Tech Talk: Tel Aviv hosts international cybersecurity conference

Well-known cyber experts, policy makers, researchers, security officials and diplomats, including US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, met at Tel Aviv University last week.

By ARIEL SHAPIRA
Dan Shapiro (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST,MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Dan Shapiro
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST,MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Well-known cyber experts, policy makers, researchers, security officials and diplomats, including US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, met at Tel Aviv University last week for the 5th Annual International Cybersecurity Conference.
The conference was organized by Prof. Isaac Ben Israel and Dr. Eviatar Matania, the head of the Israeli National Cyber Bureau. It was held jointly this year by the Yuval Ne’eman Workshop for Science, Technology and Security, the National Cyber Bureau, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center (ICRC) and Tel Aviv University. It included workshops, lectures and discussions on methods and ideas concerning evolving cyber technologies.
A number of Israeli cybersecurity companies took part in the conference, including Qualcomm, Check Point and Intel Security.
“At any given time we have 250 researchers and assistants gathering information and fine-tuning their specialties in the field of cybersecurity,” TAU President Joseph Klafter said.
Shapiro said: “During the last five years, great attention has been focused on cyber issues the world over by governments, the private sector, civil society and the media. Certainly in both the United States and Israel our respective governments have created new mechanisms, policies and agencies to better manage our engagement on cyber issues and responses to cyber threats.”
“The United States and Israel are natural partners in working together on cyber issues due to our shared values and our open and democratic societies, as well as the extraordinary talent and innovation of our technical communities,” he said. “A vital part of our cyber policy is protecting Internet freedom.
We want the Internet to be an open, global space for freedom of expression.
The United States and Israel are continuing to cooperate on these issues... for our national security, our economic prosperity and our shared commitment to protect the freedom of expression of people across the planet.”
Matania said: “To a certain extent, the cybernetic threat bypasses all the huge security capabilities the state has built to prevent various threats. In a cyber world there are no borders, and the physical walls that have been built at an expense of billions simply will not help.”
“Investments in cyber companies in Israel have amounted to more than $250 million, and Israeli cyber companies have been acquired this year for a total sum of more than $1 billion,” he said.
Matania also spoke about Israel’s great achievements in the field of cybersecurity, especially the construction of the academy’s eco system and the human resources that made this possible.
Another achievement he spoke about was the founding of the new government organization that deals with cyber issues.
FairFly Israeli start-up FairFly has developed an app that searches for significantly lower fares for airplane tickets and then alerts passengers so that they can cancel their previous ticket and book the cheaper one. It has announced the completion of a $2 million round of financing from Blumberg Capital. FairFly had raised seed money from Waze cofounder Uri Levine, who is now chairman of the company.
After you buy an airplane ticket online, you download the FairFly app on your phone (available for iOS and Android) and then forward the e-ticket to trips@fairfly.
com. FairFly monitors the Internet, and when it finds a cheaper fare – factoring in the ticket’s cancellation fee – it alerts the customer.
At this point, you can either switch the flight on your own, or you can have FairFly do it for you (for free). The company plans to charge fees in the future.
FairFly was founded by three young entrepreneurs, Aviel Siman-Tov, Gili Lichtman and Ami Goldenberg.
If you run a young start-up, have developed an interesting app or have a question, please feel free to contact info@ social-wisdom.com.
Translated by Hannah Hochner.


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