RBC Investing $2M In Ben-Gurion University’s Cybersecurity Research Center

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and BGN Technologies, the technology transfer company of Ben-Gurion University  of the Negev in Israel, announced this week that RBC will invest $2 million into research at Ben-Gurion University’s cybersecurity research center. In a press release, RBC said the funding will go to support the development of adversarial artificial intelligence (AI), such as machine learning-based cyber mitigation techniques.

“In today’s incredibly complex world, we need advanced technology like AI and machine learning to continue developing leading-edge cybersecurity,” said Martin Wildberger, EVP of technology & operations at RBC, in the press release. “This partnership will help support our cyber defense by working with prominent experts in the field, such as the researchers at Ben-Gurion University.”

According to RBC, as the threat landscape evolves in cybersecurity, AI and machine learning have become industry standards for providing performance in complex tasks, like automatic personal assistants, facial and speech recognition, and fraud — including malware and cyber issue detection.

Through the research collaboration, RBC said the two will aim to further develop protection methods to strengthen and evaluate the resiliency of current AI and machine learning techniques, and, at the same time, limit the vulnerability to threats and hacks. The research areas the firms will focus on will develop in collaboration with Professor Yuval Elovici and Dr. Asaf Shabtai, both from the Department of Software and Information Systems Engineering at the Ben-Gurion University Cyber Security Research Center.

Danny Shtaier, High-tech Business Development at BGN Technologies, said in the press release, “We are looking forward to collaborating with RBC, Canada’s largest bank. This partnership provides our researchers with the opportunity to further apply their leadership in cybersecurity research to the banking industry, where security is crucial for daily operations and the safety of customers.”