Cyber War and Cyber Profits

3/25/15
 
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Martin D. Weiss, Ph.D.,

from Money & Markets,
3/23/15:

If you think cyber hacking, cyber theft, cyber terrorism and cyber warfare are just a side show in the world of global economics and investments, let me … ask you a few simple questions …

Question #1. Since these and countless other hacks began to take place years ago, has Internet security improved significantly?

Question #2. If a 15-year-old in Miami, a 19-year old “not guilty” young man in England and a blind teenager in East Boston can hack into supposedly secure, mission-critical computers of America’s space agency, America’s largest ports and America’s telecom systems, then …

What about teams of sophisticated software engineers employed or sponsored by the Russian Federal Security Service (formerly the KGB), China’s People’s Liberation Army, or Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security? How much damage can they do?

Question #3. Which U.S. companies can best protect us from these attacks and how can investors profit from their achievements?

I can answer the first question with a two-letter word:

No.

I’ll answer the second question with some stories that make those three teenage hacks look like party games by comparison.

And, I’ll answer the third question by naming the companies that are leading the charge in cyber defense.

Never before in our lifetime has our nation been more vulnerable to cyber attack and, relative to the magnitude of that threat, never before has so little been invested in its defense.

Just in the last few years, at least four nations — Russia, China, Iran and North Korea — have already launched daring, sweeping attacks on our soil; some causing immediate damage, some laying the groundwork for possible systemic destruction in the future.

This is not science fiction. It is here. It is now. And it’s documented

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