Amid the rapid growth of cyber threats in 2025–2026, the cybersecurity market is experiencing an unprecedented boom. According to a Grand View Research report, the market size reached $271.88 billion in 2025 and is projected to grow to $663.24 billion by 2033. This trend is driven not only by an increase in the number of attacks but also by their increasing complexity: today, the targets are not just corporations, but also small businesses, startups, and even individual users.
Anton Kulik: From Investigator to Cyber Startup Founder
One of the key players in this market is Ukrainian expert Anton Kulik — a specialist with over 15 years of experience in cybersecurity. His career began in the Cybercrime Investigation Department, where he investigated digital threats. Later, he moved to the commercial sector, working for companies such as Kraina, TAS Group LLC, IDweb LLC, DesignHouse 5 LLC, DealerTower LLC, Datgate LLC, and Besitos Corporation LLC. His expertise covers both technical aspects of protection and legal ones — Kulik holds a Master of Laws degree.
In November 2024, he founded Cyber Trust Innovations LLC in Florida — a company specializing in creating accessible cybersecurity tools. The startup's flagship product became VulnWatch — a service that automatically scans websites for vulnerabilities and provides detailed reports with recommendations for eliminating risks.
VulnWatch: Democratizing Cybersecurity
Traditionally, checking a website for vulnerabilities required hiring a team of specialists, which was expensive and time-consuming. VulnWatch changes this paradigm: the service allows for a check in just a few minutes without the need for technical knowledge. This is especially important for startups and small teams that cannot afford an in-house security expert. For large companies, VulnWatch becomes a tool for regular monitoring, accelerating the process of identifying and eliminating vulnerabilities.
The service takes into account the website's technology stack — whether it is WordPress, React, or a custom solution — and identifies characteristic problems. The user receives the result in the form of a structured report with step-by-step recommendations. As Anton Kulik notes: "The service is suitable for different scenarios. It can be used for a one-time check or on an ongoing basis".
Record Number of Vulnerabilities and Rising Damage
The relevance of VulnWatch is confirmed by statistics: according to researchers from The Stack and Maze, more than 48,000 new vulnerabilities were published in 2025 — a record figure. At the same time, a significant portion of attacks occur within 24 hours of a vulnerability being discovered, leaving companies minimal time to react. According to the IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025, the average cost of a data breach is approximately $4.4 million.
Interest in cybersecurity, according to Google Trends, has increased several times over the past few years. This reflects the realization by businesses and society that digital protection is not a luxury, but a necessity.
Recognition and the Future: From VulnWatch to AI Security
The success of VulnWatch has been recognized internationally: in 2026, Anton Kulik received the Cases&Faces award in the Cybersecurity category for his contribution to the development of cybersecurity. In addition to commercial projects, he is actively involved in open-source development and is working on artificial intelligence security within the Project Cerebellum. In his opinion, protecting AI systems will become one of the key tasks in the coming years — especially in light of intelligence agencies' statements that the new generation of AI could significantly enhance cyberattacks.
Contradictory Data
While most sources confirm the growth of the cybersecurity market and the success of VulnWatch, there are discrepancies in growth rate estimates. Some analytical agencies, such as Gartner, forecast a more moderate market growth — up to $550 billion by 2033, which is lower than the Grand View Research figure. There is also no consensus on how quickly small businesses will be able to adopt services like VulnWatch due to a lack of digital literacy.
Nevertheless, the general trend is obvious: cybersecurity is becoming more accessible, and tools like VulnWatch play a key role in this transformation.
