Cybersecurity Ventures ranked Israel second in the world in 2020 based on the number of cybersecurity firms in the Jewish state.
By TPS
Cybersecurity Ventures, a leading internet cybersecurity magazine, has ranked Israel second in the world in the number of promising cybersecurity firms, with 18 of the “Hot 150 Cybersecurity Companies To Watch In 2020” based in Israel.
The U.S. leads the world by a wide margin, with 112 companies listed. However, of the 38 international companies on the list, nearly half started in Israel, making it “the world’s number two exporter of cyber technology,” according to the magazine. The UK is home to seven firms on the list, and five come from Canada.
Israel’s cybersecurity sector has been extremely successful in recent years, with both public and private sectors making an effort to keep civilians safe from malicious cyber attacks.
The Israeli government supports cybersecurity firms in various ways, including guidance regarding future challenges in the field.
Yigal Unna, Director General of Israel’s National Cyber Directorate (INCD), spoke on Sunday at the NexTech Conference on Advanced Technologies in Be’er Sheva, where he said that “artificial intelligence is changing the rules of the game.”
“The new technology increases the rate of new threats and the speed needed to address them tremendously. This includes coping with an increased attack rate, changing offensive capabilities such as automation and various new realms that require cybersecurity,” he said.
Unna cautioned that artificial intelligence is a useful tool for hackers, allowing them to circumvent cyber protection. However, he also said that it could be used by cybersecurity firms to strengthen their protection with faster identification of vulnerabilities.
Israel is considered a global leader in the cybersecurity business, and approximately 25 percent of all global investments in cybersecurity go to Israel.
Israel signed the second-largest number of cybersecurity deals internationally, according to a report by New York data firm CB Insights published in April 2018. The U.S. came first.
Israel has developed advanced security protocols, as cyber attacks on Israel have risen exponentially in the past several years, reaching up to two million attacks against crucial Israeli infrastructure on a daily basis.
Israel’s rise as one of the world’s leaders in cybersecurity has been boosted by cooperation between the military, government, education and private sectors, a level of partnership unmatched in the Western world.