ASX cybersecurity shares are back on the radar following a spate of serious hacks, potentially impacting millions of Australians.
Malicious actors have been trolling the internet since its earliest days. Some attempt to seize control of your computer and hold it for ransom. Others attempt to steal people's personal data, which they may also hold for ransom or sell on the darknet.
While hackers are the proverbial dark side of the force here, ASX cybersecurity shares are working to keep household, corporate and government data safe from online thieves.
But as witnessed by the recent major hacks of telecom provider Optus and private health insurer Medibank, there's more work to be done to safeguard our virtual privacy and security.
What might hackers do with the stolen data?
The potential damage to impacted individuals will depend on the specifics of the stolen data, along with the hackers' own intentions.
As far as the Optus hack goes, Professor Vanessa Teague, a cryptographer from the Australian National University said (courtesy of ABC News):
In the Optus breach, what it seems to have primarily involved is identity documentation. And the thing that a person with malice might use it for, is exactly what you might use it for — and exactly the [reason] Optus had it for, which is identifying as that person in an online setting.
This kind of data could potentially allow hackers to get a credit card in the name of an impacted customer.
The MediBank breach poses different, but equally disturbing issues.
According to Teague, a person's medical data "isn't as useful for fraud [but] on the other hand, it potentially gives you much more power over some people, because it might reveal very intimate details about the person".
So, in the wake of all this hacking news, how have ASX cybersecurity shares been tracking?
How are ASX cybersecurity shares faring amid all these hacks?
The Optus data breach was reported to the public on 22 September. The Medibank hack came out only last week, with new details still emerging suggesting the data breach may be significantly worse than first reported.
For tracking the performance of these four ASX cybersecurity shares, we'll use the closing bell on 21 September as our starting date. And for context, we'll note that the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) has gained 1.1% over that time.
As for the BetaShares Global Cybersecurity ETF (ASX: HACK), the exchange-traded fund is up 3.5% since then. HACK's major holdings include international cybersecurity companies like Accenture, Cisco, Cloudflare and Crowdstrike.
As for internet security company Tesserent Ltd (ASX: TNT), it's trading right where it was when the Optus data breach news first broke.
Then there's ASX cybersecurity share Archtis Ltd (ASX: AR9). The Archtis share price is down 14.7% over this period.
And we leave off with WhiteHawk Ltd (ASX: WHK). The microcap ASX cybersecurity share is up 3.3% since the closing bell on 21 September.
