Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's Prime Minister, once said that cybersecurity is one of the great businesses growing geometrically because there is no permanent solution to cyber threats and data breaches. With great efforts ($82 billion industry) being invested in research and developing solutions to thwart cyberattacks, Israel has become a cyber-security powerhouse.
Today it has its operations to help many smaller countries like Singapore to create cybersecurity startups. In the first three months of 2021, Israel's cybersecurity had raised $1.5 billion in funding. By the end of 2020, Israel’s total cybersecurity market was valued at US$ 14.7 Billion in 2020, led by 436 active companies.
For this success to be achieved, several factors have played a part, which are as follows.
Investing in human capital to build future-oriented cybersecurity teams
In cybersecurity, people's skills, experience, and ambitions are the essential ingredient of cyber defense. The Israeli government has channeled its people into specific academic pursuits which offer excellent knowledge of cybersecurity. It’s one of the best cybersecurity Israel mechanisms.
Due to this, there are about six universities in Israel that are research centers dedicated to cybersecurity. Tel Aviv University cybersecurity course has been ranked number one in the world.
Through its efforts, great companies have come into play, offering to solve problems with a pandemic workforce. Talon, a leading cybersecurity startup that raised $26 million, hopes to develop solutions for the distributed workforce brought about by the pandemic. It will ensure that employees are taking data through the secure confines of their organization's network. This innovation and dynamism of these companies have helped increase the value of Israeli cybersecurity stocks.
Embracing interdisciplinarity and diversity
While cybersecurity requires technological solutions, the problems with the issues of cybersecurity are not technical. This calls for applying an interdisciplinary approach to cybersecurity to understand the sociological, legal, psychological, economic, and other domains affecting it.
The government has enhanced diversity by allowing different companies or firms in the private sector. Other innovative Israeli cybersecurity firms have cropped out through this, including Cyrebro, Medigate, Talon, Argus cybersecurity, Axis security, and SAM seamless network.
These companies' shared experiences of different professionals and enduring cross-pollination drive the significant steps being achieved. This has increased Israeli cybersecurity companies' stock value rapidly.
The government as a business catalyst for cybersecurity startups
Not only has the government played a part in launching and sustaining the thriving technology sector, but it has also catalyzed the rapidly growing cybersecurity startup sphere. As the government views cybersecurity as an "economic growth engine," Israel gains a competitive advantage based on leading-edge research and unique practical experience.
Also, the government acting as a catalyst has contributed to international cooperation and increased goodwill toward Israeli cybersecurity startups and other established companies. This has favored many Israel cybersecurity startups. Through these collaborations, Deep Instinct, a cybersecurity startup that uses deep learning AI to defend against malicious attacks in "milliseconds," has raised about $100 million. In 2021 alone, the total funding that Israeli cybersecurity companies had amounted to $8.8 billion.
The government as a coordinator
The cybersecurity ecosystem is constantly evolving its frameworks for collaboration between the government, universities, and businesses, with the government performing the advisory role. According to Dr. Eviatar Matania, cyberspace is global and has no national borders restricting other countries from joining its research.
Through government coordination, Israel has become a source of fantastic innovation, with a large part of global cybersecurity software being developed there. According to Einat Meyron, an Israeli cyber resilience expert, Israel's activities are immeasurably more extensive than those of most countries in the world. Also, the government has a strong military system that young people go through to ensure they have relevant skills.
Rethinking the (cyber) box
Most companies that specialize in designing software used in cybersecurity focus on a typical approach to counter reactive and potential attackers. The new type of cybersecurity strategy the Israeli companies focus on has three levels which include robustness, defense, and resilience. In Israel, different entities have been assigned other tasks making the national policies fragmented and less-than-optimally coordinated.
Today, Israel's cybersecurity ventures are responsible for 10% of the country's export, with the industry exporting products worth $10 billion in stocks in the last year. This industry is not the only center on the local side but second only to the American cybersecurity sector globally.
There’s something to talk about on the other side too. With a wide-open field to operate in, the best Israeli cybersecurity companies in the US have had their own share of headlines in the dailies, sometimes for the wrong reasons and sometimes for their heroics.
Most of it has been regulations-related, so a tighter hand on the companies can make things better in the US and other countries that depend on Israeli cybersecurity innovations.
