diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index d91c8266d5..6fa6a80c07 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -1,3 +1,11 @@
+8.0.0-dev.827 | 2025-08-01 17:10:13 +0200
+
+  * ci/windows: No ZeroMQ cluster backend (Arne Welzel, Corelight)
+
+    Doesn't seems there's libzmq available, so just skip building.
+
+  * cluster/zeromq: Bail on missing ZeroMQ by default (Arne Welzel, Corelight)
+
 8.0.0-dev.824 | 2025-08-01 14:49:35 +0200
 
   * Remove zeek::Span and use std::span instead (Dominik Charousset, Corelight)
diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index c03ae4139c..26bb77cbfe 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -12,6 +12,12 @@ release.
 Breaking Changes
 ----------------
 
+- Zeek by default now depends on the availability of the ZeroMQ library for building
+  and running. This is in preparation of switching to the ZeroMQ-based cluster backend
+  by default in future Zeek versions. On an Ubuntu based system, the required system
+  packages are ``libzmq5``, ``libzmq3-dev`` and ``cppzmq-dev``. See the Dockerfiles
+  in the ``ci/`` directory for other supported platforms.
+
 - Zeek and all of its associated submodules now require C++20-capable compilers to
   build. This will let us move forward in using more modern C++ features and replace some
   workarounds that we have been carrying. Minimum recommended versions of compilers are
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index 9b0e9528d4..cf4112bb0a 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-8.0.0-dev.824
+8.0.0-dev.827
diff --git a/ci/windows/build.cmd b/ci/windows/build.cmd
index a539846c6f..be1c92eede 100644
--- a/ci/windows/build.cmd
+++ b/ci/windows/build.cmd
@@ -7,5 +7,5 @@ call "c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\BuildTools\VC\Auxiliar
 mkdir build
 cd build
 
-cmake.exe .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=release -DVCPKG_TARGET_TRIPLET="x64-windows-static" -DENABLE_ZEEK_UNIT_TESTS=yes -G Ninja
+cmake.exe .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=release -DVCPKG_TARGET_TRIPLET="x64-windows-static" -DENABLE_ZEEK_UNIT_TESTS=yes -DENABLE_CLUSTER_BACKEND_ZEROMQ=no -G Ninja
 cmake.exe --build .
diff --git a/src/cluster/backend/CMakeLists.txt b/src/cluster/backend/CMakeLists.txt
index 109bdc411f..e577282233 100644
--- a/src/cluster/backend/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/cluster/backend/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ find_package(ZeroMQ)
 #
 # If a user enabled the cluster backend explicitly (-D ENABLE_CLUSTER_BACKEND_ZEROMQ:bool=ON),
 # but ZeroMQ wasn' found, hard bail.
-option(ENABLE_CLUSTER_BACKEND_ZEROMQ "Enable the ZeroMQ cluster backend" ${ZeroMQ_FOUND})
+option(ENABLE_CLUSTER_BACKEND_ZEROMQ "Enable the ZeroMQ cluster backend" ON)
 
 if (ENABLE_CLUSTER_BACKEND_ZEROMQ)
     if (NOT ZeroMQ_FOUND)