<ul class="summary-list"><li>Wedbush analysts expect <keyword id="6361948" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="cybersecurity">cybersecurity</keyword> spending to jump more than 20% in 2021 alone.</li><li><keyword id="4533802" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Cybersecurity-Stocks">Cybersecurity stocks</keyword> will be buoyed by federal spending and a push towards hosting workloads on the cloud.</li><li><keyword id="11160551" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="varonis-systems">Varonis Systems</keyword>, <keyword id="2426820" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Zscaler">Zscaler</keyword>, <keyword id="11160552" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="telos-corp-">Telos Corp.</keyword>, Sailpoint Technologies, Tenable Holdings, <keyword id="456992" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Palo-Alto-Networks">Palo Alto Networks</keyword>, and Fortinet are the firm's top cybersecurity picks.</li></ul><p><a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/zs-stock">Zscaler</a> and <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/vrns-stock">Varonis Systems</a> are among <keyword id="377153" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Wedbush-Securities">Wedbush Securities</keyword>' top 7 cybersecurity stocks heading into what the investment firm believes will be a "strong" earnings season for the sector.</p><p>In a note to clients on Sunday, analyst <keyword id="2200859" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Dan-Ives">Dan Ives</keyword> and his team said they're expecting a robust March earnings season for the cybersecurity space due to a growing threat landscape for tech companies and a continued shift to the cloud.</p><p>"Cybersecurity sector/stocks have been treading water so far this year, we view a 'beat and raise' 1Q as a positive catalyst to move the sector higher for the rest of 2021," Ives wrote.</p><p>The analysts said recent checks on the cybersecurity industry have revealed strong deal flow making them bullish on the sector.</p><p>"In particular we are seeing strong deal flow around identity threat detection, privileged access management (PAM), endpoint/ vulnerability security, and a discernible shift to zero trust architecture all gaining steam in the field," Ives wrote.</p><p>Ives and his team also said they believe 44% of workloads will move to the cloud by the end of 2021 and that figure will hit 55% by 2022.</p><p>This digital transformation to the cloud is set to buoy cybersecurity names moving forward, according to Wedbush. The firm forecasts cybersecurity spending to increase over 20% in 2021.</p><p>Data from <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3889055">Gartner</a> backs up the Wedbush's stance. Gartner is forecasting the worldwide information security market to reach over $170 billion in net value by 2022 amid a continued push towards cloud hosting. </p><p>The shift to cloud for both enterprises and governments is also being accelerated by big tech companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, due to their recent push to enhance cloud offerings.</p><p>Ives and his team said they believe the cybersecurity sector could see an additional 300 bps+ lift from President Biden's federal spending surge in light of recent nation-state attacks from Russia and China as well.</p><p>The analysts added that they expect a surge of M&amp;A to take place within cybersecurity from both strategic and financial players in the coming months.</p><p>To that point, ThomaBravo announced it acquired the cybersecurity firm Proofpoint for $12.3 billion in cash on Monday.</p><p>Ives concluded by laying out his top seven picks for the cybersecurity industry, which included the following: Varonis Systems, Zscaler, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/tls-stock">Telos Corp.</a>, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/sail-stock">Sailpoint Technologies</a>, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/tenb-stock">Tenable Holdings</a>, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/panw-stock">Palo Alto Networks</a>, and <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/ftnt-stock">Fortinet</a>.</p>

Zscaler and Varonis Systems are among the top 7 cybersecurity stocks this earnings season, Wedbush says

