COUNTRY FOCUS : ISRAEL
Liron Barak , CEO and Co-founder of BitDam
been laid in a national acceptance that cyberattacks evolve quickly and are highly unpredictable . This has created a culture whereby the security sector doesn ’ t seek solutions for just any one attacker as you end up being one step behind .
“ Instead , the sector focuses on potential steps and organisations as the first line of defence . This strategy has three levels – robustness , resilience , and defence – aimed at cybersecurity being more proactive than reactive . With this in mind , Israeli cybersecurity companies tend to develop agile and adaptable solutions that can evolve with the threat landscape , which makes the solutions highly attractive to a global audience .”
Starr believes there are two factors responsible for the success of the cybersecurity in Israel .
“ Firstly , the government has taken a leading role in developing a cybersecurity strategy and supporting the sector . This has created an ecosystem for collaboration between the government , businesses and universities that is well-equipped to both respond and proactively prepare for cyberthreats .
“ Secondly , the country has committed to developing human skills and expertise in the sector which has seen Israel develop a highly specialised pool of talent whose primary mission has been coping with unique security challenges through rapid technological innovation . For instance , cybersecurity education starts in school and continues right through to university , while there are also several governmentsponsored programmes aimed at finding promising youth and providing them with specialised training . Recently , this talent pool has been further strengthened by a large influx of highly educated , highly skilled workers from Russia , which has in turn brought new perspectives and approaches that have further enhanced our long-term strategy .”
We also hear from Liron Barak , CEO and Cofounder of BitDam .
“ Today , there are more than 420 active cybersecurity technologies start-ups in Israel . This number has nearly tripled in the last few years and is likely to increase in the near future . According to a recent report by Start-Up Nation Central ( SNC ), cybersecurity Israeli start-ups raised over US $ 800 million in 2017 , with an average seed investment today standing at US $ 3.6 million for companies aiming to address an issue in the security area .
The cybersecurity industry in Israel is growing rapidly , but in a stable way as most companies are innovative and have a deep technological focus within their solution . One of the reasons behind this could be the mandatory army service in Israel , where talented high school students are trained to serve in the intelligence force and deal with cyberthreats and cybersecurity . The expensive training programmes , the years of experience from the field and the enthusiasm of young individuals creates a unique combination that nourishes creativity and further develops problem-solving skills . This set of skills proves crucial for understanding today ’ s cyberthreat landscape and developing extraordinary and unique ideas to tackle those issues .
Looking forward , the security solutions will have to be more robust and proactive as the attacks are becoming more sophisticated using various evasion techniques , technical manipulation and fileless approaches to bypass existing security means . In addition , the growing number of connected devices will continue to prove a challenge to security teams across the world . The complexity and diversity of these devices will increase the attack surface and fuel the capability for more sophisticated and damaging attacks .”
Finally , we hear from Eldad Chai , Senior Vice President of Product Management at Imperva , who gives his opinion . “ Israel is without a doubt one of the world ’ s leading cybersecurity superpowers . With an estimated US $ 814.5 million in venture capital and private equity investments raised in Israel in 2017 , which accounted for 16 % of overall cybersecurity investments worldwide , the country has well and truly cemented itself as a cybersecurity powerhouse .”
But what exactly drove this success ?
There are various reasons why Israel became so successful and interestingly , they all feed into each other , creating the perfect ecosystem .
The key driver behind the growth of the cybersecurity industry globally is an increase in demand for powerful security solutions from organisations across the world . In the last few years , global-scale cyberattacks have become the norm and the theft of digital data has become a regular occurrence . As a result , the need to protect an organisation ’ s digital assets has become critical and demand for solutions that provide this service has skyrocketed . Gartner estimates that the spend on security in 2018 will total US $ 96.3 billion , representing an 8 % increase from 2017 .
This demand for new and more powerful solutions ultimately drives more investors to invest in the cybersecurity industry and thus encourage cybersecurity start-ups to enter the market . In 2017 alone , Israel saw cybersecurity start-up exits worth US $ 1.3 billion with acquisitions from giants including Symantec , Microsoft and Palo Alto Networks .
However , demand alone does not explain why Israel , of any other country , became such a powerhouse for cybersecurity technology . One of the key drivers behind Israel ’ s success
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