Cybersecurity Services: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Questions This Section Answers

• Which brand leads the October 2026 benchmark for cybersecurity services, and how wide is the gap?
• Which brands registered significant gains in valid recommendation coverage since July 2026?
• Did any tracked brand decline significantly in recommendation coverage?

CrowdStrike Falcon leads the October 2026 benchmark with 70.3% valid recommendation coverage, ahead of Sophos Intercept X at 37.9%: a gap of 32.4 percentage points. Both the leader and the second-place brand moved up from the July 2026 baseline, when CrowdStrike Falcon measured 53.7% and Sophos Intercept X measured 34.4%.

October 2026 was an active month. Seven brands registered significant increases in valid recommendation coverage since the July 2026 baseline: CrowdStrike Falcon, Palo Alto Cortex XDR, Rapid7 InsightIDR, Arctic Wolf, Optiv, Secureworks Taegis, and Trustwave. No brand registered a significant decline. The largest increase belonged to CrowdStrike Falcon, which rose from 53.7% in July 2026 to 70.3% in October 2026, a gain of 16.6 percentage points. Measured against the immediate prior month, CrowdStrike Falcon's rise was even sharper: up 19.6 percentage points from September 2026. Among the smaller movers, Optiv climbed 4.3 percentage points from 1.0% in July 2026 to 5.3% in October 2026, extending an upward streak to three consecutive months. Palo Alto Cortex XDR rose 8.7 percentage points from 25.0% to 33.7%. Rapid7 InsightIDR gained 7.2 percentage points from 9.9% to 17.1%. Arctic Wolf rose 7.1 percentage points from 17.3% to 24.4%. Secureworks Taegis added 4.0 percentage points from 2.0% to 6.0%, and Trustwave added 2.8 percentage points from 1.5% to 4.3%.

The benchmark began with 762 prompt-surface observations in October 2026 and produced 398 qualified observations after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the number of canonical AI surface families with at least one qualified observation. The six canonical families are ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. Surface breadth measured six in each month of the series.

The share of answers shaped as recommendations rose sharply across the series, reaching 55.8% in October 2026 from 33.9% in July 2026. The share of qualified observations containing a valid recommendation shortlist rose to 78.9% in October 2026 from 53.5% in July 2026.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Cybersecurity Services

Research Scope and Qualification

Questions This Section Answers

• How many prompt-surface observations qualified for the public benchmark, and how does that compare to July 2026?
• Why is the qualified denominator smaller than the raw collection universe?

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design. In July 2026 the benchmark began with 750 source prompt-surface observations, of which 404 qualified for the public benchmark. In October 2026 the benchmark began with 762 source prompt-surface observations, of which 398 qualified. The table below details each stage.

Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection. Link: AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology.

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• How do the tracked cybersecurity brands rank by valid recommendation coverage in October 2026?
• Which brands pair strong coverage with strong rank-one placement, and which do not?

This table is the primary current-month benchmark view. Standings are sorted by valid recommendation coverage.

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: the share of qualified observations in which the brand is mentioned.
• Valid recommendation coverage: the share of qualified observations in which the brand receives a valid recommendation.
• Top-three rate: the share of qualified observations in which the brand appears in the top three recommended positions.
• Rank-one rate: the share of qualified observations in which the brand is the first recommended.
• Net sentiment: the balance of positive over negative mentions among observations where sentiment is detected.

For formulas and denominator rules, see AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions.

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which brand recorded the largest increase in valid recommendation coverage since the July 2026 baseline?
• Did CrowdStrike Falcon's coverage gain come from broader mentions or higher placement within recommendations?

The table below shows movement from the July 2026 baseline to October 2026.

Several brands tracked under parent-brand names in August 2026 were not part of the October 2026 tracking list, and the product-line names that continue through the series registered 0.0% in August 2026 because those product lines were not separately tracked that month. Read against the July 2026 baseline rather than the August 2026 reading, all of these brands sit within normal month-to-month variation or show significant gains as noted below.

Largest Increase: CrowdStrike Falcon

CrowdStrike Falcon recorded the largest increase in valid recommendation coverage, rising from 53.7% in July 2026 to 70.3% in October 2026, a gain of 16.6 percentage points, beyond normal month-to-month variation. The brand's increase accelerated against the prior month, up 19.6 percentage points from 50.7% in September 2026, extending an upward streak to two consecutive months. Placement strengthened in parallel: its top-three rate rose from 41.8% in July 2026 to 63.1% in October 2026, and its rank-one rate rose from 27.7% to 40.9%. Presence measured 88.7% in October 2026 against 92.6% in July 2026, a smaller move than the change in valid recommendation coverage, which suggests the coverage gain reflects more frequent and higher placement within recommendations rather than broader mention.