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Strong fundamentals will boost <keyword id="11906584" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="tech-stocks" source="Orion">tech stocks</keyword> up another 7%-10% through the rest of 2021, <keyword id="11985019" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="wedbush" source="Orion">Wedbush</keyword>'s Dan Ives said.</li><li id="recirc"><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet"></a>The tech analyst sees a rotation out of Chinese stocks amid ongoing regulation as a tailwind for US tech names. </li><li>Ives sees an especially positive set-up for <keyword id="11957079" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="faang-stocks" source="Orion">FAANG stocks</keyword>, cloud names, and cybersecurity companies. </li></ul><p>Investors should expect a strong year-end rally for tech stocks led by FAANG and names within the software and cloud spaces, according to Wedbush's Dan Ives.</p><p>In a Sunday note, the senior analyst said that further multiple expansion and strong fundamentals will boost tech stocks up another 7%-10% for the rest of 2021.</p><p>One tailwind for the sector is the ongoing regulatory clampdown in China that began with the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-happened-ant-group-ipo-jack-ma-alipay-2020-11?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingestedium=ingest">abrupt cancellation of Ant Group's IPO</a> last year and has since spread to sectors like education, gaming, and autos. Ives explained that the regulations are adding pronounced risk to Chinese tech stocks and leading investors to rotate into US stocks.</p><p>"We believe these dynamics will yet again bode well for US tech stocks as the favorable backdrop and rotation away from Chinese tech into US tech creates a 'nirvana set up' for FAANG names and the tech sector into the next 6 to 9 months, he said.</p><p>Additionally, the Fed's signal to keep rates lower for longer is "very bullish" for high-growth, technology names, said Ives. </p><p>He's especially bullish on tech stocks within the cloud and cyber security spaces, as he sees a "$300 billion growth opportunity" for companies that can provide solutions against cyber attacks. <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stock/VRNS">Varonis Systems</a> is one of the firm's top cyber names. </p><p>Meanwhile, Wedbush's favorite cloud names include <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stock/MSFT">Microsoft</a>, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stock/DOCU">Docusign</a>, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stock/nice">NICE Ltd.</a>, and <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stock/PEGA">Pegasystems</a>. <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stock/AAPL">Apple</a> remains Wedbush's top FAANG pick.</p>

US tech stocks could soar 10% by the end of 2021 as rotation out of Chinese names creates a 'nirvana set up' for FAANG, Wedbush says

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="552967" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="tech-stocks">Tech stocks</keyword> could rise by another 10% in the second half of 2021, <keyword id="1038917" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Wedbush">Wedbush</keyword> said Wednesday. </li><li>Analyst Dan Ives sees cloud and <keyword id="4533802" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Cybersecurity-Stocks">cybersecurity stocks</keyword> as benefiting from spending on products to ward off cyberthreats. </li><li>Apple and Microsoft are among top picks in the sector. </li></ul><p>Tech stocks have rebounded sharply from the losses suffered earlier this year, and should charge even higher through the rest of this year, said Wedbush on Wednesday, attributing its view on upcoming earnings and forward guidance and its expectation of robust demand for cybersecurity and cloud-based products.  </p><p>The projection comes as the second-quarter earnings season gets underway this week. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives in a note said tech behemoth <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/aapl-stock">Apple</a> remains its top pick among large-cap tech names and that it would be buyers of <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/msft-stock">Microsoft</a> and <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/zs-stock">Zscaler</a>, among others. Apple and Microsoft shares on Tuesday hit all-time highs. </p><p>"We believe June results and guidance around the corner over the coming weeks will be another positive catalyst for tech stocks and result in further multiple expansion as we see tech stocks up another 10%+ in [the second half of 2021] reflecting this good news," Ives wrote. </p><p>So far this year, the <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/index/nasdaq_100">Nasdaq 100 index</a>, which includes Wall Street's largest tech and non-financial stocks, has advanced by 15%, and the broader <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/index/nasdaq_composite">Nasdaq Composite</a> has bulked up by nearly 14%. Tech stocks have bounced back after a sell-off in March that was largely triggered by a rapid surge in long-dated government bond yields, implying higher borrowing costs. Yields steepened on expectations of hotter inflation in the face of higher government