Credit: GlobalData

Mentions of cybersecurity within the filings of companies in the aerospace and defence sector fell 45% between the second and third quarters of 2021.

In total, the frequency of sentences related to cybersecurity between October 2020 and September 2021 was 58% higher than in 2016 when GlobalData, from whom our data for this article is taken, first began to track the key issues referred to in company filings.

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When companies in the aerospace and defence sector publish annual and quarterly reports, ESG reports and other filings, GlobalData analyses the text and identifies individual sentences that relate to disruptive forces facing companies in the coming years. Cybersecurity is one of these topics - companies that excel and invest in these areas are thought to be better prepared for the future business landscape and better equipped to survive unforeseen challenges.

To assess whether cybersecurity is featuring more in the summaries and strategies of companies in the aerospace and defence sector, two measures were calculated. Firstly, we looked at the percentage of companies which have mentioned cybersecurity at least once in filings during the past twelve months - this was 100% compared to 91% in 2016. Secondly, we calculated the percentage of total analysed sentences that referred to cybersecurity.

 

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Of the 20 biggest employers in the aerospace and defence sector, Thales SA was the company which referred to cybersecurity the most between October 2020 and September 2021. GlobalData identified 208 cybersecurity-related sentences in the France-based company's filings - 1.4% of all sentences. Leidos Holdings Inc mentioned cybersecurity the second most - the issue was referred to in 1.1% of sentences in the company's filings. Other top employers with high cybersecurity mentions included Lockheed Martin Corp, Rheinmetall AG and Leonardo SpA.

Across all companies in the aerospace and defence sector the filing published in the third quarter of 2021 which exhibited the greatest focus on cybersecurity came from Mercury Systems Inc. Of the document's 1,307 sentences, nine (0.7%) referred to cybersecurity.

This analysis provides an approximate indication of which companies are focusing on cybersecurity and how important the issue is considered within the aerospace and defence sector, but it also has limitations and should be interpreted carefully. For example, a company mentioning cybersecurity more regularly is not necessarily proof that they are utilising new techniques or prioritising the issue, nor does it indicate whether the company's ventures into cybersecurity have been successes or failures.

GlobalData also categorises cybersecurity mentions by a series of subthemes. Of these subthemes, the most commonly referred to topic in the third quarter of 2021 was 'data security', which made up 36% of all cybersecurity subtheme mentions by companies in the aerospace and defence sector.