Venture capital investments in cybersecurity firms increased 20 percent to $5.3 billion in 2018 from $4.4 billion in 2017, according to a report released by U.S.-based Strategic Cyber Ventures.
The latest quarterly data from cybersecurity firm ThreatMetrix showed that it detected 210 million attacks in the first quarter last year, with another 151 million seen in the second quarter. Compared with 2015, cyberattacks have surged more than 100 percent, illustrating an overall heightened risk landscape over the last two years, ThreatMetrix said.
U.S. cybersecurity firms took the bulk of investments, accounting for 46 percent of investments in 2018, according to the Strategic Cyber Ventures report. Asian and European companies took 22.6 percent of global investment, up from 12.7 percent in 2014.
Strategic Cyber Ventures chief executive officer Hank Thomas said he considers the People’s Liberation Army — China’s armed forces — as the largest cyber threat actor in the world.
“They have been able to use cyber to facilitate all sorts of things beyond just information warfare,” said Thomas, who is a former U.S. army intelligence officer focused on cyber, signals intelligence, information operations, and military intelligence planning.
Strategic Cyber Ventures has a $100 million portfolio that includes four cybersecurity companies.
Companies could incur $5.2 trillion in additional costs and lost revenue over the next five years due to cyber-attacks, according to a new report from IT services firm Accenture — based on a survey of more than 1,700 CEOs and other C-suite executives.
Trend Micro recently released a report detailing inherent flaws and new vulnerabilities in radio frequency (RF) remote controllers found.
The global cybersecurity market is expected to grow from $120 billion in 2017 to $300 billion by 2024, according to a 2019 Global Market Insights report.
