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This Article is published by Abigael Belaiche, Business Analyst at Keyrus Innovation Factory.
With the advent of the digital revolution, cybersecurity has become essential to protect institutions, businesses, and people. Moreover, the current global health crisis has further amplified this need and created a new priority for companies to become cyber-resilient.
The 2021 edition of the International Cyber Week which was held this summer at Tel Aviv University, revolves around the meeting point between leading cyber experts, political representatives and investors from around the world to present the market and cybersecurity innovations, especially within the Startup Nation.
This year's conference was attended by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev, and dozens of senior Israeli and foreign officials.
During this edition, Naama Ben Dov who is a partner of YL Ventures (an American-Israeli investment fund specializing in cybersecurity and managing more than $300 million) highlighted the increase in cyber attacks related to the health crisis but also the growth of new cyber solutions to meet this urgent need.
Indeed, in Israel today, more than 20% of companies have been victims of cyber attacks with a rate of 47% in the Tech sector. One out of 30 companies also reported losses of sensitive data. Regarding the Cybersecurity sector and its startups, we are witnessing a record fundraising of more than 3 billion dollars invested in about 50 deals in the first six months of 2021, which represents 41% of the global investment.
In addition, seven Israeli companies have achieved the coveted unicorn status such as Orca Security, Aqua Security and Axonius while nearly twenty companies have been acquired for a total of 2.2 billion dollars.
In addition, Menny Barzilay, CEO of the startup Cyber Cytactic, was among the companies to state the trends for the upcoming years. Thus, according to this international cybersecurity expert, the main trends are the development of cyber solutions to protect the use of new technologies (such as autonomous vehicles, robotics, biotechnology and IomT) as well as securing the Cloud and data, with the exponential increase in attacks during the Covid-19 crisis. With more than 300 cyber startups created in the last ten years, Israel is continuously developing innovative solutions to address this cyber threat according to Startup Corner data.
At this edition, new Israeli startups have provided their answers. For instance, the startup AirEye has developed lightweight surveillance sensors and has raised $8 million through fundraising. This solution for securing Wifi, Bluetooth and 5G networks, designed for companies in the airline industry, is now being deployed in all industries. AirEye's founders previously sold their startups, Aorato and Imperva, for more than $2 billion.
Argon is also a startup that has offered a supply chain security solution to protect the integrity of automated software delivery pipelines. The solution prioritizes and automates the correction of alerts based on security best practices and compliance rules. Argon's code tampering detection technology performs validity checks at every stage of the CI/CD process. With $4 million raised, the company is focused on the Retail and Fintech sectors.
Among the present startups, there was also Continuity Software which has been acquired by Kedma Capital in 2016 for $50 million. It offers software solutions to prevent outages and data loss incidents in storage systems as well as to ensure data recovery from ransomware attacks.
Today, Israel is a recognized world leader in Cybersecurity and has been labelled the second cyber country after the United States by the International Institute for Security Studies. The Startup Nation has become this cybersecurity giant thanks to the close collaboration between universities, industry, government as well as the military, and its mandatory military service. One cannot talk about cybersecurity without mentioning the Israeli army's 8200 unit. This intelligence unit is a giant incubator and a fertile soil for entrepreneurs and researchers who helped some of Israel's biggest tech companies, such as Waze, Monday, Check Point and CyberArk who are listed on Nasdaq in New York to grow.
Today, the creation of the future cybersecurity capital in Beer-Sheva is the perfect example of this symbiosis relative to the young country. Since 2013, this city in the middle of the Negev desert, has been transformed into a complex dedicated to cybersecurity. At its center, there is Ben Gurion University, a leader in the field of computer science, the new telecommunications base of the Israeli army, the national office of the Cybersecurity Authority, the CyberSpark business center and the installation of multinationals such as Deutsche Telekom, Mellanox, Oracle, Paypal or IBM. Following a visit to the Israeli campus by the head of Orange Cyberdefense, Michel Van Den Berghe, the French government has acquiesced with the project to develop a Cyber Campus in France.
During the Cyber Week conference cycle, the speech of Prime Minister Naftali Bennet was also highly anticipated. He reminded us of the efficiency and the important profitability of cybercrime nowadays. For this reason, Israel has launched the new governmental organization on a global level, the Global Cybernet Shield, to bring countries to cooperate against cyber-attacks. The country is calling on allied governments to join this international collaboration to identify and warn of cyber security threats in real time, as well as work together to develop innovative solutions. Cybercrime is a recent threat that is growing exponentially, and the global health crisis has highlighted it.
Sources
https://blogs.vmware.com/security/2020/04/amid-covid-19-global-orgs-see-a-148-spike-in-ransomware-attacks-finance-industry-heavily-targeted.html https://www.ylventures.com/ https://aireye.tech/ https://argon.io/ https://www.continuitysoftware.com/ https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-to-set-up-global-network-shield-against-growing-cyberthreat/ https://www.jpost.com/opinion/cyberterrorism-one-of-the-modern-worlds-biggest-threats-opinion-677154 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mennyb https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/cyber-week-how-israel-became-a-leader-in-cyber-tech-and-investment-674168 https://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/la-poussiereuse-beer-sheva-veut-devenir-la-capitale-israelienne-de-la-cybersecurite-39895065.htm https://portail-ie.fr/analysis/2370/du-cyber-spark-israelien-au-cyber-campus-francais-entre-inspiration-et-collaboration-internationale https://www.startupcorner.io/ https://www.forbes.fr/technologie/6-raisons-pour-lesquelles-israel-est-devenu-le-n1-de-la-cybersecurite/