Snowflake security issues raise some concerns, says BofA

BofA analyst Brad Sills notes that Snowflake first became aware of unauthorized access to certain customer accounts on May 23 and that the company has since been working with Google Mandiant on a joint investigation. A blog post published by Mandiant on June 10 indicates that the threat activity first began in mid-April and there are 165 potentially exposed organizations identified and notified to date, though the firm adds that neither Mandiant nor Snowflake has confirmed that the 165 number is final. The firm thinks the reported attack could potentially lead to a pause of data/workload migrations and delay new account wins as customers and prospects spend time evaluating the severity of the issue, but given that the issue does not stem from a network breach, it would not view this impact as material. The firm, which adds that it appears that Snowflake is remedying security concerns with accounts at risk via multi-factor authentication, or MFA, has a Neutral rating and $200 price target on Snowflake shares.