Cyber Chief: 8% of ministry budgets should go to cyber security

The second annual Cyber Tech convention took place in Tel Aviv on Tuesday and Wednesday.

By NIV ELIS
Cyber hackers [illustrative] (photo credit: REUTERS)
Cyber hackers [illustrative]
(photo credit: REUTERS)
National Cyber Bureau chief Dr. Eviatar Matania called for allocating 8 percent of every ministry’s budget to information technology and cybersecurity.
Speaking at the second annual Cybertech convention in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, Matania called on the upcoming Knesset to move forward with promised benefits for the cybersecurity industry, and said he hoped the promised benefits for the CyberSpark industrial park in Beersheba would soon be translated from promises into reality.
Last year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dubbed cybersecurity technology an engine of growth for Israel and promised millions of shekels in incentives to companies and start-ups in the field. Throughout the year, some 30 companies raised more than $200 million, and eight more were acquired for a total of over $700m. At the conference, the government announced that it would be setting up its computer emergency response teams in Beersheba as well.
The increasing connectedness of online data, businesses, and even objects has made cybersecurity a huge risk in the modern economy.
The Cyber Bureau estimates that in Israel alone, annual cyber-related damages reach $2 billion. Last year’s hacking of Sony, which led to leaks of internal emails and unreleased films, was a prominent case in point of the risks of poor cybersecurity.
“Businesses of all sizes are under attack; the enterprises are not just at risk. One tends to think that only the big companies and the senior management are under attack, but that isn’t the case.
The truth is that the ‘small people’ are just as vulnerable,” said Symantec EMEA chief technical officer Darren Thomson, who was in Israel for the conference.
The company is eyeing Israeli technology in the field of data visualization and malware forensics, he said.
“Israel represents the most dynamic and innovated hi-tech in the world today, even more then Silicon Valley.
The ability to be innovative and get these ideas funded and then applied in the market makes Israel probably one of the best places to seek new technologies,” he said.