Secure the Gates
Does it give you the creepy-crawlies to know that while you are meandering around on your favorite website, nefarious forces are preying on your every click?
An entire industry is devoted to defending your needs, to ensure you can roam and frolic aimlessly on the World Wide Web.
The global cybersecurity industry aimed at protecting the end user is on pace to mushroom, surpassing $180 billion in revenue by 2023, a monstrous uptick in business activity from the $114 billion in 2017.
Recent political sable rattling and aggressive posturing underscores the seriousness of defending proprietary trade secrets and vital data, which are propelling these businesses to outperform.
The multitude of security breaches has fueled a security spending binge in 95% of firms.
And this is just the beginning.
Hyper-accelerating technology has augmented big data as the new oil, and this data is useless if hackers can infiltrate a system leaving it a shell of its former self, then selling it on to the highest bidder on the dark web.
Corporations are furiously spending on the newest cutting-edge fortifications.
CEOs have awoken and realize getting nicked of a precarious treasure trove of data is a sackable offense.
The trend in global cybersecurity spending augurs well for Fortinet (FTNT), a company I have touted in the past. To read my recommendation for this stock click here. Please note you must be logged in to read the article.
I urged readers to dip their toe in this stock when shares were trading at $54 in the middle of March.
The ensuing price action has been nothing short of spectacular with frequent antagonistic macroeconomic headlines boosting the stock.
Fortinet is trading at $68 today, levitating over 20% since I recommended it barely four months ago.
Fortinet has the pulse on the cybersecurity industry and provided some insight to the industry combat zone from its 30,000-foot perch as one of the leading lights of the industry.
This is what it deals with on a daily basis.
Intrusion methods are constantly transforming to keep the cybersecurity forces off-kilter.
The game of cat and mouse has become a zero-sum proposition deploying massive scale. This newfound acceleration is forcing cybersecurity companies to up their game.
The latest data from Fortinet illustrates cybercriminals malware usage has crept up in sophistication relying on formulating modern zero-day vulnerabilities, better understood as attacks exploiting previously unknown security vulnerabilities, operating with lighting quick speed and mammoth scale.
Unique exploit detections surged by 12%, and from these intrusions, 73% of firms were materially damaged.
These aren't your father's cybercriminals.
The newfound mainstream popularity of cryptocurrency has caused a new wave of fiat money to funnel through Internet checkpoints into their crypto brokerage accounts.
This fashionable asset class for Millennials has coincided with a major increase in "cryptojacking," the theft of crypto assets.
The aforementioned malware is becoming uber complex undetectable to the unexperienced cybersecurity professional.
The migration into cryptomining has given cybercriminals another platform to strike it digitally rich.
The activity of cryptomining malware has shot up doubling the amount of malware permeating through the system.
Cryptomining malware has demonstrated a vast array of variations of malware. This brand of stealthier, fileless malware deploys infected, undetectable code into browsers.
Hackers aren't just targeting one type of cryptocurrency. They are going after the alternative currencies such as Dash and Monero that knock about in the crypto asset ecosphere.
Monero is a favorite of the North Korean state hacker team.
Hackers are employing a trial and error strategy, aggregating the industries' best practices to mold into an even more deadly weapon.
These dark forces aren't just spraying around attacks mindlessly. To cause maximum damage, hackers are growingly deploying their venom in a targeted fashion, pinpointing the exact weakness in a system, providing a timely entry point into a gateway allowing them to open a Pandora's box when inside.
Worldwide events are magnets to this bombardment of attacks, and these hackers are routinely carrying out diligent reconnaissance work to lay the groundwork for a laser-like, designed attack.
These digital Ocean's 11 are hard to stop unless you call on Fortinet.
The scope of damage is increasing over time with hackers directing malware to disperse laterally throughout a network before triggering the most vicious phase of the attack.
The Olympic Destroyer malware and the SamSam ransomware rearing its ugly head in Q1 2018, demonstrate how cybercriminals fused together a designer attack with a destructive payload for devastating results.
Some examples of the rapid escalation in expertise are GandCrab ransomware that turned up in January. It was the first ransomware demanding Dash cryptocurrency as a payment.
Complicating the matter, attacks aren't just pointed at one direction. A multifaceted pronged attack has proved effective for expert hackers and mobile is becoming a habitual point of entry.
Hackers would target routers or Internet hardware exploiting these soft spots contributing to 21% of corporations being blindsided by malware, a sharp increase from 7%.
The explosion of IoT devices such as Amazon Echo and Apple's HomePod will be a battleground arena for this industry to stop probing hackers from extracting the treasure trove of data.
Unpatched software and hardware are also ripe for penetration.
Microsoft ranked as the most targeted firm. The other avenue for attacks mainly fell to routers that garnered a substantial portion of malware volume.
Botnets are described as a network of private computers infected with malware while controlled without the owners' knowledge.
Logically, the longer the botnets are in the system, the more havoc they cause.
Same-day detection and removal of botnets came in at 58.5% of infections.
Unfortunately, it took two days to get rid of 17.6% and three days to oust 7.%.
Further down the time horizon, it took more than a week to dispose of 5%.
One glaring example was the Andromeda botnet removed in Q4 2017, but it was still running riot prominently in Q1 2018.
An elixir to solve the problem is not always perfect, but Fortinet manages to successfully smother potential carnage leading to a slew of massive contracts.
All of these aforenoted dangers are on what Fortinet clamps down.
It does its best to put a muzzle on the hideous activity. Then the review and enhancement of products will only help them generate a flurry of sales going forward.
The cybersecurity sector is relatively new and swiftly evolving to the forefront of corporate governance.
The speed of change in technology is outstripping the development of academic qualifications for cybersecurity experts.
Consequently, an acute scarcity of qualified technicians could stifle the effort to combat these wicked forces. Reports suggest a substantial number of middle-tier specialist positions cannot be found causing strain further down the pecking order.
Fortinet uses the most modern A.I. (artificial intelligence) algorithms to address these hyper-critical security threats, whether in networks, applications, cloud, or mobile environments.
The company is the industry leader along with Palo Alto Networks Inc, (PANW), hawking premium firewall technology, end-point security software, and cloud protection solutions.
They have been consistently growing the top line while expanding their hybrid-solutions product lineup.
Just four years ago Fortinet took home $770 million of revenue Fast-forward to 2017, and Fortinet ended the year with $1.49 billion in revenue.
Fortinet continues to hit all-time highs as its stock is on fire.
Its total addressable market maintains robust, and Fortinet is well placed to reap the benefits moving forward.
Its revenue mix is slowly changing from a reliance on hardware to a pivot to software and services boding well for the future.
Gross margins are healthy ticking higher to 77% in Q1 2018, a small increase of 2% YOY.
Revenues are set to blow past $3 billion by 2022, and Fortinet is an all-around great company.
Shares have run too far too fast. Wait for shares to drop anywhere close to the 50-day moving average to put new money to work in this high-caliber cybersecurity stock.
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Quote of the Day
"A company shouldn't get addicted to being shiny, because shiny doesn't last," - said Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos.
