It’s that time of year again—time to nail down your organization’s cybersecurity budget.
Some of us love this exercise. For others, it’s daunting, especially when it comes to cybersecurity. How do you fit those security investments into your overall IT budget? How much should you spend on security vs. the rest of your technology allocations? Do you need a managed cyber security partner?
Here’s the breakdown that we’re seeing so far: Companies are allocating 50% of their IT budget for cybersecurity in 2025. If that seems like a lot, consider the fact that the average cost of a data breach in 2024 is $4.88M, up 10% from last year.
Clearly, the investment is warranted. But where do you place that cybersecurity expenditure? What matters most?
Here are 9 trends we’re seeing as leaders prepare their 2025 cybersecurity budgets.
1. Strong demand for predictable pricing in technology services
IT and cybersecurity providers aren’t known for friendly pricing. It’s standard practice in the industry to promise that everything’s in scope, but when you read the fine print in that 20-page contract, that’s not actually true. The scope turns out to be pretty limited, which means you’ll get surprise bills, cost overruns, and expenses that don’t fit into your IT and cybersecurity budget.
Here at Corsica, we’re fixing this issue. Every organization deserves predictable pricing that doesn’t wreck the budget. That’s why we offer unmetered technology services for one predictable monthly price.
How big is the difference between our pricing model and the other guys?
Use our FREE Managed IT Services Pricing Calculator to find out.
2. Widespread budgeting for cybersecurity insurance
Nearly every business we work with today has cybersecurity insurance. If that’s a surprise, remember the average cost of a data breach. $4.88M is a lot of money for a midmarket organization.
Now here’s where it gets crazy. Delinea’s 2024 Cyber Insurance Report found that 62% of organizations with cyber insurance have filed claims against their policies. Meanwhile, 27% of companies with policies have filed multiple claims.
The repeat claims don’t surprise us. That’s consistent with what see in the onboarding process for a new client. They’ve often had two, three, four, or even five events in their past, all of which led them to seek extra help. These days, you really can’t have enough cybersecurity assistance.
Here at Corsica Technologies, we’ve never had a client file a claim, which speaks to the power of our managed cybersecurity offerings and our Cybersecurity Service Guarantee. But more importantly, we recommend cybersecurity insurance to every new client if they don’t have it already. It’s just good to have that financial backstop in place.
Now, where are those breaches occurring for companies that file claims?
You might be surprised to find that identity and access are the biggest liabilities today. That’s why they’re emerging as a significant trend in cybersecurity budgeting.
3. Budgeting for identity management and endpoint protection
Identity-driven attacks remain a huge problem. This is the kind of attack that the Corsica team sees and stops most often.
What does this look like?
Threat actors attempt to gain access to a legitimate user account on one of your systems. This could be a Microsoft 365 account, a server admin account, or any user account that has privileged access to a system. Once they get in, they try to move laterally within your network. If you haven’t implemented Zero Trust, moving laterally may be all too easy.
In terms of technology, the rise of identity-driven attacks has led to an emphasis on endpoint detection solutions—particularly MDR (managed detection and response). This type of solution comes with two powerful components:
- Endpoint detection and response software that finds unauthorized activity on your network.
- Expert-managed services to monitor your endpoints and respond to issues.
MDR solutions are essential—but they’re not enough.
Ultimately, secure identity management comes down to people. It’s your team members who will stop threats—or let them in.
Are your employees equipped to defend your organization?
This is a crucial question in cybersecurity budgeting season, and it’s driving a significant trend for 2025.
4. Investment in cybersecurity awareness training
I recently spoke to a client who said, “If we could just get our team to stop clicking on things, we could stop all these breaches!” This client was thinking about implementing some fairly stringent controls, like not giving users any access to their environment outside mobile devices managed by that environment.
Though this is achievable with MDM software, in their case, it would’ve been cumbersome. Still, I understand where they’re coming from. If your team isn’t aware of best practices, or if those best practices aren’t woven into your company culture, you may need some heavy-duty restrictions.
But the first line of defense should be cybersecurity awareness training. It’s the ideal tool to counteract identity-driven attacks—which are getting more and more sophisticated. These attacks are frequently executed through some form of phishing, whether that’s an “urgent” email with a malicious link, a text message impersonating an executive, or even a phone call with an AI-generated voice.
As these attacks get more powerful and more deceptive, forward-thinking leaders are engaging their teams in continuous training for cybersecurity awareness. It’s not enough to train everybody once, then go back to business as usual. Threats are evolving too fast—especially in the age of AI.
This is why we’re seeing so many companies turn to recurring training. Whether the cadence is monthly, quarterly, or some other interval, the main thing is to work with a partner who continuously updates their training to reflect new threats.
Of course, employee vigilance won’t solve all your cybersecurity problems. Some organizations are trying to approach cybersecurity in an incremental fashion—which leads to our next trend in cybersecurity budgeting.
5. Budgeting for ad hoc cybersecurity solutions
Out in the wild, we see ad hoc cybersecurity solutions that try to layer on different levels of protection. Rather than taking a comprehensive approach or working with a partner, a company may try to start with existing cybersecurity controls and build on them as they’re able.
