Israel holds cybersecurity conference as dangers grow
Increased mobile and web use contribute to ‘explosive increase’ in cyberthreats, MarketsandMarkets says
Shoshanna Solomon was The Times of Israel's Startups and Business reporter

Hundreds of foreign delegations, representatives of multinational corporations and foreign investors are expected to attend Israel’s fourth Cybertech 2017 Conference, which will open in Tel Aviv on Monday and run through February 1.
They will be exposed to the latest innovations in cyber technologies and attend a conference and panels tackling such issues as international collaboration between law enforcement authorities around the world, cognitive computing issues, and the future of cybersecurity for the fintech industry. Government officials, entrepreneurs and company heads will speak at the events, including representatives from Cisco, HP, IBM, Checkpoint and Matrix.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who set up the Israel National Cyber Authority, is expected to open the Cybertech Conference as the keynote speaker.
Cybertech will also host a variety of other events, including an Israeli startup pavilion with 100 different presentations by cyber companies; a hacker zone which will include an Internet of Things hacking challenge and cyber-themed escape rooms and a startup competition, the organizers said.
Israel is considered a global leader in cyberdefense technologies, and the conference comes as security breaches worldwide are growing ever more sophisticated. At the end of 2015 hackers shut down power in Ukraine. In February 2016 more than $80 million was stolen from Bangladesh’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and US intelligence services have blamed Russia for hacking attacks during the 2016 presidential election campaign. In November Israel and the US said they would boost teamwork on cybersecurity.
Increasing mobile and web usage and social media are among the key factors contributing to the “explosive increase” in cyberthreats, MarketsandMarkets, a Dallas, Texas-based market research firm, said in a report. The global cybersecurity market will be worth more than $170 billion by 2020, according to an estimate by MarketsandMarkets, with companies globally focusing on security solutions and services.
Speakers will include Yossi Vardi, conference chairman; Chief Superintendent Meir Hayun, head of the National Cybercrime Unit, Israel Police; Eviatar Matania, head of the National Cyber Bureau in the Prime Minister’s Office; Avi Hasson, chief scientist, Ministry of Economy & Industry, Luigi Rebuffi, CEO & founder, EOS; Peter Pellegrini, deputy prime minister, Slovakia; and Dorit Dor, VP of products, Check Point Software Technologies.