German-Israel program seeks to boost cybersecurity ecosystem
In a new accelerator program, 6 teams of cybersecurity experts from the two countries with work on software, infrastructure and network security projects
A new German-Israeli partnership launched in Jerusalem this week promises to upgrade cybersecurity collaboration between the two countries.
The Hessian Israeli Partnership Accelerator for Cybersecurity (HIPA) accelerator program will unite 16 teams of cybersecurity experts from the two countries to work on projects related to software, infrastructure and network security. The stated goal of the project is to “trigger the creation of innovation and businesses in cybersecurity in Israel and Germany.”
The Cyber Security Research Center at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s School of Computer Science and Engineering and the Darmstadt-based the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology SIT co-founded the initiative.
“Cyber-attacks are a constant threat to state and financial entities, as well as to each and every one of us,” said Prof. Danny Dolev, the head of the cyber research center at the Hebrew University, in a statement.
“At the Hebrew University, we are researching many aspects of cyber protection, including protection of Internet data routing, cloud computing, Bitcoin, the smart grid, and more. Our collaboration with Fraunhofer deepens the research into these issues and will enable researchers from both countries to collaborate on the creation new tools for dealing with cyber-attacks,” he said.
The first incarnation of the accelerator program began on October 29 with a one-week entrepreneurship and security training session. Participants will take part in two months of R&D activities, meeting “entrepreneurs, researchers, mentors, customers and influencers” along the way, and will present pitches in early January in Berlin.
Both institutions are leaders in the cybersecurity field, and have collaborated before. In 2015, they launched the Fraunhofer Project Center for Cybersecurity in Jerusalem as part of the Hebrew University’s Cybersecurity Innovation Center.
“The establishment of a joint project center with Fraunhofer is a vote of confidence in the Hebrew University’s scientific excellence and in Israel’s position as a global innovator in cybersecurity,” said Prof. Yair Weiss, head of the Rachel and Selim Benin School of Computer Science and Engineering at the Hebrew University, in the statement.
