Tom Riley, a manager on Axa Framlington Global Technology Fund also sees plenty of opportunities for ‘best of breed’ technology as firms around the globe look to up their spend on protecting digital assets following this indiscriminate attack.
“Around 8% of our portfolio is in some way exposed to the theme, and it is an area we have been invested in for a very long time,” he said.
“Proofpoint is a specialist in email security, with the WannaCry attack started by people opening emails with malicious content.
“In the market today [Monday] shares in Proofpoint were up around 8%, so it is clearly seen by the market as one of the beneficiaries as companies review their email security.
“Other companies we hold are Palo Alto Networks which is one of the leaders in net generation firewalls, and Cisco which has a very big broad suite of enterprise class security. There are lots of different ways to play the cyber security theme.”
From a wealth manager perspective, Tom McGrath, manager of 8AM Global’s Focused Fund is another who is keen on the area, having a 6% holding in ETFS ISE Cyber Security GO Ucits ETF.
He said: “Our Focused Fund is full of megatrends, with a robotics ETF, an age longevity tracker, as well as biotech and healthcare. They may be as volatile as the markets, but in the long term they have favourable tailwinds.
“I think a good way of building portfolios these days is to look at the more predictable trends, and the increased need for cyber security fits this approach.”
