Parliamentary Concern over Grey Zone Activities
In recent parliamentary debates in various countries, threats about defending against attacks below the threshold of war have come into conversation. ‘Grey zone activities’ is the term used to describe these forms of threat. Cyberwarfare, espionage, sabotage, and disinformation campaigns are examples of this. The Western world is regularly affected by this form of attack from hostile actors.
Stakeholders coming under attack from non-traditional means of warfare vary greatly. Examples include companies, government departments, universities, banks or other institutions. As non-governmental bodies can only find solutions in the commercial market, the business world needs to find commercialized solutions to prevent against such attacks.
The volume and scale of these attacks are increasing. In the last three months, there have been several notable cyber-attacks reported against major international companies. Those affected included leading retail and cooperative brands. Each instance cost the companies a significant amount of money, and prevented them from using their e-commerce platforms. Further, as reported recently, millions of employees and members of one affected organization had data stolen in the cyber-attack.
Additionally to data leaks, other threats can occur. Those to national integrity, stealing of sensitive technological information, loss of money, or other factors are all factors at play. Dangers from these sorts of attacks are now being addressed in parliamentary discussions and are being perceived as a threat to national sovereignty.
Israel is a world leader in commercializing against Grey Zone Activities.
Israel’s presence in these sectors doesn’t just come from successful companies. Instead, there is a solid institutional foundation for solutions to prosper. Some notable departments include:
Tel Aviv University has the Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Centre, a leading global department. Ramot is Tel Aviv University’s Technology Transfer Office (TTO), facilitating the transfer of innovative technologies from academic labs to the market, with a significant emphasis on digital and cyber security technologies.
Technion University has established a reputation for deep technical expertise, hosting an annual Cyber and Information Security Research Conference that gathers academia, industry, and government experts. The university’s Hiroshi Fujiwara Cyber Security Research Centre was created in 2016 in collaboration with the Japanese visionary cyber security expert. T3 is Technion’s TTO, focusing on cyber security solutions.
Ben-Gurion University has a dedicated Cyber Security Research Centre known for its cutting-edge malware detection and cryptography research. It also collaborates with Deutsche Telekom to operate the Telekom Innovation Laboratories (T-Labs), which focuses on cyber security and data protection. The TTO at BGU is called BGN Technologies. It plays a critical role in translating the university’s research outputs into commercial success, with a significant focus on the cyber security sector, among other fields.
Successful institutions support early-stage companies in the initial phases of success. Whether this is through funding, mentoring or equipment for the companies. A key differentiator that Israel is successful at implementing is Incubators. In Israel, a public-private partnership facilitated by universities focuses on transforming innovative ideas into viable businesses. These provide the means for early-stage companies, and innovative solutions to make it to the market.
Defense Technology and Cybersecurity are two of Israel’s strengths. The government supports incubators that leverage military veterans entering into the commercial world. This provides a fertile ecosystem for Israel to have companies populated by high level individuals, with the backing of government funding and support to thrive and find external funding.
In the coming years, will Israel have the answers to deal with the growing global threats?
For more information on Grey Zone activities or Israel’s Cyber Sector please contact Jeremy jeremy.ungar@israeltrade.gov.il
israeltrade.org.au 