It was either former FBI Director Robert Mueller or former Cisco CEO who once said, "There are two types of companies: those that have been hacked, and those that don't know they've been hacked."
That statement is doubly true in the age of artificial intelligence (AI), which has simultaneously lowered the barrier for prospective cybercriminals and allowed them to launch more attacks faster than ever before.
It used to be that someone launching a phishing attack needed to learn the language spoken within the company they wanted to hack to compose a convincing email or message. Now, any AI program can compose a message that sounds like it came from a native speaker of any widely used language.
And, as reported by the subject of this article, CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD 0.21%), AI threats have increased the number of cyberattacks by 89%.
Fortunately, CrowdStrike is aware of all the cybersecurity problems caused by AI, and this software-as-a-service (SaaS) company offers solutions to protect the data and networks of its clients.
Image source: Getty Images.
A digital bird of prey
The company's flagship product, called Falcon, combines 33 different security modules into one single agentic-AI driven platform. Formerly, companies and individuals needed to purchase numerous different pieces of security software for things like identity verification, cloud security, or antivirus use.
But Falcon puts all of those into a single program that doesn't require any extra hardware for the customer, prevents important security data from being siloed, and eliminates friction from different applications and programs trying to communicate with one another.
CrowdStrike's management is also quick to point out in its latest presentation that it's potentially far cheaper and easier for companies to only have to pay CrowdStrike for its cybersecurity apps and not to pay for and manage dozens of different subscriptions.
Given the threats posed by AI, cybersecurity is an incredibly large and growing market. CrowdStrike assessed that its total addressable market was worth $149 billion in 2026 and estimates that it will more than double to $325 billion by 2030.
The company works a little differently from a conventional antivirus program. It forms a global network of all the sensors installed on the networks of its clients.
Those sensors scan constantly for strange behavior. It's always observing the network, unlike older-generation antivirus software that runs periodic scans.
Falcon also actively seeks out threats and in-progress attacks rather than waiting for a potential breach to be completed before the program becomes aware of it.
NASDAQ: CRWD
Key Data Points
Even more interesting, it takes into account data across all the networks it's installed across so the larger CrowdStrike's customer base, the more data Falcon has to operate on, and the more effective it potentially becomes.
Speaking of which, the company's clients include some real heavy hitters in business and government like Target, Salesforce, Ericsson, the City of Las Vegas, the State of Oklahoma, and Royal Caribbean Cruises.
AI platforms are only as good as the data they're trained on. And Falcon has data from all of CrowdStrike's customers. So, a cyberattack might get through on one node in its network, but once the program learns of the attack, expanding its training data in a way, it will have an easier time identifying the same attack across its network.
So, all that raises the question of how well Falcon works. And I think CrowdStrike's balance sheet speaks volumes to the efficacy of its product.
Secure networks, secure profits
CrowdStrike had an incredible end to its fiscal 2026 (reported on March 3).
For the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2026, the company saw its annual recurring revenue (ARR) grow 24% year over year to $5.25 billion, of which $330.7 million was new ARR from the quarter. Total revenue for the quarter was $1.31 billion, up 23% over the year-ago fourth quarter. Most of that came from subscription revenue, which also grew 23% over the year-ago fourth quarter to total $1.24 billion.
For the full year, revenue grew 22% above 2025 to $4.81 billion, again, mostly driven by subscription revenue, which increased 21% over 2025 .
The company has a very high gross profit margin of 78% at present, but it is still running a net loss. CrowdStrike's growth and strong cash position make up for that, and with a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18% I'm not particularly concerned about its financial health.
Give it a look if you want to play the cybersecurity angle of the AI revolution. In this case, it pays to go with the crowd.
