Companies and organisations keep getting hacked. Every hack becomes a marketing opportunity for cyber-related companies and investors. The stock market kept climbing through 2017, and cyber security stocks did especially well.
There is even a cyber security exchange-traded fund, ticker HACK, which surged in 2017. Major breaches at health insurance providers and banks remind investors how important protection against attacks is.
Politics and the security spend
After the 2016 US elections, where a cyber breach played a role in the process, multiple politicians have prioritised cyber security at the national level. Some CEOs have teamed up with government to push for better protection of businesses and consumers, while also safeguarding privacy.
Beyond the headlines
Cyber security stocks are not setting records only because of news cycles. All the attacks have opened opportunities across different areas of cyber security and created an immediate need for tools to organise the alerts. New tools keep arriving on the market.
Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) products have had their best quarter to date. SOAR matters more than ever, helping maximise existing tools on the stack and automate playbooks for the best security outcome.
Bubble or trend
Some companies in the space are not profitable. Many trade at 100 to 600 times their revenue. The last time triple-digit valuations were in vogue was when the Nasdaq topped 5,000 in March 2000. Whether this cycle holds remains to be seen.
Originally published 5 May 2017. Migrated to the new IRC site in 2026.