Israel Invests $24M In Cybersecurity Initiatives

The Israeli government is investing 90 million shekels ($24 million) to boost the country’s cybersecurity industry.

The three-year program will enable companies working in high-risk research and development to possibly receive up to 5 million shekels a year. The program will also help fund pilot projects in Israel and abroad.

“Despite significant investment from VCs who have expressed faith in the local cyber market, many companies face challenges in finding suitable sites to test their technologies,” said Aharon Aharon, head of the Israel Innovation Authority, according to Reuters.

“This new program solves this issue and will significantly accelerate companies’ growth and penetration into the global market,” he added.

Israel currently has around 5 percent of the global market share in cybersecurity, second to the United States, and 16 percent of worldwide investment in the cyber industry.

Cyber attacks have been impacting organizations all around the world. In 2016, cyberattacks cost the U.S. economy upwards of $109 billion, with activity coming from inside the country as well as outside.

Outside the U.S., entities with malicious intent were based in Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.

But many cyberattacks were carried out by those residing in the U.S., with the White House Council of Economic Advisers suggesting corporate competitors, activists and organized crime were behind many cybersecurity breaches in the country. A report also explained that efforts from the public and private sectors are needed in order to prevent cyberattacks, as well as contribute to growth in the gross domestic product.

“Cyber risk is an escalating management priority, as the use of technology in business increases and the threat environment gets more complex,” said John Drzik, president of Global Risk and Digital at Marsh. “It’s time for organizations to adopt a more comprehensive approach to cyber resilience, which engages the full executive team and spans risk prevention, response, mitigation and transfer.”