January 12, 2016
Israel racked up cyber-security sales worth $3.5bn to $4bn last year and attracted about 20 per cent of global private-sector investment in the burgeoning industry – putting its companies second only to their US counterparts – according to the country’s top cyber official.
The figures underscore the Jewish state’s growing credibility as a world leader in an emerging area where its military capabilities dovetail with a growing private-sector export industry. The country’s share of global investment last year was up from 10 per cent in 2014.
Israeli and foreign online security experts have described the country of only 8m people as one of five emerging ”cyber powers”, alongside the US, China, Russia, and the UK.
“We think the cyber revolution is the third revolution after the agricultural and industrial one, and it’s going to change all of our lives,” Eviatar Matania, head of Israel’s National Cyber Bureau, said in an interview.
Other countries, including the UK, were “adopting our approach and our strategies” in their national cyber-security policy, he said.
Mr Matania said he expected a continuing rise in cyber attacks on industrial systems such as generators, vehicles, aircraft and medical devices.