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Tech Talk: Cybersecurity

The global cybersecurity market was valued at $105 billion in 2022 and is projected to grow to $266 billion by 2027, a CAGR of 8.9%. The number of cyberattacks is growing at a significant rate. In 2021, there were more than 6.5 billion cyberattacks worldwide. Simply put, cybersecurity is the practice of protecting computer systems and networks from digital attacks. The practice of providing cybersecurity is complex, as it involves a variety of elements from cryptology (256-bit encryption) to human nature (phishing attacks) to computer networks (distributed denial of service attacks and packet tracing). The major cybersecurity types include data breaches, malware, phishing, and denial-of-service attacks. The US government found that a plurality of reported incidents was other/unknown (46%), not a confidence-inducing number. The second-highest category was improper usage (31%), followed by phishing (9%). In Verizon’s 2023 DBIR, it found that 50% of all social engineering incidents in 2022 used pretexting. Twenty-four percent of all breaches involved ransomware, 83% involved external actors, and 74% included the human element. Forty-nine percent of all breaches by external actors involved the use of stolen credentials. Key trends to track as cybersecurity evolves include ransomware, AI-based attacks, cloud computing usage increases, increased sophistication of attacks, and longer-term quantum computing-based attacks. Cybersecurity is provided by a variety of companies from multi-billion-dollar companies like Cisco Systems (CSCO) and IBM (IBM) to microcap companies like SideChannel (SDCH). Other vendors include Palo Alto Networks (PANW), Broadcom (AVGO), Check Point Software (CHKP), Intel (INTC), Trend Micro (TMICY), Zscaler (ZS), and CrowdStrike (CRWD).