- US breaches sourced from Chinese hackers have resurged since Obama left office
- Hackers are targeting companies with large data on the general public
- Increase in attacks could end up being a tailwind for cybersecurity names
American businesses have seen an increase in attacks from Chinese-based hacker groups. The spike in attacks, which is primarily targeting telecom, pharmaceuticals and hospitality companies, can be traced back to Trump’s presidency, around the same time the two countries started clashing.
The Obama administration reached a truce in 2015 not to conduct cybertheft of trade secrets and intellectual property against one another for commercial gain. With the recent tension between the two nations, this truce appears to have been called off.
Hackers target telecommunications and hospitality firms due to the amount of information they have on the general public and other organizations like governments and businesses. The US government last year attributed to China the hack of Marriott’s Starwood hotel chain, which potentially exposed the personal information of approximately 500 million guests.
The increase in the amount of breaches will bring greater exposure, and potential business, to cybersecurity companies like FireEye (NASDAQ:FEYE) and ProofPoint (NASDAQ:PFPT).
Article by: Mick Ross
Mick is currently a full-time investor and formerly a buy-side analyst (2yrs) covering healthcare companies. Before that, he was a salesperson at a bulge-bracket firm, based in Dallas, Texas. Mick blogs to clarify and synthesize his investment thought process and to elicit feedback; additionally he likes to connect with other investors and swap ideas.