PureFunds CEO On Direction Of Cybersecurity

The cybersecurity industry has been one of the best performing sectors in 2015. Andrew Chanin, PureFunds co-founder and CEO and fund manager of PureFunds ISE Cyber Security ETF HACK, was on CNBC Friday to discuss the current state of the sector and divulge on the competition that the current hot picks FireEye Inc FEYE and Palo Alto Networks Inc PANW face.

Cyclical Nature: Disrupted

"We have seen many companies now and indexes hitting record levels, and this is an industry which hasn’t really gone through a kind of recession period yet," Chanin began. "And, I think the cyclical nature of these companies won’t be the same of that of other industries because companies need to spend on cybersecurity."

Related Link: 4 Trends Cybersecurity Investors Should Know

FireEye

On who is the biggest competitor of FireEye, Chanin said, "I think they (FireEye) are kind of interesting because they do many different aspects. They have software they sell and services and…they also have this consulting arm that they offer. And the consulting is where when a company has a breach, they (the breached company) have been calling up FireEye."

Palo Alto Networks

Chanin was asked about the competition Palo Alto Networks faces from other companies in the same space. He replied, "There is actually a lot of companies in the firewall space, you have Fortinet Inc. There’s a lot of companies.

"And in our fund too, we have several firewall companies and they offer a very premium product.

"Some companies might say, ‘It has too much to offer for us; we don’t need that much.’ But for companies now, I think it’s tough to make the case that you have too much cybersecurity," Chanin concluded.