Country for PR: United States
Contributor: PR Newswire New York
Tuesday, October 06 2020 - 21:00
AsiaNet
New Research Shows Companies With Strong Cybersecurity Outperform the Market By Up To 7%
BOSTON and FRANKFURT, Germany, Oct. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --

  -- Solactive BitSight Cyber Risk Index quantifies cyber risk for investors

BitSight, the Standard in Security Ratings, and Solactive, a German index 
engineering firm, today released new research demonstrating that a company's 
cybersecurity performance is an indicator of business performance.  Analysis 
shows that indices composed of well-performing BitSight-rated companies 
outperform their respective benchmarks by 1% to 2% annually.  For certain 
sectors, such as U.S. Technology, well-rated companies outperform the benchmark 
by 7% per year. The findings are an endorsement for today's introduction of the 
Solactive BitSight Cyber Risk Index, a financial index that will enable 
investors to invest in companies who are top cybersecurity performers as 
measured by BitSight. 

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1307704/BitSightgraph_Infographic.jpg 
Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/456824/BitSight_Technologies_Logo.jpg  

Investors are deeply concerned about cyber risk affecting their investment 
portfolios. A 2019 Responsible Investment Survey ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2940735-1&h=861901349&u=https%3A%2F%2Fus.rbcgam.com%2Fresources%2Fdocs%2Fpdf%2FHTML-files%2Fweb%2F2019-Responsible-Investing-Survey-Results.pdf&a=2019+Responsible+Investment+Survey 
) from RBC found that cybersecurity is the #1 ESG risk for investors. A recent 
survey of more than 60 institutional investors with $35 trillion in assets 
under management conducted by the EY Center for Board Matters ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2940735-1&h=3889617079&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ey.com%2Fen_us%2Fboard-matters%2Fwhat-companies-are-disclosing-about-cybersecurity-risk-and-oversight&a=EY+Center+for+Board+Matters 
) found that cybersecurity is the #3 threat to portfolio companies' strategic 
success in the next three to five years.  

The Solactive BitSight Cyber Risk Index helps investors factor cyber risk into 
their investment decision-making. By continuously and non-intrusively 
collecting cybersecurity performance data on global organizations, BitSight 
provides quantitative, objective and validated analytics, avoiding the data 
collection challenges typically associated with ESG investing.  The Solactive 
BitSight Cyber Risk Index can be used as direct underlying or benchmarks of 
financial products such as ETFs or structured products across the following 
five index universe compilations: U.S. Market, European Market, Developed 
Markets, Asia-Pacific Market, and U.S. Technology Market.

Cybersecurity is both a risk and opportunity for investors

New Solactive analysis of BitSight Security Ratings demonstrates that investing 
in strong cybersecurity performers can actually deliver higher returns. Until 
now, investors have primarily thought of cybersecurity as a risk to the 
portfolio; research ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2940735-1&h=3907872093&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.comparitech.com%2Fblog%2Finformation-security%2Fdata-breach-share-price-analysis%2F%23NASDAQ_benchmark_validation&a=research 
) shows that share prices on average fall 7.27% in a two-week period after a 
publicly disclosed breach.  By leveraging BitSight data, Solactive finds a 
clear signal that companies with strong cybersecurity performance also 
financially outperform their market peers.  This aligns with earlier 
independent research ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2940735-1&h=1545694064&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bitsight.com%2Fdata&a=earlier+independent+research 
) which shows that BitSight provides the only security rating statistically 
correlated with a reduction in the risk of a breach.

Solactive created five Cyber Risk Indices composed of the top 25% of companies 
based on cybersecurity performance as measured by BitSight.  The Cyber Risk 
Index versions of U.S. Market, European Market, Developed Markets, and 
Asia-Pacific Market all show a similar picture of a solid outperformance over 
their respective benchmarks of around 1% to 2% per year. In the U.S. Technology 
version, the Cyber Risk Index outperformed by the benchmark by 7% annually.

The market impact of the research and partnership

Steve Harvey, chief executive officer, BitSight: "BitSight is powering a new 
era, where cyber risk is integrated into every market decision and strong, 
measurable cybersecurity performance is a market differentiator.  This 
unprecedented research based on BitSight's unique data will not only affect 
investors' views on cybersecurity, but also the way that C-suite and security 
professionals manage and measure cybersecurity performance inside of their 
organizations.  For BitSight, this is another independent, statistical 
validation of our market-leading Security Ratings, further cementing the reason 
why the global marketplace -- investors, insurers, governments, and businesses 
-- trust and use the BitSight platform. 

Timo Pfeiffer, chief markets officer, Solactive: "For Solactive, it has always 
been crucial to consider topics from different perspectives than the 
mainstream. This attitude is why we wanted to work with BitSight in the 
creation of our new Solactive BitSight Cyber Risk Indices, as both companies 
realized the massive potential of cybersecurity-themed ESG investing. As 
companies are more and more dependent on effective cybersecurity 
infrastructure, this index reflects the crucial importance of this yet 
understated sustainability aspect."

About Solactive AG

Solactive AG is an innovative index provider that focuses on the development, 
calculation, and distribution of tailor-made indices across all asset classes. 
As of January 2019, Solactive AG served approximately 400 clients in Europe, 
America, and Asia, with approximately USD 200 billion invested in products 
linked to indices calculated by the company globally, primarily via 380 
exchange-traded funds from a number of well-known providers. Solactive AG was 
established in 2007 and is headquartered in Frankfurt.

About BitSight

BitSight transforms how organizations manage cyber risk. The BitSight Security 
Ratings Platform applies sophisticated algorithms, producing daily security 
ratings that range from 250 to 900, to help organizations manage their own 
security performance; mitigate third party risk; underwrite cyber insurance 
policies; conduct financial diligence; and assess aggregate risk. With over 
2,100 global customers and the largest ecosystem of users and information, 
BitSight is the Standard in Security Ratings and was honored as a 2020 Most 
Innovative Company by Fast Company. For more information, please visit 
www.bitsight.com, read our blog ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2940735-1&h=2207587175&u=https%3A%2F%2Fbitsig.ht%2F2BLGTUg&a=blog 
) or follow @BitSight ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2940735-1&h=4278055313&u=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FBitSight&a=%40BitSight 
) on Twitter.

SOURCE: BitSight

CONTACT: Jacob Olcott, BitSight, jolcott@bitsight.com, +1 571-388-7044; Ali 
Mapplethorpe, Highwire PR, bitsight@highwirepr.com, +1 415-675-1457

Translations

Japanese