[ISN] Israel to spend over $13 million on cybersecurity efforts

http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-to-spend-over-13-million-on-cyber-security-efforts/

By David Shamah
The Times of Israel
May 29, 2012

Cybersecurity has become a major growth industry of late, and the 
government is committing to shore up Israel’s cyber defenses in a big 
way. The government announced that it will invest NIS 50 million (more 
than $13 million) in the coming years to develop new, effective 
technologies to keep Israel’s networks safe.

The program will be administered by the National Cyber Committee, a 
department in the Prime Minister’s Office, along with the Science and 
Technology Ministry. Funding of up to NIS 2 million ($525,000) will be 
available for promising projects sponsored by corporations, while 
students doing work on cybersecurity will be eligible for scholarships 
of NIS 300,000 ($80,000). The program will continue for at least three 
years.

Researchers will be expected to develop projects that will protect the 
country’s sensitive websites and networks. According to statistics 
published by the committee, there are thousands of attempts by hackers 
to break into Israeli sites every week, and not a day goes by without at 
least a few sites being compromised. Often those attacks go unreported 
but some make headlines, such as when Iranian hackers stole information 
on thousands of credit card accounts belonging to Israelis, or when the 
man who created the National Cyber Committee himself — Professor 
Yitzchak ben-Yisrael, who heads Tel Aviv University’s Yuval Ne’eman 
Workshop for Science, Technology and Security – had his website hacked.

The committee has asked developers to come up with projects that would 
provide specialized protection for government, bank, and defense sites, 
as well as those belonging to universities, courts, hospitals, and other 
facilities. Besides system and network protection systems, the panel in 
charge of approving projects will seek studies and research in areas 
like cyber-psychology (how users react during hacking attacks, and how 
to more easily identify hackers before they attack) as well as ethics 
(how invasive can/should the authorities be) and international 
relations. And, the panel will also be looking for projects that allow 
for easier identification of attackers, tracing of attacks, backup, and 
quick recovery.

[...]

--
Help InfoSec News with a Donation
http://www.infosecnews.org/donate.html