Saudi Cybersecurity Boom Expands State and Corporate Reach

Saudi Arabia’s cybersecurity market reached SR16.3 billion ($4.35 billion) in 2025, according to the National Cybersecurity Authority (NCA). Private companies accounted for 69 percent of spending and government entities the other 31 percent, as the market grew 10.7 percent annually. Behind that growth is a digital economy where public services, business operations and the systems holding their data increasingly depend on networked infrastructure.

The spending split is plain. Private-sector investment reached SR11.2 billion, while government entities spent about SR5.1 billion. The NCA’s figures show a security industry built across corporate and government systems, with the state itself among its major customers. The report doesn’t specify which systems received the spending or how its benefits reach the people whose information those systems hold.

The digital apparatus grows

Saudi Arabia is accelerating the digitization of government services under Vision 2030. The Digital Government Strategy for 2025–2030 aims to contribute an estimated cumulative SR11.4 billion to gross domestic product and create more than 26,000 jobs by 2030. It aims to integrate digital services and improve government efficiency, increasing the need to protect public-sector systems and data.

The NCA launched its CyberIC program in 2022 to develop national cybersecurity capabilities, localize technologies and training content, and stimulate domestic industry. Its initiatives include encouraging locally produced cybersecurity products, services and solutions. The program links public policy to local market growth: the authority supports an industry that supplies products and services to organizations relying on digital infrastructure.

The NCA said the sector contributed approximately SR20 billion to the Kingdom’s GDP at current prices in 2025, growing at a compound annual rate of 13.2 percent between 2023 and 2025. Providers contributed SR9.7 billion directly and SR10.3 billion indirectly. The authority said those contributions represented 0.42 percent of total GDP and 0.71 percent of GDP from non-oil activities.

A market measured in products, people and systems

Saudi Arabia’s cybersecurity workforce exceeded 22,000 professionals in 2025, growing at a compound annual rate of approximately 5.9 percent between 2023 and 2025. Women made up 33 percent of that workforce, compared with a global average of around 22 percent. Products accounted for SR8.3 billion, or 51 percent, of the market; services made up SR7.9 billion, or 49 percent.

The report identified endpoint security and management, network security, cybersecurity operations solutions, system integration and data security among the most in-demand products and services. The NCA said it drew on a study involving public- and private-sector stakeholders, academic institutions and cybersecurity professionals. Its framework classified five main categories and 25 activities, covering more than 100 products and services.

Mohamad Hashem, general manager for Saudi Arabia and Bahrain at Kaspersky, said increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks were making cybersecurity a strategic business priority as organizations adopted artificial intelligence, cloud computing, automation and connected technologies. “This is driving greater investment in security solutions that can help businesses identify threats earlier, respond faster and maintain operational continuity,” Hashem told Arab News. He said the sector was becoming a more important economic contributor and stressed continued investment in cyber resilience.

Economist Ahmad Chreim said global security spending was projected to reach between $240 billion and $308 billion in 2026, as artificial intelligence increased cyber risks while also strengthening defensive capabilities. He identified AI-driven threat detection, cloud security, and identity and access management as growth opportunities, particularly as AI agents and automated systems increase the number of digital identities organizations must protect.

“Emerging markets, including the Middle East, are seeing some of the fastest growth rates globally as they build security-first infrastructure from the ground up rather than retrofitting legacy systems, a genuine opportunity for the region to leapfrog rather than play catch-up,” Chreim said. Hashem said cybersecurity can reduce disruption, minimize downtime and help organizations use resources more efficiently. He added that protecting operational technology is essential to operations and supply-chain continuity. As more services move online, the market’s own figures document the expanding bill for securing the systems government and businesses now rely on.