Texas was under siege.
For more than 2 days last week, Iranian hackers attacked Texas state agency computers as many as 10,000 times every minute in what’s known as a DoS or Denial of Service attack. In the cyber world, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyber-attack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host connected to the internet.
The Texas attack appears to be a continuation of Iran’s retaliation against the US for killing Iran’s second most powerful person, General Qassem Soleimani in a drone attack earlier this month.
It likely comes as no surprise, but according to a high-ranking Texas state official, “These sorts of attacks happen every day.” In the days after Soleimani’s assassination, Iranians hacked the Congressional Library website and posted pro-Iranian propaganda. The hackers also reportedly targeted numerous private US company websites.
In other words, America is at cyberwar.
A cyberwar is when one country attacks another through computers and other internet connected devices. Hackers use viruses or other means to infiltrate and often cripple an enemy’s computer systems.
Iran’s cyberwar on the US didn’t start last week and isn’t likely to end anytime soon. It’s been attacking US computer networks for the past decade with varying levels of success.
From 2011 to 2013, Iranian hackers attacked JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Bank of America (BAC), and Wells Fargo (WFC) making it difficult for bank customers to access their money. They’ve also attacked critical US infrastructure, such as electrical grids and even a dam in New York.
We’re clearly living in an era that is largely dominated by technological advancements. Revolutionary technologies like AI, ML and IoT (look them up) are fast changing the business landscape by expanding opportunities, growing revenues and enhancing efficiencies. In fact, a Research and Markets report states that the global robotics market is expected to see a compound annual growth rate of 25% between 2019 and 2024. And, by the way, the application of robots is not just limited to industrial use but a plethora of other areas like healthcare, entertainment, retail, automobile and defense.
Increasing adoption of these technologies exposes businesses, governments and organizations to cyber risks. Given the severity of the situation, Cybersecurity Ventures (a leading cybersecurity researcher) expects the worldwide expenditure on cybersecurity to surpass $1 trillion cumulatively from 2017 to 2021. Per a Grand View Research report, the global cyber security market is expected to reach a worth of around $241.1 billion, at a CAGR of 11% from 2019 to 2025.
The market reflects these realities… The chart of the ETF HACK in the linked video shows the weekly performance of the cybersecurity stock fund over a long period. As you can see, HACK just broke out to all-time highs last week... BUT it’s only up 9% since the summer of 2018. This suggests cybersecurity stocks could be in the early innings of a major rally.
Cybersecurity is shaping up to be a hot sector for 2020. Have a look for yourself.