spending and the reopening of the economy hit hard by the pandemic. </p><p>The 16 months since the pandemic slammed into the US have led to a push in demand for cloud, e-commerce, cybersecurity, and other technology products and services. "However, we believe massive growth (and further multiple expansion) is still on the horizon with tech stocks and FAANG names underestimating this surge of demand for the next 2-3 years," Ives said. </p><p>Wedbush expects spending for cloud and cybersecurity technology to surge in an effort to protect systems from cyber threats like the May ransomware attack against Colonial Pipeline, the largest fuel pipeline operator in the US. Wedbush sees a $200 billion growth opportunity in cloud security alone over the next few years. <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/vrns-stock">Varonis Systems</a> and Zscaler remain among top picks in Wedbush's cybersecurity coverage. </p><p>Wedbush also said heading into the second half of the year it would own secular winners in the FAANG space, with Apple its favorite name, and cloud names including Microsoft, voice recording and data security company <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/nice-stock">Nice</a> and customer relationship management software maker <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/pega-stock">Pegasystems</a>.</p>

Tech stocks can jump another 10% this year on fuel from earnings and massive growth in cybersecurity demand, says Wedbush

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5b31664b1ae66236008b488b-2400/rts1kfno.jpg" border="0" alt="SailPoint IPO NYSE" data-mce-source="Brendan McDermid/Reuters" /><p class="source"><span>Brendan McDermid/Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">SailPoint, which went public on the New York Stock Exchange in November 2017, could benefit from increased concerns about GDPR.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>Cybersecurity firms that address data governance concerns will be the big winners in 2018, as chief security officers figure out how to better comply with regulations like the European Union's GDPR, according to a survey published by Morgan Stanley.</strong></li><li><strong>In response to its survey, Morgan Stanley raised its price target on three cybersecurity companies: Varonis, SailPoint, and CyberArk, which all address specific governance issues on the minds of executives.</strong></li><li><strong>But Morgan Stanley lowered its target for Symantec, a longstanding leader in cybersecurity, in response to declining interest from companies in its end-point security product.</strong></li></ul><hr /><p>Morgan Stanley raised its price target on three security firms after a survey of IT executives indicated that data regulations like GDPR will drive big cybersecurity spending in 2018 and beyond.</p><p>In the 2018 State of Security Spending report, published Monday, analyst Melissa Franchi wrote that Varonis, SailPoint, and CyberArk will be the big winners as chief security officers (CSOs) scramble to ensure that their companies are compliant with data governance laws.</p><p>GDPR, the strict data regulations which went into affect in the European Union on May 25, impacts any and all companies which deal with the data of people residing in the EU. Of the CSOs surveyed, GDPR was the number one driver for increased security spend in 2018, up from being the number five driver in the 2017 survey. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5b3167da1ae6621b008b498c-870/screen shot 2018-06-25 at 30733 pm.png" border="0" alt="Morgan Stanley Security Spending 2018" style="color: #000000;" data-mce-source="Morgan Stanley" /><p class="source"><span>Morgan Stanley</span></p><p class="caption">Rising compliance requirements grew as an area of concern for chief security officers, according to Morgan Stanley's 2018 State of Security Spending report.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Morgan Stanley raised its price target for <a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/vrns-stock">Varonis</a>, a data governance company, from $63 to $73 following its survey. Franchi described the company as "one of the key beneficiaries of GDPR regulation given its well positioned data governance and insider threat solutions."</p><p>Interestingly, Morgan Stanley's target is down from the $<span>77.85 that </span>the stock opened at on early Monday. By close, shares were down nearly 7% to $73 flat. </p><p>It raised its target for <a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/sail-stock">SailPoint</a>, an identity governance company, from $24 to $26. While only 9% of execs listed identity management as a top concern, Franchi said, this is up from the 2017 survey, and many companies will likely look to identity management to meet GDPR.  </p><p>It also raised its target for <a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/cyber-ark_software-stock">CyberArk</a> from $56 to $65. The self-described privilege access management (PAM) company will benefit from GDPR "as enterprises look to lock down privileged accounts that have access to systems/applications exposed to personal data," Franchi wrote.</p><p>Morgan Stanley also raised its bull case for the company <a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/fsct-stock">ForeScout</a> from $52 to $62 in response to executive interest in Network Access Control, though it kept its base case relatively "conservative." Its base price target remains $34. </p><p>The major exception to Morgan Stanley's price-raising spree was Symantec, a once-ubiquitous cybersecurity software provider which the survey indicated will lose considerable share when it comes to endpoint security and web security gateways in the next three years. "This raises some additional concern on the ability of Symantec to see improving <keyword id="6356323" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="enterprise">enterprise</keyword> security revenue growth," Franchi wrote.</p><p><a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/symc-stock">Symantec</a> currently has 8% of today's endpoint security spend, but Morgan Stanley expects this to drop to 5% in the next 36 months. For that reason, the firm dropped its target price for Symantec from $26 to $23. </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-pitches-peace-to-kim-jong-un-with-bizarre-hollywood-style-video-2018-6">Trump pitched peace to Kim Jong Un with this Hollywood-style video starring Kim as the leading man</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/JXzBya9G-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

Morgan Stanley says companies are going to spend lots more on data regulation amid GDPR - and it's good news for these 3 tech stocks

<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5e31fc315bc79c21983ff25d-1920/screen%20shot%202019-08-13%20at%2011614%20pm.png" alt="Amazon Ring bike theft video" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://abc13.com/amazon-driver-caught-on-camera-stealing-girls-bike/5464553/">ABC 13 Houston</a></span></p><p class="caption">Despite the increased number of reported hacks, Ring customers are standing by the devices.</p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Amazon Ring home-security cameras let people easily monitor their front porch and home interior using an app. But the unique security features come with their own set of threats.</li><li>One man's camera was hacked, and the culprit demanded a bitcoin payment and threatened to "terminate" him. </li><li>According to a Business Insider survey of hundreds of Ring users, despite the threats, customers aren't willing to let go of the technology, and the company just keeps growing.</li><li>One woman even credits Ring with saving her family from a fire. </li><li>Police are big fans of Ring, with more than 500 police departments in the US partnering with the company to access users' videos.</li><li>Ring is taking steps to beef up security.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>At first, Todd Craig thought he was being pranked.</p><p>Craig was standing in front of his Amazon Ring indoor camera on December 9 when he heard a stranger's voice coming over the speakers laughing and barking, "Ring support! Ring support!"</p><p>Craig, an IT worker who lives in Texas, jumped and assumed his girlfriend, Tania Amador, was playing a joke on him. He and Amador previously used an ADT home-security system but recently switched to Ring when they realized they could go from paying about $100 per month to Ring's $100 per year.</p><p>Amador wasn't pranking him - she was asleep upstairs. At that point, he realized the breach was real.</p><p>Craig hid behind a pillar in his kitchen, determined to stay outside the view of the indoor camera. He ultimately rushed behind the device and pulled out the batteries - only to hear a voice coming from his Ring doorbell camera mounted on the front of his house.</p><p>"I'm outside your front door," the voice said. "Pay this 50 bitcoin ransom, or you will get terminated yourself."