Cybersecurity teams have suffered their lowest rate of budget growth in five years, which has had a cascading effect on hiring new staff, according to new research by IANS and Artico. Average annual security budget growth was 4% in 2025, significantly less than the 8% increase recorded in 2024. Just 47% of CISOs reported any increase in budget this year, down from 62% in 2024. Additionally, 39% had stagnant budgets, compared to 26% last year. The lowest annual security budget increases were observed in healthcare, professional and business services, and retail and hospitality. Growth rates were higher than average in financial services, insurance and tech, the report found. Between 2020 and 2024 security budget as a percentage of IT spending grew steadily from 8.6% to 11.9%, however, this…