Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine has prompted a litany of moves by NATO and the West to halt Russian aggression, including heavy sanctions, supply of defensive weapons, and the seizure of financial assets.
“But there is a much more direct war that the collective West and Russia have been waging for a decade or more – a series of battles in cyberspace that look as though they will only escalate as more open conflicts erupt,” wrote TheStreet’s Kevin Curran recently on Real Money.
Curran noted that in 2022, there have been three separate reports published by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) tied to increased Russian hacking.
"Russia continues to target critical infrastructure, including underwater cables and industrial control systems, in the United States and in allied and partner countries, as compromising such infrastructure improves-and in some cases can demonstrate-its ability to damage infrastructure during a crisis," the agency advised in a recent report. "Russia almost certainly considers cyber-attacks an acceptable option to deter adversaries, control escalation, and prosecute conflicts."
Curran noted that more "politically motivated attacks on these critical sectors are anticipated. Whether it be the energy sector overall or the recent Solarwinds hack of Microsoft (MSFT), there appears to be no limit to the size and scale of these attacks," he wrote.
Alex Lam, chief strategy and business development officer at TechDemocracy, told Curran that "No industry is immune from cyber-attacks, and considering the current situation financial and banking sectors, Healthcare, Telecom and energy are more vulnerable than others."
According to Lam, the impact for cloud providers like Amazon.com (AMZN), IBM (IBM), Alphabet (GOOGL), and Microsoft could be quite large and therefore will necessitate more spending on defense. Further, he advised that more attention needs to focus on the individual level for smartphones and PCs password protection.
"For investors, this spells opportunity in the cybersecurity space broadly," Curran wrote.
"Cybersecurity companies such as Palo Alto Networks (PANW) and Crowdstrike (CRWD) are well-positioned to help address organizations' needs for protection against cyberattacks," Therese Schachner, a cybersecurity consultant at VPN Brains, told Curran. "These companies offer products and services such as threat intelligence, endpoint detection, and response (EDR) solutions, malware defense, and incident response."
On an individual level, NortonLifelock (NLOK) and Fortinet (FTNT) are likely to benefit from similar dynamics.
“Cisco's (CSCO) recent acquisition of DuoSecurity for password protection is also likely to be proven prescient amidst the current environment,” Curran added. “Judging by share dynamics as of late, the market is growing to appreciate the broad-based opportunity.”
