s entire codebase and dependency graph to identify and remediate risks across the software lifecycle.

The startup builds a detailed map of source code, open-source libraries, containers, and CI/CD workflows. It then enables precise SBOM generation and provides visibility into how each component influences application behavior.

Moreover, the platform reduces noise by correlating SCA, SAST, secrets, and container findings into a single actionable view.

10. Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) and Edge Security

The global SASE market is projected to grow to approximately USD 17.22 billion by 2030, reflecting a CAGR of 27.2%.

The shift to distributed work models and cloud applications is increasing. According to a 2025 survey, 51% of organizations cite remote network connectivity as a primary SASE use case, 50% cite SaaS applications, and 49% cite remote endpoints.

Hybrid-cloud strategies and distributed users have expanded the attack surface; therefore, security at the network edge becomes essential. Also, legacy WAN and perimeter-centric models cannot meet the performance and security demands of modern networks. So, organizations are migrating to unified SASE frameworks.

Moreover, vendor consolidation and preference shifts are happening. A report found that 61% of organizations prefer a single-vendor SASE platform in 2025, up from prior multi-vendor fragmentation.

A mature SASE architecture combines SD-WAN, secure web gateway (SWG), cloud access security broker (CASB), firewall-as-a-service (FWaaS), and zero trust network access (ZTNA) into a unified framework. It delivers these capabilities as a cloud-native service operating at the edge. By 2029, 60% of enterprises that do not deploy a unified CNAPP/SASE solution will lack visibility into the cloud attack surface.

Additionally, SASE platforms provide global Points-of-Presence (PoPs), low-latency connectivity, automated policy enforcement, real-time threat inspection, and micro-segmented access based on identity and context.

For example, a 2025 survey indicates that edge devices such as IoT/OT still lag with only 28% adoption, indicating the emerging focus on edge security in SASE rollouts.

Business Impact:

• Improved Access and Security Integration: Organizations deploying unified SASE platforms report up to 5 times faster application performance compared to legacy WAN-plus-VPN models.
• Reduced Vendor and Operational Overhead: A survey shows that the share of organizations planning to use 3 or more SASE vendors drops from 82% to 58% by 2025 as they shift toward single-vendor SASE consolidation.
• Faster Onboarding of Sites and Users: One provider reports deployments in 50+ global markets across 300+ edge locations, enabling new branch and remote-worker onboarding in hours rather than days.
• Resilience in the Hybrid/Edge Era: The SASE market is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 20.1% between 2024 and 2028, driven by hybrid work and edge security demands, which signals enterprise prioritization of distributed security frameworks.

Spotlighting an Innovator: Edge Signal

Edge Signal is a Canadian startup that builds an edge security and intelligent computing platform. It processes data locally to provide secure, real-time insights for distributed enterprise environments.

It deploys edge AI gateways that sit alongside existing infrastructure and execute analytics, event detection, and automation directly on premises.

The platform also supports secure access and data governance by keeping sensitive video, sensor, and operational data within the customer’s environment. It also maintains SOC 2 and GDPR compliance to ensure regulated handling of all operational intelligence.

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