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After Hours Most Active for Mar 7, 2016 : NJR, SDRL, FTSM, CLF, MOS, HBI, V, AMAT, BJRI, MSFT, GILD, QQQ

The NASDAQ 100 After Hours Indicator is down 1.59 to 4,301.74. The total After hours volume is currently 27,021,350 shares traded. The following are the most active stocks for the after hours session NewJersey Resources Corporation ( NJR )

Palo Alto Networks Wins ‘Bake-Offs’ Against Cisco, Check Point

Proofpoint ( PFPT ) rebuffed Wall Street concerns that tech spending has slowed this quarter, Piper Jaffray analyst Andrew Nowinski wrote Monday, following last week’s 40,000-attendance cybersecurity RSA Conference in San Francisco. Fears of a tech spending depression slugged IBD’s 25-company Computer Software-Security industry group after dismal outlooks by Tableau Software ( DATA ) and LinkedIn ( LNKD ) last month. The group hit a 20-month low on Feb. 9 but has since risen 31%. A weak spending outlook did not play out at RSA, Nowinski and William Blair analyst Jonathan Ho wrote Monday in separate research reports. “(Proofpoint) management said they are seeing ‘absolutely no change in the buying environment,’” Nowinski wrote. “Based on our meetings at the conference, we believe demand trends in Q1 have remained strong through the first two months of the year.” Endpoint Pits Symantec, FireEye, IBM Trending buzzwords include endpoint security, internal access management and privileged account management, Nowinski wrote. Symantec ( SYMC ), FireEye ( FEYE ) and IBM ( IBM ) (via a partnership with Carbon Black) compete in the endpoint market. Industry tracker IDC sees endpoint security revenue reaching $4.6 billion in 2016, up 5.4% and accelerating from 2% year-over-year growth in 2015, Nowinski wrote. Despite a marketing refresh, Symantec will struggle against “rapidly growing next-generation endpoint vendors that have demonstrated stronger solutions,” Ho predicted. FireEye, on the other hand, bolstered its threat-prevention capabilities by adding exploit detection to its endpoint. IDC also expects internal access management revenue to reach $5.9 billion in 2016 and grow at an 8% compound annual growth rate through 2019. Within that sector, privileged account management will comprise $550 million, growing at a 10.6% CAGR over the next four years, Ho says. CyberArk Software ( CYBR ) rivals Centrify in the identity access management ring, Nowinski wrote. But Centrify’s tools for securing both privileged accounts and end-user identity give it a broader portfolio than CyberArk, he wrote. During RSA, CyberArk released a new version of its privileged threat analytics system, aimed at stopping “Golden Ticket” attacks which exploit privileged credentials in Microsoft ( MSFT ) domain-level administrator accounts, Ho wrote. Ho also noted that a platform focus continues to buoy Palo Alto Networks ( PANW ), which he says still wins “bake-offs” against Cisco Systems ( CSCO ), Check Point Software Technologies ( CHKP ) and Juniper Networks ( JNPR ). But Check Point’s software-based firewall could be a game changer, he wrote. “Check Point’s software-based firewall appears better positioned than competitors for the upcoming shift to third-party cloud architectures such as AWS ( Amazon ( AMZN ) Web Service) and (Microsoft) Azure,” he said. ‘Spending Has Not Weakened’ Ultimately, the RSA Conference quelled concerns of slowing spending and lengthening sales cycles, Ho wrote. RSA saw 70 first-time exhibitors, giving it 500 companies at the event, and more than 20% growth from 33,000 attendees in 2015. “We observed continued excitement over the space and a strong appetite for new solutions, consistent with prior years,” Ho wrote. “Our discussions with private and public companies suggest that the environment remains robust and that security spending has not weakened near term.” Overall themes included the burgeoning Internet of Things market, encryption, third-party cloud security, identity/access management as-a-service, real-time visibility, next-generation endpoint security, automation/orchestration and leveraging Big Data analytics, Ho wrote. “The conference reinforced our view that the companies best positioned to benefit from increased spending are those that offer innovative next-generation approaches that will see rapid growth in investment,” he wrote. Customers are looking at cost, manageability and vendor consolidation, Ho wrote.

Apple Customers Hacked In First Known Mac Ransomware Blitz

Hackers targeted Apple ( AAPL ) Macintosh users over the weekend in what No. 2 cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks ( PANW ) believes was the first successful ransomware scheme on the OS X platform. Ransomware attacks have targeted Microsoft ( MSFT ) Windows computers, encrypting data on infected machines and then demanding a ransom from users for the digital key to the locked files. Palo Alto dubbed the Apple ransomware “KeRanger.” KeRanger was burrowed into two installers of Transmission 2.90, an open-source BitTorrent software used to transmit peer-to-peer data, according to a Palo Alto Networks blog post Sunday. Because KeRanger was signed with a valid Mac application development certificate, it was able to bypass Apple’s Gatekeeper systems, Palo Alto said. KeRanger sleeps for three days before locking files, which means infections will likely become evident Monday. “After completing the encryption process, KeRanger demands that victims pay one bitcoin (about $400) to a specific address to retrieve their files,” according to the post. KeRanger also infected Time Machine backup files to prevent victims from recovering previously protected data. Palo Alto Networks says it alerted Apple and Transmission on Friday and has since updated its URL-filtering and threat-prevention processes to block KeRanger installs. Transmission has since removed the malicious installers from its website and released version 2.92. Apple revoked the abused certificate and updated its XProtect antivirus signature, Palo Alto Networks said. Apple confirmed in an email to IBD that it has pulled the developer certificate and updated XProject so that no one can install the infected app. Transmission representatives told Forbes that about 6,500 machines were infected. Transmission removed the infected version about 32 hours after Palo Alto notified the site of the breach, Ryan Olson, head of Palo Alto Networks’ threat intelligence unit, told IBD. According to Palo Alto Networks, the only previous ransomware developed to hit Macs was discovered in 2014. Then, security firm Kaspersky Lab found an incomplete hack named FileCoder. “We believe KeRanger is the first fully functional ransomware seen on the OS X platform,” Palo Alto said. Ransomware attacks are booming as cybercrooks shift from bank information theft — a model fraught with risk — to easier and less traceable scams, Olson said. And the attacks are indiscriminate, targeting grandma and her home computer as often as businesses with operations-critical files. “It’s a broad spectrum,” he said. “They’re going to monetize every infection they can using this technique.” Apple stock fell 1.1% on the stock market today , while Palo Alto Networks stock rose 2.3%.