Home Depot Data Breach Makes Another Bullish Case for Cybersecurity
Earlier this month, Home Depot revealed a massive data breach, in which the credit cards of some 56 million customers may have been compromised. Company insiders have since alleged lax cybersecurity practices, but it’s also clear that the attack was performed by extremely sophisticated and capable thieves — probably based in Eastern Europe (according to analysts).
Home Depot’s stock has not yet fallen as much as Target’s did after last year’s Christmas breach — perhaps because there are fewer retail alternatives to the home goods titan.
This event will put corporate America — and Europe — on alert once again that their enemies are going to be constantly increasing their capabilities, and therefore that constant vigilance is necessary. And with criminals approaching the capacity of “state-level” actors — or actually with covert state backing — we think that U.S. government policy is likely to become more supportive. In short, we view every event like the Home Depot breach — and there will certainly be more — as an argument supportive of investing in cybersecurity firms.
Below are some of the cybersecurity companies that we have been following. They include hardware, software, network, and cloud security providers. Note: We do not recommend any of these stocks for purchase at this time, but if we get a stock market correction of 5 to 8 percent, it may encourage us to look closely at some of them.
