First American Water Works, then the Marriott, and now… Fidelity Investments, everyone. According to reports, the financial behemoth overseeing a casual $14 trillion got hit with a data breach - and now, cyber degenerates officially have their hands on sensitive personal info from over 77,000 customers. Meaning, if you thought your money was untouchable with the big players, think again.

(Source: Fox News) 

In short, word has spread that between August 17 and 19, 2024, some trespassers found their way into Fidelity’s systems, exposing everything from Social Security numbers to driver’s license info. And get this—it didn’t even take a massive hack. It all started with two new customer accounts. Two. 

(Source: Giphy) 

Of course, Fidelity managed to catch on within a couple of days (they shut down the breach by August 19), but by then the damage was done. And while 77,000 customers are a fraction of their 51.5 million user base, 77,000 different social security numbers, investment accounts, and other personal details doesn’t exactly offer much comfort to those impacted.

(Source: MSN) 

So how did this all shake out on Fidelity’s side? A nice 24 months of free credit monitoring and identity restoration services. Which is great, but the reality is - those are just reactive measures. The real issue here? We are dealing with more and more cyber threats by the damn day. 

Meaning, it’s time our institutions and cesspool of government agencies take this more seriously than they already have. Especially considering experts have been practically waving red flags about the need for a multi-layered approach to protecting your data for quite some time. 

(Source: Giphy) 

Now sure, it’s a bit of an inconvenience, but in the grand scheme of things our personal info is worth its weight in gold these days. Meaning, if you think this is the last time something like this will happen - then I have some beachfront property to sell you in the middle of the desert. The financial world is ground zero for cyberattacks, and companies need to constantly up their game.

Which is why if you’re looking for additional places to upgrade your portfolio, the demand is steering left, right, and twice on Sunday towards companies who are capitalizing on solving this problem. And no, I’m not necessarily talking about Crowdstrike (despite the stock still being up 26.44% YTD after its apocalyptic outage scare).

(Source: Washington Post) 

For instance, cybersecurity continues to be one of the fastest-growing segments in software, especially as every company slowly morphs into the tech space (whether they like it or not). For this reason, one company founded by two former Israeli Defense Forces cyber warfare engineers (a.k.a.  they know a thing or two about digital defense), is absolutely crushing it in the industry right now. 

I’m of course, talking about Varonis Systems (NASDAQ: VRNS). In short, they just reported Q2 revenues of $130.3 million, a solid 12.9% jump year-over-year, beating analysts’ expectations by 4.4%. Not too shabby eh?. CEO Yaki Faitelson summed it up nicely: their SaaS platform and Managed Data Detection and Response offering are gaining some serious momentum, helping customers prevent data breaches with minimal effort.

(Source: Investing.com) 

What’s more, is that despite the weakest full-year guidance update in its peer group, Varonis stock is up 25.6% since the earnings call (31.12% YTD)  and currently trades at $59.37. 

On the other hand, we have Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS), Jay Chaudhry’s fifth cybersecurity venture. (Yeah, fifth. Some people just don’t quit.) Simply put, Zscaler helps companies securely connect to cloud applications and networks—something that’s more important than ever as businesses move their operations online.

Which is why, it’s no surprise that Zscaler annihilated Q2, with revenues up 30.3% year-over-year to $592.9 million, beating expectations by another 4.4%. They also posted the biggest analyst estimates beat and the highest full-year guidance raise in the sector. So yeah there’s that.

As far as the stock goes, the stock is roaring 15.22% this month despite being down -11.56% YTD. 

But, but, but… even with the dip the consensus analyst price target is sitting nice and pretty at $232.54, indicating a potential 18.79% upside going forward. 

So given all of this, what's the takeaway here? Well other than protecting your own personal info online, cybersecurity companies are going to continue catapulting in demand over the long-term. 

And while there’s plenty of other companies we didn’t mention here, it might be best to start playing with the numbers on Varonis and Zscaler going forward. Especially considering the time to get serious about better cybersecurity on Wall Street was like… yesterday. 

In the meantime, do what you will with this information and as always stay safe and stay frosty, friends! Until next time… 

P.S. I know It’s Monday, so I’ll make this quick. We've successfully predicted up to 16 triple-digit (100% or more) opportunities nearly every single week for the past four months... and our next alert is set to be released early next week. Meaning, if you haven't done so yet, I'd highly suggest clicking here ASAP and joining the 2,000+ Stocks.News Premium Members.

Stocks.News does not hold any positions in companies mentioned in the article.