The challenge here is the lack of a comprehensive approach. Maybe you add great protection to one attack surface, but maybe you’re not even aware of growing threats against another unprotected surface.
Maybe there are economies of scale to be gained from data integration—but you’re still working with disconnected systems that require tons of duplicate effort.
Don’t get me wrong, unique approaches can definitely work. But it’s best to develop them with an expert partner who can help you get maximum value for your cybersecurity budget—while also bringing up issues and opportunities that your team hasn’t thought of.
6. Budgeting for cloud, SaaS, and network security
This IT budgeting trend has existed for quite some time, but it gets stronger every year.
As organizations shift their spending away from on-premises hardware to the cloud and SaaS applications, they have to shift their cyber budgets as well.
What does this mean?
We’re seeing more allocations for cloud security managed services, which address unique security challenges that didn’t exist in the on-premises world. We’re also seeing an emphasis on network and wireless capabilities to enable the bandwidth requirements of a SaaS-first organization. In some cases, organizations have over-rotated to the cloud, and we’re actually seeing reverse migrations from the cloud back to on-premises systems.
For midmarket companies, it’s a lot to handle.
Even if you have IT resources on staff, they may not have time left for cybersecurity, which leads us to our next budgeting trend.
7. Engaging a strong partnership for cybersecurity
Technology is one piece of the puzzle—and midmarket companies can certainly purchase cybersecurity tools. The real challenge is finding great people.
You can’t hire one cybersecurity analyst to work 24/7 with the tools you’ve licensed. It’s just not feasible. Clearly, you need more than one person. But these professionals are expensive. Their job market will grow 32% between 2022 and 2032—which is 10x the average growth rate of all jobs.
But you need 24/7 monitoring and expert interpretation of events and incidents. You also need a consistently fast response. Even if you have a cyber team of three people working the day shift, who’s going to handle those late-night attacks? Cybercriminals don’t keep to a nice polite schedule. They know when the majority of businesses are most vulnerable.
This is why companies are turning to managed cyber security services—often in a co-managed arrangement in which your provider works alongside your staff.
In fact, outsourcing is such a significant trend, we commissioned an entire study on it: 11 Emerging Trends in IT Outsourcing.
But not all cybersecurity partners are created equal. You want to make sure your provider keeps up with the latest in AI tools for cybersecurity—which leads us to our next budgeting trend.
8. Investment in AI tools for cybersecurity
AI is having a massive impact on cybersecurity. Threat actors are using AI for increasingly sophisticated attacks, while cybersecurity software companies are building more and more powerful solutions that run on AI. This technology is so powerful, that cyber insurance companies are providing incentives if you use AI as part of your instant response plan.
We’re huge fans of this approach at Corsica, and AI plays a crucial role in our response processes. We believe AI tools are an essential consideration in the cybersecurity budgeting process. The key, though, is to understand what AI does well—and where it needs human help.
So what does it do well?
AI is an incredible tool for threat hunting, detection, and identification. These stages of the containment process require a rock-solid analytical approach rather than human judgment or creative problem-solving.
Of course, AI can’t eradicate a threat or repair any damage. You still need to get people involved ASAP to contain a threat and protect the rest of the environment. If there’s any restoration to be done, that’s 100% a human job as well.
But the power of AI lies in its threat detection abilities—and in the strategic shift that it enables.
A few years ago, cybersecurity teams spent a lot of human energy on threat hunting and detection. AI actually does that so well, that we can offload that burden and turn our focus toward complex strategic questions. That means the business continuity side of the equation. You want your human experts working hard on that so you can recover as quickly as possible—not if, but when you have a catastrophic incident.
9. Budgeting for ongoing compliance efforts
Compliance is essential in today’s cybersecurity landscape. Whether it’s mandatory regulation or voluntary adherence to a security framework, every organization benefits from maintaining compliance.
As we head into 2025, we’re seeing wise investment in compliance. Across numerous industries, our clients are pursuing the frameworks that fit their businesses and customers.
- HIPAA
- CMMC 2.0 (levels 1 and 2)
- PCI DSS
- FTC Safeguards Rule
- NIST Cybersecurity Framework
- Cyber Insurance Readiness
- Cybersecurity Fundamentals
- CIS Controls v8
- And others
While compliance often involves one-time projects, it isn’t a “set it and forget it” initiative. Systems, threats, and regulations continue to evolve. This is why many companies are turning to IT compliance services to ensure they’re keeping up.
The takeaway: Get an expert perspective as you develop your cyber budget
The right cybersecurity budget will look different at different organizations. You want to take a smart, nuanced approach that fits your unique strengths and weaknesses. Yet it’s challenging to keep up with evolving threats and solutions in cybersecurity. If you’re looking for an expert perspective, drop us a line. Our dedicated cybersecurity specialists have seen it all. We’re happy to advise you on those tough IT budgeting decisions.
Need an expert perspective on your cybersecurity budget?
Reach out to schedule a consultation with our security specialists.
