On Monday, July 29, Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF) announced it had been hacked.
The Capital One data breach resulted in 106 million credit card customers and applicants having their data compromised.
The Wall Street Journal said this was one of the "largest-ever breaches of a big bank."
Crazy enough, we had just finished publishing a story on our top cybersecurity stock before the news broke.
After the Capital One hack, that stock went up 4.3%.
It happens to be a cloud security company that's increased profits by 198% in the last three years.
And now you see why.
The hacker, Paige A. Thompson, broke through Capital One's security systems to access customer data stored on Amazon.com Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AMZN) cloud service.
In doing so, she exposed roughly 140,000 Social Security numbers and 80,000 bank account numbers.
This should definitely motivate individual bank customers to protect their information with additional security layers - changing passwords, using two-factor authentication, etc.
But on a larger scale, it shows the overwhelming impact when a company does not have adequate cybersecurity measures in place.
We more recently wrote about how cybersecurity stocks are growing with more companies joining the cloud.
According to CIO.com, 96% of organizations use the cloud in one way or another.
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And as more companies begin to migrate additional services to the cloud, the stakes only get higher.
According to Cybersecurity Ventures, damages from cybercrime are expected to reach $6 trillion by 2021.
This is largely because cybersecurity innovation has struggled to keep up with emerging technologies. Between our computers, smartphones, smart TVs, smartwatches, and other wearables and apps, we've been flooding the cloud with all kinds of personal data.
So we're relying on the companies handling that data to keep it secure.
That's why the cybersecurity industry is poised to add roughly $100 billion in revenue over the next four years. Money Morning Defense and Tech Specialist Michael Robinson says the industry is projected to grow 68%, from $137 billion to $231.9 billion.
Companies are looking everywhere they can for stronger cybersecurity measures.
"Corporate America should get ready," said Robert Herjavec, Angel Investor and CEO of Herjavec Group.
Herjavec told Forbes, "We're in a very challenging time where warfare is being fought in cyberspace, and the threats aren't going to slow down anytime soon. It's a great industry to be a part of, but at the same time, the diligence required by individuals, corporations, and governments has never been higher."
And that's why our best cybersecurity stock is so promising.
In fact, our proprietary Money Morning Stock VQScore™ formula gives it the highest possible chance of breaking out.
This stock has a score of 4.45, which means its earnings potential is accelerating and demand for this company's shares is increasing.
So don't wait too long...
The Best Cybersecurity Stock to Buy
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Our favorite cloud security company is Qualys Inc. (NASDAQ: QLYS).
It was founded in 1999 as one of the first "vulnerability management solutions" on the market.
Today, it provides app-based services to more than 11,000 customers in 130 countries, "including a majority on the Forbes Global 100."
The company also performs 3 billion IP scans/audits per year. In that time frame, it comes across over 1 trillion vulnerabilities - more evidence the cybersecurity threat is growing.
Thanks to continuous growth in the cloud services industry, Qualys increased revenue by 20% last year, from $230.82 million to $278.89 million. That's 4% more growth than the 16% it saw in 2017.
But profit has nearly tripled in the last three years. The number was $57.3 million by the end of 2018, up from $19.2 million in 2016 - a 198% increase.
This year, Qualys reported 16% year-over-year revenue growth in its Q1 2019 earnings. It took in $75.3 million, compared to $64.9 million the last year.
The stock currently trades at $89.23. It saw a bump from $86.79 to $90.52 - a 4.3% jump - in the hours following the Capital One hack news.
But analysts expect it to grow 24% over the next year, to $111.
This stock is also up 21% since January, from $69.55. If analysts are correct in their $111 estimation, their projections would total 60% growth for 2019.
Going into this year, the company expects sales to grow 16%, from $320.52 million to $374.35 million.
But events like the Capital One breach - direct exploitation of cloud security - will lead to wider adoption of stronger cloud security. That's why this stock has perfect 4.45 VQScore, and that's why the sky is the limit for its growth down the line.
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About the Author
Mike Stenger, Associate Editor for Money Morning at Money Map Press, graduated from the Perdue School of Business at Salisbury University. He has combined his degree in Economics with an interest in emerging technologies by finding where tech and finance overlap. Today, he studies the cybersecurity sector, AI, streaming, and the Cloud.