</p><p>The couple are among many who say their Ring cameras were broken into by hackers in recent months. A Georgia woman was <a href="https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/dekalb-county/-wake-up-woman-says-someone-hacked-surveillance-system-yelled-at-her-dog/1017442073/">harassed</a> by a Ring hacker while lying in bed. A hacker <a href="https://www.nbc12.com/2019/12/12/hacker-talks-chesterfield-family-through-ring-doorbell/">broke into</a> a Ring in Virginia to taunt a 6-year-old. Households in <a href="https://www.erienewsnow.com/story/41446500/michigan-family-harassed-by-ring-hacker">Michigan</a>, <a href="https://www.digitaltrends.com/home/man-hacks-ring-camera-in-womans-home-to-make-explicit-comments/">California</a>, <a href="https://www.kwch.com/content/news/Ring-camera-hacks-raise-alarms-across-US-566153241.html">Kansas</a>, <a href="https://www.kron4.com/video/come-here-woman-woken-up-by-ring-camera-hacker-yelling-at-her/">Connecticut</a>, <a href="https://www.nbc-2.com/story/41428183/stranger-spews-racial-slurs-over-familys-hacked-ring-camera">Florida</a>, <a href="https://newyork.cbslocal.com/video/4236747-staten-island-familys-ring-camera-%20hacked/">New York</a>, and <a href="https://texasbreakingnews.com/breaking/texas-family-furious-ring-camera-hacker-%20terrorizes-children/">Texas</a> reported similar digital break-ins. </p><p>Craig and Amador are now plaintiffs in a <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/w189jnflzs7v1gy/TZ_LeMayVRing_ClassActionComplaint.pdf">class-action lawsuit</a> against Ring. They allege the company hasn't done enough to protect users from hacks. A Tennessee family, which is also part of the <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/w189jnflzs7v1gy/TZ_LeMayVRing_ClassActionComplaint.pdf">suit</a>, said it was targeted by a hacker who used its Ring cameras to spy on and harass an 8-year-old girl. The family said the hacker shouted: "I'm your best friend. I'm Santa Claus. Don't you want to be my best friend? ... Mess up your room; break your TV." </p><p>Business Insider surveyed hundreds of Ring users about their reasons for purchasing the security camera, their reaction to news of hacks, and what the technology means to them.</p><p>Many said they used Ring doorbells but refused to put cameras inside their homes because of the threat of hacks. But while the majority of surveyed users expressed concern, they said Ring's safety features felt worth the trade-offs. To them, the technology had already become indispensable. </p><h2><strong>'Peace of mind'</strong></h2><p>Gladys Castaneda was fast asleep in her Mesa, Arizona, home when her Ring doorbell woke her. It was 5 a.m., and the video feed from her doorbell camera showed a man pounding on her door (she later learned the man was a neighbor she hadn't met before).</p><p>Castaneda, who was alone with her 1-year-old and 2-year-old daughters, would have been wary about going downstairs at such an hour, but she used the Ring camera to speak to her neighbor directly. There was a fire next door, he said, and the flames were about to reach her house.</p><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5e31bbea62fa81580b5f0c89-778/g1.jpg" alt="g1" /><p class="source"><span>Courtesy of Gladys Castaneda</span></p><p class="caption">Gladys Castaneda, pictured with her husband and two daughters, credits Ring with saving her family from a fire.</p><p>"I don't know if I would have known to answer the door unless I had the Ring. I thought somebody was trying to break in," Castaneda told Business Insider. </p><p>After hearing about the fire, she sprang into action. </p><p>"So I run, give him my first daughter to hold, run back inside, and get my second daughter. Having the front-porch video gave me peace of mind because I didn't know who I was giving my girls to." Casteneda said she was unphased by reports of Ring hacking; her only complaint is that the doorbell's battery runs out too quickly. </p><p>She's not alone in her praise of the controversial security system.</p><p>The company, which was founded in 2013 and purchased by Amazon five years later, has "millions" of users, according to a spokesperson. Even as news of Ring hacks swirled, Ring's online sales in the US  continued to rise. According to data-analytics firm <a href="https://www.jumpshot.com/category/electronics/smart-home">Jumpshot</a>, sales in December grew 180% compared with the year prior, with nearly 400,000 cameras sold that month. </p><h2><strong>Police partnerships</strong></h2><p>One big fan of Ring? The police.</p><p>The number of police departments across the US partnered with the company has risen from <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/08/28/doorbell-camera-firm-ring-has-partnered-with-police-forces-extending-surveillance-reach/?arc404=true">400 in August</a> to<a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1eYVDPh5itXq5acDT9b0BVeQwmESBa4cB&amp;ll=36.684944040949325%2C-96.31294912046985&amp;z=5"> more than 500</a>. Municipalities are even <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/d3ag37/us-cities-are-helping-people-buy-amazon-surveillance-cameras-using-taxpayer-money">spending taxpayer money</a> to convince more people to buy Ring cameras, with some cities <a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/city-of-rancho-palos-verdes-ca/ringcom-security-camera-products-city-incentive-program/1349042348506873/">committing up to $100,000</a>.