Seeking Alpha • Oct 19
ZeroFox: Operates In A Large TAM With Several Growth Drivers
Summary
There is a growing need to step up cyber security as the world gets more digitized.
ZFOX provides mission-critical external cybersecurity solutions to its customers around the world.
ZFOX's combination with IDX has meaningful synergies.
Thesis highlight
I recommend going long on ZeroFox Holdings, Inc. (ZFOX) ($5.16 as of this writing). It operates in an industry that is facing growing demand as the world gets more digitized and operate in the net. If ZFOX continues to execute and further penetrate the market, it could yield investors significant upside.
Company overview
ZFOX is a cybersecurity enterprise that has recently merged with IDX. It deals with all of the cyber threats and risks of its customers.
ZFOX protects its clients from external cyber threats and risks throughout their entirety. The term "external cybersecurity" is used to describe the protection of a company's systems, devices, and digital assets from attacks that originate from outside the company's endpoint and firewall systems. The ZeroFox platform offers businesses the external threat intelligence and protection they need to prevent and respond to online data breaches, as well as prevent attacks on their brands, people, systems, assets, and data.
IDX is a provider of data breach response services and associated identity and privacy protection services to both government and commercial entities. IDX offers identity and privacy protection services through its own cloud-native platform and other channels to protect people who have been affected by a data breach.
The integration of IDX's and ZFOX's ensures that the platform supports not only expanded use cases and additional cross-sell synergy opportunities between ZFOX's and IDX's customer bases, but also future growth. The combination gives companies a unique competitive advantage by giving them the ability to protect themselves from external cyberattacks and provide breach response services if they are attacked from the outside. This covers the entire lifecycle of the external cybersecurity market.
Investments merits
Growing need to step up cybersecurity
The enterprise's cybersecurity, governance, compliance, and risk management teams are mostly under-resourced and overwhelmed with an influx of issues. This leads to a probability of high-priority threats as they lack purpose-built applications to cater to the cyber threats and risks. Insufficiently prepared organizations are always prone to falling prey to external cyber threats and risks and may fall victim to cybercrime. Generally, external threats are usually caused by disgruntled or untrained employees and comprise individuals who are not employees or affiliated with an organization. External cyberattacks may result in loss of both revenue as well as increased liability following the compromise or breach of sensitive customer data or intellectual property. This may also be a foray into their business disruption, extortion, and impaired reputation.
Cybersecurity leaders need a single source of truth and a consolidated external cybersecurity platform to provide broad visibility and defensibility in the 'digital-first' world. External cybersecurity solutions call for the ability to quickly assess and understand an organization's digital horizon, to then correlate that information, and ultimately take action to prevent cyber-attacks, limit the exposure, remediate an incident, and disrupt the adversary. This area of the cyber landscape is becoming increasingly relevant since malicious events can become major disruptors of a business, its brand, reputation, supply chain, ability to interact online, conduct commerce, and operate in a normal course.
It is a known fact that cybersecurity has a large total addressable market ("TAM") with a number of verticals, whereas ZFOX is a major player in external cybersecurity. The external cybersecurity market opportunity involves managing several different types of technology at the same time. This includes, but is not limited to, the following important parts:
ZFOX Sept 22 presentation
In an increasingly digital-first world, ZFOX believes that to effectively manage the external cybersecurity landscape, an organization needs personnel, systems, and software combined with continuous identification, protection, and breach response capabilities. Organizations attempt to manually integrate data, workflows, and responses across multiple vendors, the collective effort of which is sometimes referred to as "swivel chair security." Security teams become fatigued after failing to align these critical processes. When security systems and platforms aren't integrated and produce threat data but can't take action to fix the problem, it can be hard for cybersecurity teams to handle.
ZFOX is designed in such a way that it can offer any organization a much safer, more integrated solution that caters to modern-day cyber security threats. This includes an efficient and aggregated management system that never compromises the security of its customers. Be it the actions of any organization or assets and other intellectual property, every minute is taken care of with the utmost intensity.
ZFOX understands that growth in this industry is also propelled by several other factors and works on them, such as:
Remote work: Work from home has become a trend. However, this shift is likely to drive decentralization of corporate IT beyond the protection of the traditional perimeter. This could make it more likely that malicious risks will get into a company's systems, applications, and workflows.
Increased ransomware attacks: The casual attitude of some government and non-government organizations has had disastrous consequences. Criminals and hackers find it easier to breach their firewalls and gain access to all the information they require, which is often highly sensitive and, in some cases, of national importance.
Shortage of adequate cyber security staffs: There is a dearth of experienced and smart cybersecurity personnel.
The ZeroFox Platform
ZFOX provides mission-critical external cybersecurity solutions to its customers around the world. Customers rely on them to help them solve important cybersecurity problems and challenges they've faced so far, and they look to them for advice on problems they'll face tomorrow. This platform is so intensive that it employs a continuous digital identification and detection program that is persistent to adversary disruption, which in turn supports an extended variety of cyber security cases. Most of the time, ZFOX's customers start out by buying one or two of the core components. Over time, their investment tends to grow.
Built on a modern "cloud-native technology" architecture that supports core capabilities, the ZFOX platform is powered and protected by patented artificial intelligence capabilities and solutions. It is an integrated ecosystem that is built on top of their platform's API. This enables them to extend technology investment in ZFOX, thereby maximizing their customers' investments in other cybersecurity categories as well. Their unique app library boasts numerous connected apps to allow their customers to integrate their security as well as operational processes with this platform. Their availability on Google Play and Apple App Stores is icing on the cake.
The most unique part of this platform is the way it distils and curates the critical elements of open-source intelligence. They also make it a point to research on a continuous basis by analyzing other forums, platforms and market places. This way, they come up with an integrated solution that is more comprehensive.
The AI-powered engines of ZFOX are patented and are capable of any automation as per requirement. They can also perform analysis-at-scale in a number of prominent fields. Their use of AI-powered design has given them the freedom to use their security components separately or together, depending on the cyber threats they face.
The technology adapted by ZFOX is such that it is much more user-friendly, customer-centric, and easy to maintain too. It can be configured easily and quickly. Moreover, it is very time-and cost-effective. What is more, there is a round-the-clock OnWatch-managed security system ready to help the customers at any time. These teams are spread out in many places around the world and offer their clients a "follow the sun" operational experience.
Combination with IDX has meaningful synergies
ZFOX's integration with IDX adds significant, tangible strategic benefits to the combined value proposition for their customers. In many cases, IDX customers do not have sufficient external cybersecurity solutions for their internet-accessible attack surfaces. This creates space for the integrated company to introduce IDX to its customers to experience the ZFOX AI-powered protection platform and enhance their cybersecurity. Likewise, due to its combination with IDX, ZFOX is now capable of providing enhanced protection to its enterprise customers, thereby expanding its value proposition. This combination is widely appreciated as it not only benefits both the companies, but their customers as well.