Israel Offers Benefits to Cyber Companies

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

Rich military experience and government funding make Israel an attractive option for civilian cyber companies

The Be’er Sheva Cyber Center project, currently taking shape in the Israeli Knesset’s cyber lobby, is expected to include significant benefits for cyber companies who choose to establish branches and R&D centers in the southern Israeli city. The suggested benefit package includes government funding for salaries and employee training, in addition to extensive tax benefits on all levels. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stated that following years of cyber projects, Israel can and should become a global cyber center. The Be’er Sheva center is expected to become a national priority.

“Israel is a global leader in the cyber arena. The world’s challenges are becoming Israel’s opportunity to shine,” this according to Knesset member Arel Margalit, Chairman of the Knesset cyber lobby. “I’m telling companies – come with us to the Negev desert. We’ve already provided several companies with benefit packages – such as NESS, EMC and Deutch Telecom – which include funding 40% of emplyee salaries.”

11% of the global cyber funding is invested in Israeli companies. What makes Israel so attractive? The answer is probably a combination of high quality personnel and government investments. “Israel benefits from high quality manpower and military experience,” this according to Dr. Nimrod Kozlovski, a partner in the JVC CyberLabs Fund. “The best of the best reach the army’s cyber units and receive the deepest and most comprehensive training possible. They later join the industry with years of operational experience. This gives them a huge advantage over foreign specialists, who underwent mostly academic training with almost no practical experience.”

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

In addition to Be’er Sheva’s already existing high-tech park, over the next few years the IDF’s cyber labs are expected to relocate to the region – along with thousands of military cyber experts. Their knowledge and experience are expected to have a positive impact on commercial cyber security development. “The IDF’s views on cyber fit modern cyber-security trends – cyber security based on intelligence gathering, real time analysis and pattern recognition, all providing useful insights for incident management. Those are the principles of the IDF’s Unit 8200, with the same principles becoming dominant in the world of cyber-security,” explaines Dr. Kozlovski.

Academic institutes have also been focusing on cyber security over the last few years. The university of Be’er Sheva, for example, is currently establishing a cyber-security program focusing on software security; Bar Ilan University is focusing on communications networks and physical cyber systems; and Tel Aviv University recently expanded its list of courses and programs which involve cyber studies at some level. “There’s more and more academic focus on cyber studies as a separate discipline. The fact that Israel’s government supports cyber research and development helps shift the academic world’s focus towards cyber. There’s also extensive cooperation between industry and academy, which helps fund academic cyber research,” concluded Dr. Kozlovski.