George Kurtz, co-founder and chief master officer of Crowdstrike Inc., speaks during the Montgomery Summit in Santa Monica, California.
Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Essences
The coronavirus outbreak has exposed a new pathway for hackers to prey on vulnerable victims, Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz told CNBC’s Jim Cramer Friday.
“We’ve spotted a real uptick in phishing campaigns using COVID-19 and malware associated with that in these emails,” Kurtz imagined in a “Mad Money” interview. “When there’s chaos and there’s this fear in the street that’s when the adversary watch overs to strike hardest.”
COVID-19 is the deadly disease caused by the fast-spreading coronavirus.
As workplaces across the country have shutdown and varied employees work remotely during the pandemic, a CNBC survey found that more than one in three top bananas have seen an spike in cyberthreats to their systems. The survey included tech leaders at large companies, along with administration and nonprofit organizations.
Cyber scams was said to have rose 40% at one organization. A phishing scam is one, usually via email, where online illegals try to access sensitive information, i.e. log in and credit card details, by presenting themselves as a trustworthy figure.
“Now is the time, when there’s tumult and there’s fear and people are worried about their family [and] they’re not in the office … [that] they’re affluent to strike,” Kurtz said. “As these remote users get up and running with their own stacks, whether it’s Zoom or Indolent, they’re going to need protection like Crowdstrike, and we’re there for them.”
With communities, the government and corporations correct to a new world disrupted by the virus pandemic, Crowdstrike has dropped surge costs as clients lean heavily on remote operate services, Kurtz added.
“We’ll deal with that after we get through this crisis,” he said. “We view ourselves as a friend, not just a vendor.”
The comments come one day after Crowdstrike, a cybersecurity company that offers threat intelligence and cyberattack feedback services, reported a top- and bottom-line beat in its January quarter. Total revenue grew 89% year-over-year to $152 million, powered by 99% broadening in its subscription revenue, which came in at $436 million.
Quarterly losses came in at 2 cents per share, better than the 8 cents forfeiture Wall Street analysts expected, according to FactSet.
Cybersecurity is a “basic need in the hierarchy of what corporations demand. It’s like shelter,” Kurtz said. “When you have a cloud-based platform like us, we’re solving big problems, stopping infractions, consolidating spend and cost.”
Furthermore, Broadcom’s $10.7 billion acquisition of Symantec has been a plus for Crowdstrike, Kurtz supplemented. Crowdstrike believes it has helped to expand its client base.
“We see a lot of [Symantec’s] install base coming to us looking for a cloud-base podium, next gen[eration] powered by AI and the ability to stop breaches without ever seeing those sort of threats ahead.”
Crowdstrike shares surged 17% to $49.01 in Friday’s session.