The document summarizes a study trip to Israel organized by CIOAA to learn about Israel's globally leading cybersecurity ecosystem. The 4-day trip involved visits to government agencies, large cybersecurity companies, startups, and universities. These visits provided insights into how Israel developed a vibrant cybersecurity industry and pipeline of talent, as well as the latest solutions and innovations in cyber defense. The delegation gained an understanding of the challenges of preventing increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks and the importance of collaboration between industry and government.

1. Cybersecurity
I S R A E L
13 - 16 MARCH 2017
ORGANISED BY STUDY TRIP PARTNERSUPPORTED BY
TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS
POST-TRIP REPORT

2. RETHINK CYBERSECURITY STUDY TRIP TO ISRAEL
CIOAA’s inaugural reThink Cybersecurity study trip to Israel began with its 38
members’ strong senior delegation from Singapore and the Philippines (from both the
government and private sectors) at a picturesque spot along the beautiful coastline of
Tel Aviv.
The delegation enjoyed a productive and insightful four-day study trip that gave the
participants exposure to the widely-acknowledged Israel’s globally leading
cybersecurity ecosystem. The programme featured visits that showcased the
government’s role in building this industry; to the latest solutions from the industry’s
powerhouses (e.g., Check Point Software Technologies (Check Point), Dell EMC,
Imperva, RSA); and the smart innovations coming out of fast rising startups from the
Startup Nation. These players from Israel’s cybersecurity ecosystem shared insights on
how they came together to create such a vibrant industry in Israel, and the strategic
reasons behind the country’s rise as a high-tech epicentre built around internet
security, anti-virus software and other cyber defence technologies and strategies.
Delegates from Singapore and Philippines
On Conflict and Resilience, and Non-Stop Culture
The collective quest to find solutions to harden the environments of organisations and
nations was a key concern of this study trip. The context for this quest is that today,
the necessity of strong cybersecurity measures is self-evident. Mass digitalisation
combined with the expanding number of cyber attacks and the uptick in hackers’
sophistication make it necessary for CIOs and CISOs to buttress their organisations
against these constantly changing threats.

3. The study trip commenced with a visit to Israel’s National Cyber Bureau (INCB) and
the Israel Export Institute (IEI), where officials provided the delegation an overview of
Israel’s cybersecurity landscape.
According to INCB, Israel accounted for 10 per cent of global security technology,
which for its size is an impressive feat. The session at INCB brought up concerns such
as how much governments should intervene or incentivise the prioritisation of cyber
defence, the pillars of Israel’s thriving tech ecosystem, and the importance of
defending the continuation of normal life in the face of conflict.
According to INCB’s Head of Cyber Policy Mr Roi Yarom, the core ingredients that
made Israel a cyber powerhouse are the constant flow of talent pool coming out of its
defence organisations and the strong entrepreneurial spirit that already exists in
Israeli culture.
Roi Yarom, Head of Cyber Policy, INCB Israel Export Institute
A Rich Security Ecosystem
Israel's information security ecosystem is a rich mix of its own leading cyber
companies; the startups that aspire to grow to leading lights; and foreign MNCs that
site their cyber R&D labs in Israel to tap on the talent pool.
The second day of the study trip saw visits to the mature cyber companies such as
Check Point, Imperva and Singapore’ leading tech powerhouse, Singapore
Telecommunications (Singtel).
Amichai Shulman, CTO and Co-Founder , Imperva Bill Chang, CEO, Singtel Group Enterprise
Tzachi Blumenstein, Argus Cyber Security

4. The visits to cyber companies led to the sharing of great insights. For example,
FireEye reminded the delegation the importance of staying vigilant against
increasingly sophisticated advanced threats. The key takeaway was that to keep pace
with the scale and ferocity of such attacks, organisations would need to work together
to partner and share best practices to overcome operational challenges and to help
mitigate such threats. The use of data analytics would dramatically enhance existing
cyber defence strategies.
Similarly, the security company executives made the point that most security
technologies today stay one step behind, looking for yesterday’s signatures, detection
instead of prevention. Check Point imagines a future in which threats are prevented
before any attacks on network systems. “The difference between detection and
prevention is the difference between 0 and 1: infinity”, said Mr Bar-Lev, the founder of
Check Point.
Trustwave, a specialist in managed security services, acquired by Singtel in 2015,
showed the delegates the critical vulnerabilities of systems today with demos of
malicious advertisements directing to exploit weaknesses in organisations’
information infrastructure.
Michelle Loh, Federal Sales Director, FireEye Amnon Bar-Lev, President, Check Point
At Tel Aviv University’s (TAU) Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center, a
panel was chaired by the father of Israel’s cyber ecosystem, Prof Isaac Ben-Israel. “To
build a sustainable cybersecurity ecosystem and pipeline of cyber defenders, the
Singapore government will have to make policy changes, “ he said. The panel covered
topics such as how Israel started to funnel the top one per cent of its students to Stem
subjects 70 years ago, research on critical information structures, and other ways
Israel has stayed ahead through academia working closely with industry (the
confluence of academics and industry figures to interchangeably work in industries
and the Universities is a prime example).
Prof Isaac Ben-Israel, Head of Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Centre

5. At JVP, the oldest and most well-known Venture Capitalist firm in Israel, the
delegation were introduced to a range of innovations from the startups incubated by
JVP’s Cyber Lab. They include CoroNet, a startup that protects corporates against
malicious attacks on the corporate networks via employees’ wireless access habits;
SCADAFence which safeguards industrial sectors against increasing cyber-attacks; to
Morphisec, whose endpoint threat prevention tool that helps secure users’ Virtual
Desktop Infrastructure; and finally to Secret Double Octopus, which shared their
tokenless authentication software solution.
The study trip concluded with a visit to RSA’s Anti-Fraud Command Centre (AFCC),
where concerns such as the socialisation of cybercrime, the digital human, and
business-driven security were discussed.
The delegates returned very satisfied from the trip, full of insights that they could
implement in their own organizations as well as having made some lasting friendships
among themselves.
JVP Cyber Labs Dell EMC
RSA