Cybersecurity Services: Critical in a Geopolitically Charged Era of Rapid Technological Advancements

Critical infrastructure is becoming a prime target of both state-sponsored and financially motivated threat actors. In a fragmented and polarized world, nation-state actors present significant threats, leading to industry-specific and supply-chain attacks. The emergence of generative AI (Gen AI) further amplifies these risks, as it lowers the entry barrier for cybercriminals. On the other hand, leading service providers are exploring Gen AI capabilities to enhance security observability and enable proactive threat detections.

Both demand-side and supply-side trends are covered in our Cybersecurity Services 2024 Market Insights™ and Cybersecurity Services 2024 RadarView™, respectively. These reports present a comprehensive study of cybersecurity service providers and closely examine market leaders, innovators, disruptors, and challengers.

Avasant evaluated 45 service providers across three dimensions: practice maturity, partner ecosystem, and investments and innovation. Of the 45 providers, we recognized 30 that brought the most value to the market during the past 12 months.

The RadarView recognizes platform providers in four categories: 

• • Leaders: Accenture, Eviden, HCLTech, IBM, Infosys, Orange Cyberdefense, TCS, Tech Mahindra, Telefónica Tech, and Wipro
  • Innovators: AT&T Cybersecurity, Capgemini, Cognizant, DXC, Kyndryl, LTIMindtree, and NTT DATA
  • Disruptors: British Telecom, CyberProof, Fujitsu, Mphasis, Secureworks, Trustwave, Verizon, and Zensar
  • Challengers: Lumen Technologies, Persistent, Sequretek, Tata Communications, and Unisys

Figure 1 below from the full report illustrates these categories:

“Generative AI allows security vendors and hackers to achieve more with fewer resources and less investment,” said Gaurav Dewan, Avasant research director. “For enterprises, though, it usually supplements the usual security services until they mature enough to possibly replace current security practices.”

The reports provide several findings, including the following:

• • Phishing remains the most common type of cyberattack, accounting for 22% of incidents, followed by DDoS attacks. This prevalence is mainly due to the ease of executing phishing attacks, which require minimal effort but can cause significant damage to businesses.
  • Approximately 25% of the demand for cybersecurity services originates from the manufacturing, logistics, energy, and utilities sectors. The adoption of smart factories and Industry 4.0 technologies has greatly expanded the attack surface, highlighting the necessity of integrating IT and OT security to mitigate risks and safeguard critical systems.
  • Enterprises are moving from a single-pricing model to a hybrid service-oriented pricing model in their outsourcing contracts. This shift allows for a mix of different pricing structures, tailored to the varying levels of uncertainty and complexity of projects.
  • Leading service providers are shifting from generalized cybersecurity solutions to industry-specific offerings tailored to vertical markets. This includes the creation of vehicle security operations centers (vSOCs) to secure connected cars.
  • Progressive service providers are advancing with Gen AI to boost security observability and enable proactive threat detection. They are also developing AI-based chatbots to enhance IT support and address users’ security concerns.

“As generative AI adoption progresses, significant impacts are expected in IAM, threat detection and response, and cloud security,” said Avasant Senior Director Mark Gaffney. “This will include productivity gains in areas such as risk-based authentication, automatic provisioning, and intelligent access log monitoring.”

The RadarView also features detailed profiles of 30 service providers, along with their solutions, offerings, and experience in assisting enterprises in their cybersecurity journeys.

This Research Byte is a brief overview of the Cybersecurity Services 2024 Market Insights™ and Cybersecurity Services 2024 RadarView™. (click for pricing).