</p><p>Through Ring partnerships, police departments can submit requests for videos from people's cameras within a specific time frame, which homeowners can decline. Beginning in February, users will be able to preemptively opt out of receiving requests from police. However, as with any security footage, police can pursue a search warrant to seize video even after a user has declined to share it.</p><p>Many customers surveyed by Business Insider said they were unaware that police departments partnered with Ring could access security footage from their homes.</p><p>Jamie Siminoff, the founder and CEO of Ring, defended Ring's partnerships with police in a January 7 <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ring-ceo-security-practices-2fa-hacks-cyberattacks-passwords-police-2020-1">interview</a> with Business Insider, saying they give both law enforcement and customers "more privacy, more security, and more control."</p><p>But privacy and civil-liberties activists have slammed Ring for giving police a new tool to expand surveillance and track people's movements.</p><p>"The white suburban homeowners who buy these devices are not particularly likely to switch off notifications from police," Evan Greer, the deputy director of the nonprofit group Fight for the Future, said of police video requests. "What about all of the people that walked by that camera, the mail carrier that has to walk up to that camera every day, the teenagers in the park across the street ... who don't have a choice about whether their neighbor puts one of these cameras up?"</p><h2><strong>The next big hack</strong></h2><p>According to Ring, the series of hacks that have hit Ring owners in the past two months were not the result of a system flaw but rather occurred because users reused passwords from other services, which may have been stolen in a breach. </p><p>But cybersecurity experts told Business Insider the company could do more to protect users against hacks. </p><p>"If you get hacked, they would know everything about you," Brian Vecci, the field chief technology officer at the data-security firm Varonis, said. "They would know exactly what rooms you're in. They would know every member of your family and when they come and go. You start putting multiple types of data together, and you can start telling this interesting and powerful, and potentially really damaging story about a person."</p><p>When <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/epg4xm/amazon-ring-camera-security">Motherboard</a> tested Ring's security features in December by attempting to log in to the device using incorrect credentials from unknown IP address, it didn't trigger any warning to the device's owner, the outlet said. </p><p>Ring has begun to take small steps to beef up security. This month, the company is rolling out a <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/6/21050426/ring-control-center-privacy-dashboard-app-police-security-two-factor-ces-2020">privacy dashboard</a> that will let people see who's logged in to their devices. It will also begin requiring that customers use two-factor authentication, a safeguard against stolen passwords, and notifying users when someone logs in to their accounts from an unfamiliar IP address.</p><p>"Seeing that video of that girl made me cry. And every time I think about it, it makes me sad," Siminoff told <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/ring-ceo-on-security-lapses-seeing-that-made-me-cry/">CNET</a> of the "Santa Claus" hacker who taunted the 8-year-old girl. </p><p>Even then, Siminoff said Ring's security was not at fault, telling <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ring-ceo-security-practices-2fa-hacks-cyberattacks-passwords-police-2020-1">Business Insider</a> the next day that "it's hard to say that you could have done better."</p><p>Vecci said the uptick in reported security hacking since December didn't mean the problem was a new one.</p><p>"It's just that nobody was really noticing," he said. </p><p>"I would argue that Ring has a bit of a responsibility," Vecci added. "This has been an issue in cybersecurity forever: It's convenience versus security. Someone somewhere is saying, 'If we make it even a little bit harder to use, people aren't going to use it.'"</p><iframe src="https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1eYVDPh5itXq5acDT9b0BVeQwmESBa4cB" width="640" height="480"></iframe>            <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-photos-apple-icloud-iphone-storage-space-2018-12">I switched to Google Photos after using iCloud for 5 years and I'm never going back</a></h3>                    <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/F6IMTTZJ-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;"></iframe>            

Hackers keep digitally breaking into people's homes and spying on them through popular Amazon doorbell device Ring. And experts say the hacks are likely to continue.

