Cybercrime tutorials are readily available and potential damage is colossal. Cybercriminals’ actions are also driving the market for cybersecurity solutions, and there’s no end in sight. Photo: Shutterstock

Cybercrime tutorials are readily available and potential damage is colossal. Cybercriminals’ actions are also driving the market for cybersecurity solutions, and there’s no end in sight. Photo: Shutterstock

One man’s loss is another man’s gain. It’s a harsh reality for those who don’t take sufficient care to protect their digital or physical assets: cybercrime is spreading at a very advanced level, multiplying the threats to public and economic players.

The story of Evotec, a young German rockstar in drug research, has not received much media coverage here. Last April, the healthtech company was forced to acknowledge a cyberattack. Evotec first took everything offline before looking at the scale of the disaster.

“This meant carrying out forensic checks on more than 6,000 computers and machines, which either came back online or will only come back online when they are 100% safe,” commented CEO Werner Lanthaler in a lengthy blog post. The stock certainly took a beating, but it has recovered quite well, despite results that will be below those hoped for in the same note.

There are dozens of small stories of this type, not to mention those that are still unknown, as cybercriminals have a taste for staying under the radar long enough to cause as much ‘bankable’ damage as possible.

While it may seem complicated to compare the growth curve of cyberdefence solutions with that of companies affected by attacks, the market for solutions is estimated at between $1.5trn and $2trn. But the current market is only at 10% of this--90% remains untapped. This should be seen in the context of the estimated revenues of cybercriminals, which is estimated to go from $10trn in 2025 to nearly $14trn in 2028.

What are the market leaders doing? Whether Crowdstrike, Fortinet or Palo Alto, they are all in the process of enhancing their solutions platform to prevent companies having to subscribe to 30, 50 or even 70 solutions to remedy new problems year after year. Their shares are soaring and they are also to be found in funds, which reduces risk.

A stock to watch

Akamai Technologies. Daniel Lewin never had the chance to see if his vision was the right one. The young MIT prodigy was one of the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks, when his plane crashed into the World Trade Center towers. The company, which specialises in caching servers that allow content providers to use less bandwidth and still have access to content, is now one of a famous quintet--Netflix, Google, Akamai, Meta and Amazon--of those who use... the most bandwidth.

Canada’s pension fund, Blackrock, Nordea and a few other investment stars are on board for this company. The firm has just launched in France and is taking advantage of the growing role of the cloud in securing installations.

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano. This article is not intended as investment advice. Be sure to carefully investigate any company mentioned in the press before taking an investment decision.

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