Bank of America: ‘Safety and security’ will be a 1.5 trillion dollar industry by 2020

The cyber realm has never been more dangerous, and no one is completely immune to the dangers stemming from Russian hackers-for-profit, the Chinese government, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, and trans-national organized crime groups.

Already, companies ranging from Target to Sony, along with the US government’s Office of Personnel Management, have seen the catastrophic cost of a major data breach.

But this risk creates a huge market opportunity, as this graphic from Bank of America demonstrates.

Bank of America

In a single 11-hour period in August of 2015, FireEye detected 16,661 cyber attacks, estimating the total number of weekly attacks at 122,000.

And according to a different Bank of America analysis from February of 2014, 91% of companies experienced some form of cyber attack during the previous year. The report projects that cybersecurity will be a $120 billion industry by 2017.

Bank of America also links cyber to what it terms the “safety and security market,” which it defines as services related to consumer and workplace protection and safety.

The 2014 analysis notes “a diverse range of entry points for investors wishing to play the ‘Safer World’ theme,” opportunities amounting to a $1.5 trillion market in the US alone by 2020.

“Safety and security” is a catch-all for companies involved in activities like workplace safety compliance, or food and automotive safety.

Safety, and anxieties about safety, is turning into a trillion-dollar industry, with cyber as a major looming threat for government, business, and ordinary consumers.