We’re sitting ducks.

After all these years, we’re still not ready for cyberattacks.

Our own government isn’t ready for more. Most recently, “the US Coast Guard has been urged to improve the cybersecurity infrastructure of the Maritime Transportation System (MTS), which includes ports, waterways, and vessels essential for transporting over $5.4 trillion worth of goods annually,” says Tripwire.com.

The problem, according to the GAO’s report, is that MTS facilities and vessels are increasingly reliant upon vulnerable technology, and that the impact of future incidents “could be severe.”

Cities, hospitals, schools, and many companies aren’t ready either. 

A Medusa ransomware group claims to have stolen data from NASCAR. Reportedly, that includes “staff members’ names, email addresses, and titles, credential-related details, and detailed raceway ground maps would be exposed should the company refuse to pay the $4 million ransom within 10 days,” as noted by SCWorld.com.

With that, keep an eye on beaten-down cybersecurity stocks, like Palo Alto (PANW) – which is just starting to pivot from oversold conditions. Helping, analysts at Stephens just said, “We believe cyber continues to be a large and attractive market. Cyber threats continue to escalate in terms of volume and sophistication, a dynamic that we believe is only accelerating as the attack surface has expanded and become more distributed. This is being driven by secular trends including cloud (SaaS, public cloud, cloud-native apps) and work-from-anywhere.”

Sincerely,

Ian Cooper