Category Leader: CrowdStrike Falcon

CrowdStrike Falcon leads the October 2026 benchmark with 70.3% valid recommendation coverage, ahead of Sophos Intercept X at 37.9%, a gap of 32.4 percentage points. The brand appears in 88.7% of qualified observations in October 2026, reaches the top three in 63.1%, and is the first recommended in 40.9%. The leader held the same position in the July 2026 baseline. Its coverage sits well above the July 2026 reading of 53.7% and beyond normal month-to-month variation.

Other brands with significant baseline-to-current increases were Palo Alto Cortex XDR, up 8.7 percentage points from 25.0% in July 2026 to 33.7% in October 2026; Rapid7 InsightIDR, up 7.2 percentage points from 9.9% to 17.1%; Arctic Wolf, up 7.1 percentage points from 17.3% to 24.4%; Optiv, up 4.3 percentage points from 1.0% to 5.3%, its third consecutive monthly gain; Secureworks Taegis, up 4.0 percentage points from 2.0% to 6.0%; and Trustwave, up 2.8 percentage points from 1.5% to 4.3%.

Deepwatch, Google Chronicle, and Sophos Intercept X moved within normal month-to-month variation on valid recommendation coverage. Deepwatch measured 1.5% in October 2026 against 1.2% in July 2026. Google Chronicle measured 4.3% against 2.2%. Sophos Intercept X measured 37.9% against 34.4%, with its rank-one rate down 2.7 percentage points from 4.7% in July 2026 to 2.0% in October 2026.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• How differently do brands with similar coverage perform on top-three and rank-one rates?
• Which cybersecurity brand reaches the first recommended position most often, and where has rank-one rate declined?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. For the leading brands, the top-three and rank-one rates show placement strength within those recommendations.

Close coverage can still hide different first-position rates. CrowdStrike Falcon pairs the highest coverage with the highest rank-one rate at 40.9% in October 2026, while Sophos Intercept X carries a 37.9% coverage rate but reaches the first position only 2.0% of the time in October 2026, down from 4.7% in July 2026. Palo Alto Cortex XDR, at 33.7% coverage, places first in 5.3% of observations, up from 2.2% in July 2026.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

Questions This Section Answers

• Which buyer-intent classes are represented in the October 2026 qualified observations?
• Does the current public series contain qualified observations for Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison?

The qualified observations in October 2026 fell into the Brand Recommendation class.

All qualified observations sit in the Brand Recommendation class, so the current public series measures that class of discovery and does not yet contain qualified observations in the Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison classes.

Historical Measurement Record

This is an evergreen benchmark URL. New measurements are added to the same report.

Top 10 Cited Domains

Questions This Section Answers

• Which domains are cited most often across AI platform responses in October 2026?
• How concentrated are citations among the top 10 domains versus the broader long tail?
• Which tracked brands' own domains appear in the top 10 cited sources?

Across all AI platform responses in October 2026, the benchmark observed 5,671 total citations across 1,644 unique domains. The top 10 domains account for 1,316 citations, or roughly 23% of all citations, indicating that citations are broadly distributed across a long tail of sources while the most-cited domains carry a modest share of the total.

Three tracked brands' own domains appear in the top 10: crowdstrike.com at rank 2 with 169 citations, paloaltonetworks.com at rank 6 with 112 citations, and sophos.com at rank 8 with 72 citations. The remainder of the top 10 is a mix of user-generated and community platforms (youtube.com, reddit.com), analyst and review sources (gartner.com), search infrastructure (google.com), and other vendor domains. No single source type dominates. Citations are distributed across search engines, community discussion, analyst research, and vendor material, which suggests AI recommendations in this vertical draw on a heterogeneous information environment rather than concentrating on any one category of source.

Evidence and Source Layer

The benchmark is built from prompt-level observations that retain the query, AI/search surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and, where exposed, citations or attributable evidence sources. Source presence is evidence about the information environment. It is not automatically proof that the source caused the recommendation.

Scope Boundaries

This public benchmark does not measure market share, attributable sales, every possible AI response, organic-search ranking, social mention volume, private or sponsored channels, or causality from a metric movement alone. Movement between months reflects changes in recommendation patterns across the tracked AI surfaces; the benchmark records the change and does not, by itself, establish why the change occurred.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index is a neutral industry benchmark that measures how brands appear in AI-generated responses across six canonical AI search and assistant surfaces. The benchmark tracks presence, recommendation coverage, placement, and sentiment for each brand on a monthly basis.

• AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Research Standards
• Modeled AI Visibility Authority Value

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The public industry benchmark shows category-level standings. A company-level Authority Index can go deeper, examining a specific brand's AI presence across surfaces, queries, and placement patterns in more detail.

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