As tensions between the U.S. and Iran flared last week, many feared a violent escalation between the countries...
But aside from a missile attack on a U.S. base that was more of a warning shot, this was largely avoided.
However, that's not to say there were no attacks.
On January 4, the website of the relatively obscure Federal Depository Library Program ("FDLP") – which helps make government documents and information available to the public – was hacked. It displayed a doctored image of a bloody President Donald Trump with an Iranian Revolutionary Guard fist in his face.
A group that identified itself as "Iran Cyber Security Group Hackers" claimed responsibility.
And even though recent days have seen both sides dial back their rhetoric, the cyberattacks aren't stopping.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said that the state's agency networks were detecting as many as 10,000 attacks per minute from Iran. The Texas Department of Information Resources then urged Texans to maintain "heightened awareness" when using the Internet.
Attacks like this have become common now.
Just look at the Sony Pictures breach by North Korean hackers in 2014. Or the WannaCry attack in 2017, which reportedly affected more than 300,000 people.
Hacking is now another weapon in any military's tool kit. And today's company offers protection against these technological assaults...
Splunk (Nasdaq: SPLK) is a $25 billion cybersecurity company that keeps a close eye on clients' information and alerts them to any potential threats.
It develops some of the best security information and event-management software around. Its software performs near real-time cybersecurity as it sifts through billions of pieces of streaming data.
Users can stream their data onto Splunk's ecosystem instead of having to probe across their IT systems. This helps companies save time and money gathering data from disparate sources. Instead, Spunk's clients can focus on monitoring and troubleshooting their IT infrastructures.
The company's cybersecurity software is called the Security Intelligence Platform. It's a combination of Splunk's core Enterprise software and two other modules, called Splunk Enterprise Security and Splunk User Behavior Analytics...
The core Enterprise software delivers most of the data analytics for a broad range of tasks. This includes IT operations, network performance, application monitoring, and business intelligence. It's a powerful set of tools available to any company in any industry.
Most of the cybersecurity-specific functions come from the Splunk Enterprise Security module. The Security module delivers visualization and dashboard tools that let you watch network activity in near real-time. It lets you manage specific security cases and build workflows for automating processes, and it has incident response tools.
The User Behavior Analytics module adds machine-driven, advanced-analysis tools that support the Security module.
The Security Intelligence Platform integrates well with other business and security tools like Google apps, Amazon Web Services, and other big data and cloud-based software tools.
The software is well-designed and user-friendly, and it empowers workers of all types and experience levels. It lets both beginner and advanced workers make sense out of the many types of data streams.
And it lets them watch computer networks in as close to real-time as possible.
This is a necessary component of any company. And that's evident from Splunk's large customer base:
Its software is used by city governments and hospital systems. Eighty-nine of the Fortune 100 companies – like Cisco, Comcast, and Coca-Cola – depend on it.
Even parts of the U.S. stock market system use Splunk, like the Nasdaq exchange and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ("FINRA").
With so many large companies relying on Splunk, its sales have skyrocketed.
Over the past year, Splunk generated $2.2 billion in sales – more than 11 times 2013's $200 million. When companies start small, growth rates can be astronomical in the beginning.
For example, in 2012, Splunk experienced 80% sales growth over the prior year.
But growth normalizes over time. In the last 12 months, sales grew closer to 34%. Still, that's a great number.
And Splunk has grown its large orders as well. In its 2017 fiscal year, it received 167 orders worth more than $1 million. In fiscal year 2019, that number more than doubled to 394 orders.
With growing sales has come a growing customer base. In 2013, Splunk had fewer than 6,000 customers. As of October 31, 2019, its customer base had grown to 19,000.
While Splunk's business has grown rapidly, its share price has soared alongside it.
The stock has tripled over the last four years, and recently hit a new all-time high.
Cybersecurity is a big business, and it's becoming much bigger. Attacks like we saw from the Iran Cyber Security Group Hackers will continue to haunt companies and governments around the world. And they will use Splunk to protect them.
Sometimes investing is simple.