eToro: Cybersecurity companies are booming in a dangerous world

In today’s increasingly data-centric world, the requirements for digital security are only growing. An estimated 330 trillion gigabytes (GB) of new data is created every day globally, nearly double the rate of only two years ago. This surging data growth is coming alongside the proliferation of new remote and hybrid work models. This combination is making companies more vulnerable to cybersecurity threats, and with the latest advancement of AI, the need for cutting edge cybersecurity is more important than ever. Only this year we have seen 767 known data breaches leaking almost 700 million records.

By Bogdan Maioreanu, eToro analyst

The global average cost of a data breach in 2023 was USD 4.45 million, a 15% increase over 3 years, according to an IBM report. Notably, 51% of organisations are planning to increase security investments as a result of a breach.

Respondents in the Cybersecurity Outlook Survey from the World Economic Forum now believe that the character of cyberthreats has changed and that cyber attackers are more likely to focus on business disruption and reputational damage. Also global geopolitical instability has helped to close the perception gap between business and cyber leaders’ views on the importance of cyber-risk management, with 91% of all respondents believing that a far-reaching, catastrophic cyber event is at least somewhat likely in the next two years. Also only 2% of the business responders said that they will not invest in cybersecurity. This is leading to an increase in the cybersecurity market.

In Romania, the cybersecurity market is projected to reach US $166.50m in 2023 according to Statista. Total revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2023-2028) of 12.88%, resulting in a market volume of US $305.20 million by 2028. At global level, the Cybersecurity market is projected to reach $166 billion this year. Revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate of 10.48% by 2028, resulting in a market volume of almost $274 billion.

As we approach Cyber Security Month in October, an index formed by the top 10 cybersecurity firms in the world by market capitalization has returned 26% from the beginning of the year, almost double the S&P500 index that returned 13%. Also eight of the 10 companies have shown share price gains this year. Stock price of the first five companies, Palo Alto, a company with a market capitalization of over $70 billion, surged over 64% from the beginning of the year, Fortinet -21%, CrowdStrike – 57%, ZScaler – 35% and Cloudflare – 31%. But in the last 10 years we have seen the extreme price increases of Palo Alto and Fortinet amounting to almost 1,500% and over 1,400%, respectively. The great interest in cybersecurity companies was best illustrated this week when giant Cisco Systems agreed to a deal to acquire cybersecurity company Splunk for $28 billion in an effort to make companies more secure and resilient and to drive the next generation of AI-enabled security.