As the corporate world transitions towards increased digitization, cyberattacks become more frequent and wide-reaching. According to Israeli-American cyber firm Check Point’s 2022 Cyber Security Report, 2021 saw a 50% increase in corporate cyberattacks from 2020. The recent high-profile hacks of SolarWinds and Colonial Pipelines, in particular, have brought renewed attention onto cybersecurity in the professional realm.
In the spring of 2022, the Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD) and Israeli Ministry of Communications announced new regulations and mandatory cybersecurity standards to combat this rise in digital attacks. Under the new guidelines, Israeli communications services are required to implement various measures to bolster their digital defenses, including conducting frequent vulnerability scans and applying protection standards for suppliers and contractors.
During the recent Cyber Week conference in Tel Aviv, INCD Director General Gaby Portnoy stressed the importance of proactive and innovative solutions to cybersecurity. Rather than merely mitigating attacks as they arise, Portnoy called for the establishment of a “Cyber-Dome”, a comprehensive cyber defense strategy utilizing new mechanisms for detection, analysis, and mitigation of threats. Notably, he presented gaps in security as potential opportunities for cyber firms to develop cybersecure-by-design solutions for recurring and emerging risks.
In particular, Portnoy emphasized the importance of cooperation between government regulators, the cybersecurity industry, researchers, and individual consumers to limit cyber threats. As cyberattacks arise from a multitude of sources, no single solution on its own could protect companies against attackers.
A key element of the multi-pronged cybersecurity strategy is a zero-trust approach to IT, which assumes that no user or device can be trusted until adequately verified. Utilizing two-factor authentication, access controls, and “micro-perimeters” to protect higher-sensitivity data, zero-trust is among the most effective methods of protecting against cyberattacks. Recognizing networks’ vulnerability once they have been breached, the zero-trust model implements security checkpoints at various stages to identify and isolate breaches as they occur.
Israeli companies have developed various innovative solutions to prevent and combat cyberattacks. Below is a list of Israeli cybersecurity companies that are leading the charge in zero-trust and anti-breach technologies:
NanoLock is a zero trust, device-level solution that prevents outsider, insider, and supply-chain attacks as well as human errors, regardless of the attack origin, cyber event, or exploited vulnerability. It accomplishes this all without affecting the device or machine’s functionality and performance, with near-zero resource consumption, and with compatibility across both legacy and new devices and machines.
Hunters develops security operations solutions by combining data engineering, security expertise, and layers of automation to expedite decision making, helping security teams become attack-ready. Hunters infuses how attackers think and act into a platform that helps security operations see and stop attacks at their root. Hunters XDR is a purpose-built, turn-key security data and analytics platform, providing cloud-scale access to telemetry sources across the entire attack surface coupled with automated event prioritization, correlation, and investigation.
Illusive Networks uses deception technology to stop cyberattacks by detecting and disarming attackers, destroying their decision-making processes, and depriving them of the means to move laterally toward attack targets. Illusive’s deceptions are designed to eliminate high-risk pathways to critical systems, force attackers to reveal themselves early in the threat lifecycle, and capture real-time forensics that accelerate incident response.
XM Cyber is a global leader in attack-centric risk prioritization, which is also known as risk-based vulnerability management (RBVM). The XM Cyber platform enables companies to rapidly respond to cyber risks affecting their business-sensitive systems by continuously finding new exposures, including exploitable vulnerabilities and credentials, misconfigurations, and user activities.
CYE brings a fact-based approach to organizational cyber defense and takes the guesswork out of cyber risk management. Utilizing data, numbers, and facts, CYE helps security leaders know what business assets are at risk and execute cost-effective remediation projects for optimal risk prevention.
Cybereason provides future-ready cyberattack protection that unifies security from the endpoint, to the enterprise, to everywhere the battle moves. The Cybereason Defense Platform combines the industry’s top-rated endpoint and extended detection and response, next-generation anti-virus, and proactive threat hunting to deliver context-rich analysis of every element of a malicious operation.
Sources: StartUpNation, Reuters, Forbes, VentureBeat, I24NEWS, Gov.il, Check Point, The Jerusalem Post
Israel Trade and Economic Commission in Sydney, Australia 