From economic vitality to national security, our daily lives depend on a stable, safe, and resilient cyberspa​ce. The surrounding infrastructure and cyberspace itself are vulnerable to a wide range of risks - from physical as well as cyber threats and hazards. Countless public bodies such as the US military, as well as private companies such as VISA and Master Card have already been victims of cyberattacks. At the end of 2015 for instance hackers shut down power in Ukraine. In February 2016 more than $80 million were 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.

Forbes considers cybersecurity as the biggest concern in 2017: “Some experts predict that by 2020 there will be 200 billion connected things. Cars, planes, homes, cities, and even animals are being connected.” As we become increasingly dependent on software in every aspect of our lives we become also increasingly vulnerable to the related risks.

As a leading force in cyber technology Israel organized its 4th Cybertech Conference that took place in Tel Aviv in the beginning of February. Cybertech is the most significant conference and exhibition of cyber technologies outside of the United States. Hundreds of foreign delegations, representatives of multinational corporations and foreign investors attended the timely event.

Part of Cybertech 2017’s programme was also a start-up competition – won by APERIO Systems as most innovative cybersecurity start-up. APERIO developed a technology to protect critical infrastructure. It identifies, sends out alerts and takes real-time corrective action when hackers try to artificially manipulate data to damage for instance electricity grids or water supply networks.

The other finalists in the competition included Intezer, which developed a “Shazam” style technology for software that identifies the name and manufacturer of any unknown file or code; Cymulate, a platform for cyberattack simulations; Cybellum, which has developed a technology to protect companies from zero-day attacks; and Sepio Systems, which aims to protect critical infrastructure against threats on supply chains without degrading performance.

Thousands of cybersecurity problems are identified every year in technologies from well-known actors – including those that are experts themselves on the issue. So due to the topic’s increasing importance and the event’s broad success Cybertech is also organising conferences in other parts of the world. In 2017 alone there will be Cybertech conferences held in the US, Japan, Canada, Panama and in September 2017 in Rome, Italy. 

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