Most Popular
1. It’s a New Macro, the Gold Market Knows It, But Dead Men Walking Do Not (yet)- Gary_Tanashian
2.Stock Market Presidential Election Cycle Seasonal Trend Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
3. Bitcoin S&P Pattern - Nadeem_Walayat
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
4.U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - Raymond_Matison
5. How to Profit from the Global Warming ClImate Change Mega Death Trend - Part1 - Nadeem_Walayat
7.Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - Nadeem_Walayat
9.It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - Stephen_McBride
10.Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - Richard_Mills
Last 7 days
Stock Market Brief in Count Down to US Election Result 2024 - 3rd Nov 24
Gold Stocks’ Winter Rally 2024 - 3rd Nov 24
Why Countdown to U.S. Recession is Underway - 3rd Nov 24
Stock Market Trend Forecast to Jan 2025 - 2nd Nov 24
President Donald PUMP Forecast to Win US Presidential Election 2024 - 1st Nov 24
At These Levels, Buying Silver Is Like Getting It At $5 In 2003 - 28th Oct 24
Nvidia Numero Uno Selling Shovels in the AI Gold Rush - 28th Oct 24
The Future of Online Casinos - 28th Oct 24
Panic in the Air As Stock Market Correction Delivers Deep Opps in AI Tech Stocks - 27th Oct 24
Stocks, Bitcoin, Crypto's Counting Down to President Donald Pump! - 27th Oct 24
UK Budget 2024 - What to do Before 30th Oct - Pensions and ISA's - 27th Oct 24
7 Days of Crypto Opportunities Starts NOW - 27th Oct 24
The Power Law in Venture Capital: How Visionary Investors Like Yuri Milner Have Shaped the Future - 27th Oct 24
This Points To Significantly Higher Silver Prices - 27th Oct 24
US House Prices Trend Forecast 2024 to 2026 - 11th Oct 24
US Housing Market Analysis - Immigration Drives House Prices Higher - 30th Sep 24
Stock Market October Correction - 30th Sep 24
The Folly of Tariffs and Trade Wars - 30th Sep 24
Gold: 5 principles to help you stay ahead of price turns - 30th Sep 24
The Everything Rally will Spark multi year Bull Market - 30th Sep 24
US FIXED MORTGAGES LIMITING SUPPLY - 23rd Sep 24
US Housing Market Free Equity - 23rd Sep 24
US Rate Cut FOMO In Stock Market Correction Window - 22nd Sep 24
US State Demographics - 22nd Sep 24
Gold and Silver Shine as the Fed Cuts Rates: What’s Next? - 22nd Sep 24
Stock Market Sentiment Speaks:Nothing Can Topple This Market - 22nd Sep 24
US Population Growth Rate - 17th Sep 24
Are Stocks Overheating? - 17th Sep 24
Sentiment Speaks: Silver Is At A Major Turning Point - 17th Sep 24
If The Stock Market Turn Quickly, How Bad Can Things Get? - 17th Sep 24
IMMIGRATION DRIVES HOUSE PRICES HIGHER - 12th Sep 24
Global Debt Bubble - 12th Sep 24
Gold’s Outlook CPI Data - 12th Sep 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

How You Can Profit From the New "Code Wars"

Companies / Tech Stocks Jun 06, 2012 - 10:35 AM GMT

By: Money_Morning

Companies

Best Financial Markets Analysis ArticleMichael A. Robinson writes: Iran loves to rattle its saber-especially when it comes to Israel.

But the country that would like to wipe Israel off the map now finds itself the target of a very different kind of war.

On the frontlines of cyberspace, Iran has become the victim of another massive attack on its computer networks.


In the wake of the Stuxnet attack, the Flame virus unleashed on Iran is one of the worst pieces of malware ever to hit cyberspace.

The Flame virus is not just nasty, it's also very smart.

It was written to spy on a user's infected system and steal data. This includes documents, recorded conversations and even keystrokes.

Then it throws open a back door that allows hackers to tweak the code giving Flame even more ways to wreak havoc.

Clearly, news of the Flame attack comes at a key moment.

Rising tensions between the U.S. and Iran over its nuclear program have left the region under the threat of a wider conventional war.

In the background is the Israeli wild card. Israel has taken key political actions to ensure it's ready if it needs to attack Iran.

Flame's success is that it helps to keep a lid on this brewing powder keg.

In short, it is war by other means-even though Israel and the U.S. both deny they are behind the Flame attacks.

Yet, there's no question the Flame episode is part a major global trend that has put cybersecurity stocks back in the public eye.

And in a moment I'll show you four ways to invest in this growing field-pegged at about $65 billion.

