Cybersecurity Stocks Increase—Bad News for US Businesses and Agencies?

By Griffin Davis, Tech Times

Cybersecurity stocks are now increasing as more people invest in security firms. This may sound like a good thing since the industry that focuses on preventing hackers, and other online attackers is further growing.  

A participant looks at lines of code on a laptop on the first day of the 28th Chaos Communication Congress (28C3) - Behind Enemy Lines computer hacker conference on December 27, 2011 in Berlin, Germany. The Chaos Computer Club is Europe's biggest network of computer hackers and its annual congress draws up to 3,000 participants.

However, this is bad news for some U.S. companies and government agencies. Among the cybersecurity firms that experience share increases are FireEye Inc. and Crowdstrike Holdingfs Inc. 

"It's really the pure-play security companies that do threat detection that are the ones that can be the direct beneficiary of something like this," said Mandeep Singh, an intelligence analyst working for Bloomberg. 

Why Cybersecurity Stocks Increase is Bad News

According to Bloomberg's latest report, the increasing stocks of cybersecurity firms hint that more online attacks are coming. 

An engineer from the Israeli company Commun.it uses his expertise in social media commercial analysis to identify networks of fake users during at the group's office in the Israeli city of Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv on January 23, 2019. - A coalition of Israeli diplomats, programmers and hackers have joined forces to stave off threats.

Singh explained that rampant cybersecurity threats allow security companies to earn more revenues. Because of this, some U.S. government officials are now preparing for possible Iranian cyberattacks.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Christopher Krebs warned companies and businesses in the United States to pay attention to their important systems.

The rise of cybersecurity shares happened after a top Iranian military official died. If you want to see further details about the rising cybersecurity stocks, you can visit this link.

US Also Worry About Russian Cyberattacks

Aside from the possible Iranian online attacks, CISA's official blog post stated that the U.S. government is also worried about Russia's state-sponsored cybersecurity threats.

Because of this, NSA (National Security Agency), FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency), as well as U.S. international partners issued a new advisory to warn companies and businesses in the United States.

Here's their suggested cybersecurity action plan:

  • Provide end-user awareness and training 
  • Monitor remote desktop protocol (RDP)
  • Prioritize patching of known exploited vulnerabilities
  • Enforce multi-factor authentication

Recently, the new FIN12 ransomware group concerned many security researchers since the gang's attacks are allegedly faster and more efficient compared to other hackers.

Meanwhile, a new EU legislation is expected to force tech firms to remove their illegal content.



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