We’re seeing even better performance among select stocks in the Total Wealth Insiderportfolio, where we now have nearly a half-dozen prime cybersecurity companies, all of them aimed at solving one of the most intractable problems of our times.
The big challenge — even now — is getting companies to take the threat seriously.
If we own a physical business, a home or a car, security is always a priority, right? We make sure we have strong locks on the doors.
It doesn’t prevent a break-in, of course. But a good lock, fortified doors and unbreakable windows sure make the thieves’ job a lot harder.
We pull on the door handle a couple times just to make sure the deadbolt is set. We tell our employees and children to make sure to lock the doors when they leave.
Why It’s “Game On” for Cybersecurity Stocks
Yet — just taking the shipping industry as one example — most companies do no such thing. Ocean shipping today is highly dependent on onboard computers and automation. That’s why vessels that once needed crews of dozens in decades past can now be operated with as few as 13 people.
And yet, when a British consulting firm surveyed 2,500 merchant seamen about at-sea cybersecurity, they found:
- Forty percent of ships’ officers said they had sailed on a vessel infected with a computer virus or malware.
- Eighty-seven percent of ships’ crews had no cybersecurity training.
- It takes an average of 146 days to detect a shipboard data breach.
- Seventy percent of shipboard data breaches go undetected.
Surveys like the one above demonstrate why cybersecurity stocks will continue to ride the wave of spending in this sector, as business after business, and industry after industry, wakes up to the threat.
Kind regards,
Jeff L. Yastine
Editor, Total Wealth Insider