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55c799c2371d22ce178be0ba-1000-750/uri-levine2.jpg" alt="Uri Levine" data-mce-source="Business Insider/Julie Bort" data-mce-caption="Waze and FeeX co-founder Uri Levine" /><p class="source"><span>Business Insider/Julie Bort</span></p><p class="caption">Waze and FeeX co-founder Uri Levine</p></div><p></p></div></div>This summer, it's raining unicorns - tech startups valued at more than $1 billion - and as a result the Israeli tech scene is going absolutely crazy.</p><p>Business Insider just spent a week in Israel meeting with over a dozen tech companies, and VCs. They all told us:</p><p><strong>Everyone is dreaming of becoming the next unicorn.</strong> Instead of selling their startups for $1 million to $30 million, founders are turning down multi-million acquisition offers wanting to build big companies.</p><p><strong>2015 is a record-breaker for </strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><strong>VC funding.</strong> For the first half in 2015, 342 companies have attracted $2.1 billion, up from 334 companies nabbing $1.6 billion in the first half of 2014.</span></p><p><strong>The private equity bankers have arrived in droves</strong>, including Blackstone, SilverLake, KKR, Apax Partners, TPG, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley, and they're writing writing huge checks.</p><p><strong>Chinese investors are swarming the country</strong>, joining Israeli VC funds as limited partners as well as doing a lot of huge, direct investments into startups, too.<br /><br style="line-height: 1.5em;" /><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img style="line-height: 1.5em;" src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55c79a51371d222e008be405-2667-2000/469303767.jpg" alt="Viber CEO and Rakuten CEO" data-mce-source="Chris McGrath/Getty Images" /><p class="source"><span>Chris McGrath/Getty Images</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>"If we're going to do $4 billion in venture in 2015, the estimate I heard is that at least $500 million of that will be Chinese money, and that's direct investment not including the LP stuff," Israeli powerhouse VC Jon Medved told Business Insider. <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"And I think that's probably underestimated." </span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Medved, founder of </span><a href="https://www.ourcrowd.com/">investment startup OurCrowd</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> and is widely known as one of the fathers of Israel's tech startup scene.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Chinese investors are "at all the parties" a startup founder told us.</span><br style="line-height: 1.5em;" /><br style="line-height: 1.5em;" /><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The joke here is that Israeli border control needs to open up a special customs line "just for Chinese investors with bags of money that they can just get in the country for free," Medved quipped.</span></p><p> This hot economy has led to ... </p><ul><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Big well-funded Israeli companies starting to acquire other Israeli companies for big sums of money, too.</span></li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The first crop of Israeli serial entrepreneurs, such as Avigdor Willens, who sold Annapurna to Amazon earlier this year for a reported $350 to $375 million. Willens sold his first company, Galileo, </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">for $2.7 billion in stock back in 2000 to Marvell Technologies.</span></li></ul><h2>It started when Google dropped a billion on Waze</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55c79df52acae7cc3f8bc14e-1217-913/israeli-flags.jpg" alt="Israeli Flags" data-mce-source="Business Insider/Julie Bort" data-mce-caption="Israeli flags fly in Jerusalem" /><p class="source"><span>Business Insider/Julie Bort</span></p><p class="caption">Israeli flags fly in Jerusalem</p></div><p></p></div></div>When Google bought Waze for $1 billion in 2013, it was a milestone event for the country, says Medved. </p><p>"Billion-dollar companies are now all over the place. Waze was the first and most important," he told us.</p><p> Waze co-founder Uri Levine explained to Business Insider, "This was the first time a billion-dollar app, and a consumer app, came out of Israel," and it set "a new beacon for Israel" telling entrepreneurs to aim higher than a quick exit.</p><p>The next year, Japan's Rakuten (the eBay of Japan) acquired Israeli messaging app Viber for $900 million  and unicorn fever in the country began.</p><p>Over and over, startup founders told us they had no interest in selling their successful companies, some of which were doing millions of dollars in revenue, some of which were doing hundreds of millions in revenue.<span class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>They wanted to grow their companies past $1 billion to many billions.