But first, I want to make sure you have the correct context...

The Growing Menace in Cyberspace
The truth is that the U.S. is all too often on the receiving end of cyberattacks.

Hackers from around the world try to steal or destroy sensitive defense and financial data hundreds of times a day.

Not only that, the Pentagon maintains an active Cyber Command. The unit trains around the clock to keep the nation prepared to defend against hacks.

And for good reason...

There's just no question that in what I call the Era of Radical Change, a "Cyber Cold War" is a fact of life.

You see, rogue nations and freelance hackers can easily afford to create and launch weapons of mass computer destruction.

Compared to the cost of a fighter jet or battleship, writing computer code is practically free.

In the case of Iran, this is the second major cyberattack in the past two years. In 2010, the Stuxnet worm disabled machinery for several months that Iran needs for its nuclear program.

But Flame puts Stuxnet to shame. After all, the file itself is 20 times larger and far more complex.

It can turn a computer into a wireless vacuum cleaner. It sucks up names and phone numbers from nearby devices and transfers them back to the attacker's server.

Though Iran is not the only target, Flame has mostly focused on the Middle East. Other countries fending off Flame include Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Syria.

In all, the Flame virus has attacked nearly 600 systems.

Four Ways to Invest in Cybersecurity Stocks
Clearly, news like this means investors need to keep an eye on cybersecurity stocks.

Several have gotten slammed in the market's recent retreat but offer good long-term opportunities.

Take the case of Fortinet, Inc. (Nasdaq: FTNT).

Trading at about $20, the stock is off more than 20% in the past month. And the price may get even better because tech stocks have come under pressure of late.

With a market cap of $3.2 billion, it has a 14% profit margin and earns 19% on equity. It has $428 million in cash and no debt.

Fast-growing Sourcefire, Inc. (Nasdaq: FIRE) also has gotten slammed.

It's down more than 12% in the past month. Yet FIRE has $150 million in cash and no debt. However, Sourcefire can't match Fortinet's solid margins.

With a market cap of about $1.5 billion, Sourcefire returns just 3% on equity. But the company does have 2,500 clients in 180 countries and boasts 41 pending or actual patents.

Shares of Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKP) also got caught in the May rout, ending the month off by about 13%. But the balance sheet looks great.

Check Point has a market cap of about $10.4 billion. Selling at about $50, it trades at just 14 times forward earnings. It has an operating profit margin of more than 50 percent with $1.4 billion in cash and no debt.

Then there is small cap KEYW Holding Corp. (Nasdaq: KEYW). It trades at just $9. Though it's off slightly in the past 30 days, KEYW has beaten its larger rivals over the past three months.

For the quarter, KEYW returned 29% to shareholders compared with 11.5% for FIRE and declines of 15% for CHKP and 26% for FTNT.

The point is that we have millions of computers around the world connected to either the Web or private networks. For hackers, these computer networks are a target-rich landscape.

That means cybersecurity will remain an active field for investors for at least the next several years.

And to help you stay abreast these growing cyber threats and other cutting-edge high tech, I recently launched the Era of Radical Change.

It is a free newsletter that will show you how to profit from the most important trends reshaping the world around us.

I'm referring to things like:

1.A mini robot that charges your cell phone just by hovering over it.
2.How a new app can turn your smart phone into a bomb detector and send an alert to the police.
3.And an exotic new material that's the thickness of a single atom. Someday, it will give us TV screens that are slimmer than a sheet of paper.

So, if you want to find a way to profit from the next generation of tech breakthroughs, the Era of Radical Change is a great place to start.

And you can't beat the price. You can get it free by clicking here.

Source :http://moneymorning.com/2012/06/06/cybersecurity-stocks-four-ways-to-play-the-flame-attack-on-iran/

Money Morning/The Money Map Report

©2011 Monument Street Publishing. All Rights Reserved. Protected by copyright laws of the United States and international treaties. Any reproduction, copying, or redistribution (electronic or otherwise, including on the world wide web), of content from this website, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of Monument Street Publishing. 105 West Monument Street, Baltimore MD 21201, Email: customerservice@moneymorning.com

Disclaimer: Nothing published by Money Morning should be considered personalized investment advice. Although our employees may answer your general customer service questions, they are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular investment situation. No communication by our employees to you should be deemed as personalized investent advice. We expressly forbid our writers from having a financial interest in any security recommended to our readers. All of our employees and agents must wait 24 hours after on-line publication, or after the mailing of printed-only publication prior to following an initial recommendation. Any investments recommended by Money Morning should be made only after consulting with your investment advisor and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

Money Morning Archive

© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in