It is projected that cybersecurity spending will increase 10% this 2021. Which cybersecurity stocks will benefit from this boost in spending?
2020 saw many data breaches, with SolarWinds breach as probably the most notable. The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) is the alleged culprit behind the SolarWinds breach. The breach lasted around nine months and hackers penetrated the sensitive data of:
- Computer systems of the U.S. government
- foreign governments
- Over 16,000 private-sector companies
However, it is still not clear the full scope of the breach.
Moreover, threat actors breached around 12 billion records last year. Meanwhile, ransomware attacks increased by a whopping 60%. Thus, research predicts that worldwide cybersecurity spending will reach $60.2 billion this year.
This is good news for cybersecurity stocks. Listed below are the cybersecurity stocks that will benefit from this boost in spending.
Okta
Founded in 2009, Okta is a leader in enterprise information technology (IT) systems. The company has a market value of $36.0 billion and continues to grow at a healthy clip.
The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the demand for the company’s platform. That is because many companies shifted to remote work and there is a huge need to protect company data even outside the office.
Okta has more than 10,000 customers coming from both small businesses and large enterprises. Furthermore, among their notable customers are FedEx and T-Mobile.
BlackBerry
It seems like BlackBerry is no longer worthy to invest in. The truth is, investors should not ignore the former smartphone maker. BlackBerry is now one of the more traditional cybersecurity stocks.
As we all know, BlackBerry was once a leading smartphone developer. Its phones had many high-profile followers, including U.S. President Barack Obama and Kim Kardashian. Even though it was mostly focused on mobile devices, the company had an impressive set of security technologies.
Blackberry stopped making smartphones in 2016. They have focused recently on improving their security offerings with acquisitions. For instance, in 2016, the company bought U.K.-based cybersecurity consultancy Encription. Moreover, BlackBerry also bought artificial intelligence firm Cylance in 2018.
Furthermore, BlackBerry has entered an exclusive agreement with Amazon’s AWS cloud business. This agreement will capitalize AI to deliver insights to automakers.
Zscaler
FIrewalls are the traditional approach to protecting the corporate IT network. The name of this approach is perimeter security. But what if an employee is working remotely, as the situation for most companies?
The firewall may fall short, and a security system must be in place that goes beyond the corporate network.
Founded in 2008, Zscaler has built a platform that solves such issues. Zscaler’s platform protects the device regardless of its location. What’s even better is the system is cloud-based. This means that there is no need to install security appliances.
The system processes a whopping 7 billion policy enforcement and threat mitigations per day. Zscaler has currently 5,000 customers, including 500 firms on the Forbes Global 2000 list.
Furthermore, the company has a hefty valuation of $25.3 billion. However, its market capitalization is more than $25 billion.
