Here’s why FireEye stock price surged nearly 40% last week

FireEye (NASDAQ: FEYE) share price exploded higher on Friday after the entire internet security sector was boosted by news that SolarWinds suffered a major hacking attack.

Fundamental analysis: Major hacking incident suffered 

Before the SolarWinds hacking incident took place, FireEye proprietary tools got hacked by a suspected nation-state, the cybersecurity company wrote in a blog post. 

“We were attacked by a highly sophisticated threat actor, one whose discipline, operational security, and techniques lead us to believe it was a state-sponsored attack,” said Kevin Mandia, CEO of FireEye. “We are not sure if the attacker intends to use our Red Team tools or to publicly disclose them.” 

He said that the attacker used advanced techniques to hack its proprietary tools, leading the company to believe it was “a nation with top-tier offensive capabilities”. He added the toolkit reflects the activities of a number of attackers and is used for running diagnostics.

FireEye, which provides its services to many government agencies, has created over 300 countermeasures for its customers to protect themselves against cyberattacks on their proprietary tool kits.

In addition to attacking their tools, the hackers were also going for data from a number of government agencies that are FireEye’s clients. According to Reuters’ report, it remains unclear when the attack happened. 

“We have asked the relevant intelligence agencies to brief the Committee in the coming days about this attack, any vulnerabilities that may arise from it, and actions to mitigate the impacts,” Adam Schiff, Chair of the House Intelligence Committee.

Back in March, FireEye said it believed that China was behind a number of cyberspying attempts that began in January right after the coronavirus outbreak. Apart from government agencies, FireEye has more than 75 clients including media firms, healthcare organizations, manufacturers and nonprofit organizations. 

Technical analysis: 5-year highs hit

FireEye stock price trades about 6% higher today, in addition to gains of over 39% on Friday after the SolarWinds incident took place. This way, shares printed a 5-year high of $20.80.

FEYE stock daily chart (TradingView)

The buyers will now aim to close above the previous multi-year high at $20.60. This would pave the way for a test of $21.35 with $18.40 offering major support. 

Summary

Cybersecurity firm FireEye said its proprietary tool kit was hacked by a highly sophisticated attacker, which the company believes was supported by a nation-state. 

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