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3 Cybersecurity Stocks Riding on Remote Working & Learning Wave

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With 7,201,477 infection cases and more than 408,788 deaths worldwide, the spread of the coronavirus pandemic doesn’t seem to slow down. In an attempt to contain the spread of, most companies are continuing their work-from-home policies. Moreover, schools and colleges all over the world are coming up with an updated remote learning curriculum to ensure the continuation of courses.

Amid all the outbreak-related disruptions, hackers and cybercriminals are reportedly taking advantage of the pandemic-induced hype and using it to steal passwords and data.

Notably, security analysts from Kaspersky have discovered a new malicious cyber infection, going by the name Wuhan Coronavirus, which is circulating in the digital space. Further, an attack was recently attempted at a popular, interactive COVID-19 tracking map run by Johns Hopkins University.

Low Awareness Increasing Risks

Interestingly, few work-from-home habits are proving to be risky to critical business systems and sensitive data. These habits include using corporate devices for activities unrelated to work, letting other family members use them for entertainment and re-using old passwords.

According to a study by CyberArk (CYBR - Free Report) , corporate security risks are higher with working parents. The study found that 77% of remote employees are using unmanaged, insecure devices, which might lack the necessary security software to access corporate systems. Also, more than 66% of employees use communication tools like Zoom and MicrosoftTeams, which have recently reported security vulnerabilities.

Moreover, a recent Kaspersky research, reported by Business News Wales, found that employees are unaware and unprepared for cybersecurity issues that may arise while working from home. About 73% of workers say that they never received any IT security awareness training after starting work from home.

Cybersecurity Stocks to Gain

However, amid the confusion regarding cybersecurity at the time of the pandemic, big and small vendors like Absolute Software, Cloudflare, Fortinet (FTNT - Free Report) , CrowdStrike (CRWD - Free Report) and Trend Micro (TMICY - Free Report) are constantly trying to keep pace with the hackers and bolster their offerings against cybercrimes.

Year-To-Date Price Performance Against S&P 500 Composite



Notably, Absolute Software became the first cybersecurity company to offer its clients additional, free of cost VPN application support to protect their remote employees. This was followed by a similar offering by Cloudflare.

Fortinet seems to also benefit from the growing threat landscape, thanks to its suite of efficient offerings. The FortiMail platform can be used to block specific file types containing certain keywords, such as those related to the coronavirus. FortiMail is also capable of sending attachments to the FortiSandbox solution to check whether the file displays any malicious behavior. The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), which makes it all the more attractive. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Moreover, last month, Zacks #2 Ranked CrowdStrike strengthened the Falcon platform’s Linux protection capabilities with additional features, including machine learning prevention, custom Indicators of Attack (IoAs) and dynamic IoAs.

Further, Trend Micro develops security solutions that protect against a wide range of insidious threats and combined attacks, including viruses, spam, phishing, spyware, botnets, and other Web attacks, like data-stealing malware. For instance, its tools like RansomwareFileDecryptor and TeslacryptDecryptor can decrypt ransomware like Crypt variants, TeslaCrypt, AutoLocky, BadBlock and more. This stock also carries a Zacks Rank #2.

Bottom Line

With the growing number of employees working from home and students taking up online classes, the use of cloud and virtual meetings is increasing, providing a great opportunity for the new hacking method doing the rounds to extract information and launch an attack. Therefore, the demand for cybersecurity solutions is expected to remain healthy owing to the increasing frequency and the technologically advanced nature of cyberattacks.

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