</p><p>"Israel entrepreneurs are obsessed with building unicorns,"<span class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>Hillel Fuld, CMO of Israeli startup Zula told us.</p><h2> Billion dollar startups include …</h2><ul><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Taboola (who raised $117 million in February, $157 million total)</span></li><li>IronSource (who raised $105 million in two rounds from private equity funds run by JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley),</li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Outbrain (who filed confidential SEC documents for an IPO at a reported $1 billion valuation)</span></li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Conduit, who said it was the first Israeli internet unicorn, in 2012</span></li></ul><p>There's also a new crop of public tech companies worth $1 billion:</p><ul><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">MobileEye: IPO'd in 2014, with $12 billion market cap today</span></li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">CyberArk, also IPO'd in 2014, market cap of about $2 billion</span></li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Wix, IPO'd in 2013, market cap of about $900 million</span></li><li>And there's some half-unicorns, like Varonis Systems, which IPO'd in 2014 and has a market cap of nearly $600 million, nothing to sneeze at.</li></ul><h2><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Asian money everywhere </span></h2><p> "The Asia stuff is very dramatic, very real and very new," says Medved.</p><p>"China is the big story. But Japan for example - there had never been a visit of a Japanese Prime Minister to Israel before. In all the years of Israel's existence, what did they have to come here for? This year, the Japanese Prime Minister shows up for four days, all tech." <br /><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55c79c022acae700448bc0df-850-638/jon medved.jpg" alt="Jon Medved" data-mce-source="OurCrowd" data-mce-caption="OurCrowd founder, Jon Medved" /><p class="source"><span>OurCrowd</span></p><p class="caption">OurCrowd founder, Jon Medved</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Meanwhile, Korea's Samsung Ventures has now made "8 investments here over the last year," says Medved. Plus, "there are now Israeli companies going to list on the Singapore exchange."</p><p>Israel will also be hosting the Indian Prime Minister for the first time. In February, Indian company Infosys (now run by SAP's former US CTO Vishal Sikka) bought Israeli company Panaya for $200 million. India has plans to build an R&amp;D center here. </p><p>Still China overshadows them all. Investment are pouring in  from Baidu, Fosun, Alibaba, Tencent, RenRen and others.</p><p>Famous Chinese angel investor (and billionaire) Li Ka Shing and his Horizon Ventures fund are all over the country.<span class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>Horizon was an early investor in Waze. And he's invested in about 29 Israeli startups, including Waze founder Levine's latest baby, FeeX, (raised $9 million).</p><p>If there's a downside to all of this, its that Israel is starting to experience a severe talent shortage. They are now poaching each other's employees and trying to keep employees from leaving by offering better and better Valley-like perks.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55c79d05371d22ce178be0c2-2971-2229/ironsource-co-founders.jpg" alt="IronSource co-founders" data-mce-source="Business Insider/Julie Bort" data-mce-caption="IronSource CEO and co-founder Tomer Bar Zeev and deputy CEO and co-founder Omer Kaplan" /><p class="source"><span>Business Insider/Julie Bort</span></p><p class="caption">IronSource CEO and co-founder Tomer Bar Zeev and deputy CEO and co-founder Omer Kaplan</p></div><p></p></div></div>IronSource, for example, flies its 550 employees to one exotic offsite meeting every year. The whole company just got back from Greece.  </p><p>"Once a year, we party," CEO Tomer Bar Zeev told us. "That builds culture.  It's one of the best investments we can make, investing in the company."</p><p class="p2">If that fails, Chinese billionaire <span>Li Ka Shing has an answer. He</span> also donated $130 million to Israel's Technion, the Israeli Institute of Technology (like the MIT of Israel), one of the largest ever donations received by an Israeli university.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/israeli-firm-solar-power-energy-business-invention-2014-9">An Israeli Company Just Solved Solar Energy's Single Most Mystifying Problem</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="1jbHlvcDqSkVm1c2NvsGYgno10q1fVAD" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', '1jbHlvcDqSkVm1c2NvsGYgno10q1fVAD',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

You Searched For "varonis systems" and got 6 results

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Hackers keep digitally breaking into people's homes and spying on them through popular Amazon doorbell device Ring. And experts say the hacks are likely to continue.

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