January 26, 2016
Israeli cyber security companies are being launched at an accelerating pace and increasingly by founders with no direct ties to the military, according to research released on the eve of the country’s main showcase event for the sector.
IVC Research Center, which focuses on Israel’s high-tech industry, said the country had about 430 cyber security companies and 40 foreign research and development centres that have historically been able to capitalise on the country’s military prowess in cyber warfare.
Its research also found that since 2012, an average of 66 companies had been founded every year, compared with an average of 49 over the previous decade.
IVC’s study comes on the back of figures released recently that suggested Israeli companies were sucking up a growing share of the world’s venture capital funding in an industry sustained by companies’ and governments’ fears of attacks.
The links between the civilian sector and its military’s prowess in cyber warfare has long been a principal selling point in the fast-growing global business of protecting computer networks and data from hackers.