From: RegTech Analyst
Anti-virus software company Avast has seen its shares surge since the spread of the coronavirus, which the company’s boss thinks other cybersecurity will experience too.
Ondrej Vlcek, the CEO of Avast, told The Sun that the pandemic could be good for cybersecurity companies after it was named on the FTSE 100 Index, the first from the European Union’s eastern flank to win the blue-chip accolade in London just two years after selling shares.
“There are surprisingly few technology companies in FTSE 100, ” Vlcek told The Sun. “Not only are the tech stocks now more resilient than most other industries, but COVID-19 has also been associated with a significant increase in cyber attacks. So I don’t see it as a coincidence that we’re being added now.”
Indeed, the health crisis has also meant that cyber criminals has upped their efforts to launch hack attacks against businesses, something RegTech Analyst has reported on in the past too.
And Avast is not the only company to see its stocks soar. For instance, cybersecurity company CrowdStrike saw its shares jump almost to an almost record high this week.
Another reason why cybersecurity companies are rallying now is because more companies are embracing remote working, which raises the risk of the company suffering a cyberattack. The attack surface is bigger and many people may not have the same strict digital defences at home as they would have in the office.
