- Geopolitical risk is rising ahead of polls in critical global elections
- Cybersecurity already a top budget target for US corporations
- Palo Alto, CrowdStrike, Fortinet among industry’s top firms
Geopolitical risk will continue to be a hot button issue in 2024’s ‘global elections supercycle’, a phrase used by analysts at consultancy E&Y, and cybersecurity promises to be a crucial theme.
According to E&Y’s numbers, voters will go to the polls in critical elections in the US, Europe, India, and elsewhere, markets that account for about 54% of the global population and nearly 60% of global GDP. This will generate regulatory and policy uncertainty in the short and medium term and voters are likely to see more manipulation of news, data, and images than ever before.
WHY YOUR PORTFOLIO NEEDS CYBERSECURITY
Which brings us to cybersecurity. In an era where every company is becoming a technology company, IT has become like energy or finance – an essential set of tools needed by every organisation across every industry.
Research by Citi analysts show that cybersecurity spending is already a top item in the tech spending budgets of leading US firms. Companies like Fortinet (FTNT:NASDAQ), Palo Alto Networks (PANW:NASDAQ) and CrowdStrike (CRWD:NASDAQ) are multi-billion dollars businesses that lead the industry in the raging war with hackers, often sophisticated, organised and well-funded state sponsored actors or criminal gangs looking to make vast profits.
