Modern warfare isn’t confined to the battlefield… Ukrainian banks’ and government websites were hit with cyberattacks this week ahead of Russia’s deadly invasion. Since the US and its allies imposed sanctions on Moscow, Western officials have been on high alert for Russian cyber-retaliation. Shares of cybersecurity companies have spiked:
- Network-security stocks Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike, Fortinet, and Mandiant all surged at least 10% yesterday, and cybersecurity ETFs also jumped.
It’s scary out there… Even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the cybersecurity industry had been seeing a flood of investment: VC-backed security companies have raised $2.6B so far this month, about 4X more than the same period last year.
- Cybercrime is a growing biz: the number of cyberattacks increased 70% last year, and data breaches cost US companies a record $4.2M on average. The global cost of hacks topped $6T last year and is forecast to hit $10.5T by 2025.
- Russia’s already a big player: Cybercrime analysts say nearly 75% of money stolen via ransomware attacks last year went to Russia-linked cybercriminals. In recent years, logistics giants FedEx and Maersk have also been targeted by Russian hackers.
A new era of state-sponsored cybercrime is dawning… Russia was responsible for an estimated 60% of state-sponsored cybercrime detected by Microsoft last year, and now the FBI is warning US banks and businesses to watch out for Russian ransomware attacks. Biden has asked American tech giants like Google and Microsoft to help beef up cybersecurity, but has struggled to boost the national cybersecurity budget since his Build Back Better bill stalled in Congress.