AI is rapidly becoming embedded across the enterprise. According to Deloitte, 66% of organizations achieved productivity and efficiency gains, 53% reported better insights and decision-making, and 40% realized reduced costs using artificial intelligence.
Unfortunately, there is a dark side to AI. Deloitte (PDF) does not directly address it, but it pervades its report: This powerful technology is accelerating the proliferation of cybersecurity threats.
With "vibe coding," it’s possible for non-technical people to create dangerous malware, phishing campaigns and ransomware. AI agents are also allowing for the automation of identifying vulnerabilities, stealing credentials, generating convincing social-engineering messages and adapting attacks in real time.
According to CrowdStrike (CRWD), the number of AI-enabled adversaries spiked by 89% in 2025. CrowdStrike also calculates the average time attackers needed to move laterally after gaining access fell to 29 minutes, a 65% increase in speed in a year.
In a world where AI-enabled adversaries can already gain access to sensitive information in as little as 27 seconds, spending for cybersecurity will continue to grow.
Indeed, Forrester Research forecast global spending on cybersecurity will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 14.4% through 2029 to more than $300 billion on concerns around cyberattacks across all verticals and geographies.
So how can investors play this secular trend? Here are the best cybersecurity stocks to buy as growth in the industry ramps up.
Data is as of July 16. Analysts' annual long-term earnings-per-share (EPS) growth estimate represents the estimated average rate of earnings growth for the next three to five years and is courtesy of S&P Global Market Intelligence.
- Market value: $16.4 billion
- Analysts' consensus annual EPS growth estimate: 89.6%
Rubrik's (RBRK) core platform secures data across the enterprise, whether for the cloud, software as a service (SaaS) or identity. It detects and remediates data security risks and unauthorized activities.
Rubrik Agent Cloud leverages data, identity and AI models to manage the risks of AI agents. This solution involves sophisticated monitoring, preemptive assessment, dynamic governance and real-time guardrails. Remediation is done at machine speed.
Rubrik acquired Predibase in June 2025, an important factor in bolstering AI capabilities that enabled better fine tuning and inference capabilities for agentic interactions.
Management's efforts have translated into improved growth. Rubrik reported a 32% year-over-year increase in annual recurring subscription revenue for its fiscal 2027 first quarter, and cash flow was up 105.8%.
Rubrik sees a huge opportunity, with an estimated total addressable market of approximately $125 billion.
- Market value: $5.4 billion
- Analysts' consensus annual EPS growth estimate: 62.7%
Netskope (NTSK) completed its initial public offering (IPO) in September 2025, pricing at $19 per share and rising about 6% during its first day of trading.
NTSK has had a rough time and now trades around $11. But this looks like an opportunity to buy a high-quality cybersecurity stock at a more attractive valuation.
The Netskope One platform unifies zero trust access, AI security and data protection into one architecture and allows enterprises to secure users, devices, cloud apps, private apps, web traffic, AI tools and sensitive data.
A focus on replacing fragmented legacy security tools with a simpler, scalable platform is driving solid results: Netskope reported a 29% year-over-year increase in annual recurring revenue for its fiscal 2027 first quarter and 60% new customer growth.
The rise of agentic AI could make Netskope's platform even more relevant. Its edge infrastructure is designed to provide deeper context across the enterprise.
The company is also investing heavily in Netskope AI Labs, which has developed more than 190 domain-specific models that are embedded across its products for data protection, threat defense, AI security and other use cases.
- Market value: $6.2 billion
- Analysts' consensus annual EPS growth estimate: 19.9%
The proliferation of cybersecurity threats increases the importance of cyber resilience. For organizations, this means going well beyond backups and focusing on solutions that allow for maintaining continued operations and providing for quick recovery.
This is the sweet spot for Commvault Systems (CVLT), which helps organizations back up critical workloads, detect risks or anomalies, validate clean recovery points and restore operations.
Commvault has been building these critical technologies since 1998 and has developed a comprehensive platform that spans on-premise, hybrid, multi-cloud and SaaS environments.
Commvault has also made significant investments in its AI capabilities, including protecting AI datasets and workloads, using AI to detect threats and automate recovery, and helping organizations govern access to sensitive data used by models and agents.
Management's efforts are showing up in results. Revenue grew 19% during fiscal 2026, and SaaS revenue rose 52%. Commvault also generated $237 million in free cash flow.
Commvault sits at the intersection of several durable trends, including cloud complexity, ransomware, identity security and AI-driven data growth, tailwinds that should support growth in the years ahead.
- Market value: $5.6 billion
- Analysts' consensus annual EPS growth estimate: 7.2%
Qualys (QLYS) provides cloud-based security, compliance and risk-management solutions. Its capabilities include continuously discovering assets, detecting vulnerabilities, quantifying risk and automating remediation.
Critical to the Qualys system is gauging which risks are truly exploitable and prioritizing the most urgent threats. No doubt, AI has been helpful in this effort.
Qualys' Enterprise TruRisk Management platform brings together cyber risk quantification, exploit validation and remediation into a single AI-driven risk system.
This includes using agentic AI workflows to measure the risk levels of security threats to help security teams move from dashboard-driven visibility to measurable risk reduction.
Qualys reported first-quarter revenue growth of 10%, while adjusted EBITDA was up 11%. The business generated free cash flow of $95.6 million. And management raised its full-year revenue guidance to a range of $721 million to $727 million.
Qualys is becoming more central to how enterprises manage cyber risk before a breach occurs. Its focus on exploit validation, risk prioritization and automated remediation gives customers a more practical way to reduce exposure in increasingly complex IT environments.
- Market value: $287.8 billion
- Analysts' consensus annual EPS growth estimate: 13.0%
Palo Alto Networks (PANW) has an extensive portfolio that spans network security, secure access service edge, cloud protection, security operations, AI security and identity.
This is all part of the company’s "platformization" strategy, which is about helping customers consolidate many point solutions into an integrated platform.
Large enterprises want fewer vendors, unified policies and shared security data. Consolidation can also reduce administrative complexity, eliminate gaps between products and allow the company’s AI systems to detect and respond to threats using broader telemetry.
AI has become another important growth driver. Cortex XSIAM uses AI and automation to modernize security operations, while Prisma AIRS protects AI applications, models, data and autonomous agents.
Palo Alto Networks has bolstered its internal development with acquisitions, including Protect AI, endpoint-security specialist Koi and AI-gateway provider Portkey.
The tech stock's February 2026 acquisition of CyberArk added identity and privileged-access security, an increasingly critical capability as human users, machines and AI agents gain access to sensitive enterprise systems.
Results demonstrate its strong momentum. Fiscal third-quarter revenue increased 31% year over year, while Next-Generation Security annual recurring revenue surged 60%. This growth also translated into strong cash generation, with adjusted free cash flow totaling $910 million for the quarter.
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