Microsoft’s Latest Launch Highlights Cybersecurity

The huge demand for cybersecurity has meant that the security portion of Microsoft was the fastest growing sector for the company in 2021 and highlights the growth of the industry overall. Microsoft, alongside a host of other tech companies last year, agreed to help fill around 500,000 cybersecurity jobs in the U.S.

“This whole area is growing in double digits,” says Craig Robinson, an analyst with a security specialty at IDC, referring to the number of job openings within the cybersecurity field.

The most basic of the new offerings from Microsoft, the Microsoft Defender Experts for Hunting, will flag issues that Microsoft engineers find in subscriber’s networks and devices for just $3 per person per month. This particular product aligns Microsoft to be in more direct competition with companies like CrowdStrike which are solely security software companies.

Cybersecurity has become a top priority for many companies in the last two years as the pandemic has caused a shift to a work-from-home model for some workers, creating greater opportunities for hacking and cybersecurity threats, which have increased astronomically. War in Ukraine has only highlighted the important role that security within the digital landscape has, and for advisors and investors looking to allocate to an industry that is continuing to grow rapidly, the WisdomTree Cybersecurity Fund (WCBR) offers a great opportunity.

WCBR seeks to track the WisdomTree Team8 Cybersecurity Index, which invests globally in companies whose main revenue is derived from cybersecurity and security-oriented technology that prevents attacks and intrusion to systems, networks, computers, applications, and mobile devices. Companies included must derive at least half of their revenues from cybersecurity, have revenue growth of at least 7% over the trailing three years for new additions to the index, or 5% for current index constitutions, and meet market cap and average daily trading volume requirements.

The index also utilizes exclusionary filters to screen out companies based on ESG criteria that violate UN and Global Standards Screening guidelines, are involved in controversial weapons (biological, chemical, cluster, nuclear, or white phosphorous weapons, and anti-personnel mines), have significant involvement in tobacco or thermal coal activity, or violate other ESG standards of the index.

The current country allocation includes the U.S. at 80.46% weight, Israel at 6.80%, the United Kingdom at 4.52%, South Korea at 3.73%, Japan at 3.71%, and Canada at 0.79%.

WCBR carries an expense ratio of 0.45%.

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