Cybersecurity On A Global Scale

Technology has always evolved with humans. However, with the creation of the internet, the past two decades have seen the most aggressive rate of technological development in history. Today, people integrate technology into every aspect of their lives and even trust computers and data servers with their most precious personal, professional, and financial information. Though this technological integration has made everyday transactions exponentially more convenient and efficient. However, many choose to take advantage of those who have adopted this level of technology usage. With all of the beneficial uses of technology comes the opportunity for people to access, hack, disrupt, and obtain data that doesn’t belong to them. In response to this threat, the concept of cyber-security was born.

Whether someone works for their nation’s Department of Defense or simply owns a smartphone, cybersecurity is an essential part of everyone’s lives. Any piece of data exposed to an online platform is vulnerable to cyber-attacks and cybercrimes. These attacks can happen internally or externally, affecting the data security and infrastructure. The effects of these attacks can be disastrous to individuals, companies, and governments. Cybersecurity serves to protect information and tech devices from virtual threats; it protects connected systems via the internet including hardware, software, and electronic data from theft or damage.

Bob Thomas discovered that a computer program had the ability to move across a network and leave a trail in its wake. Naming the program Creeper, Thomas developed and designed his computer worm to travel between terminals of what came before the internet, leaving a message behind stating, “I’M THE CREEPER: CATCH ME IF YOU CAN.” Eventually, Ray Tomlinson, the creator of email, liked Thomas’s idea and played around with it. He created the first antivirus software, a program that would chase down the Creeper and delete it. Thomas’ creation of the worm for academic purposes was called “less harmful than simple graffiti.” However, the idea quickly turned from a theoretical threat into criminality.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s cyber security threats were clear; People were interested in reading files they don’t have access to. This led to the split between computer security solely focused on governance risk and compliance (GRC) and computer security software. However, network breaches and malware was used for criminal purposes. For example, in 1986 German, Marcus Hess hacked 400 military computers at the Pentagon intending to sell secrets to the KGB. Thankfully, he was caught, but this was a turning point in cyber security, for computer viruses became much more than a prank; they were now a serious threat to entire countries.

On a smaller scale than national security, cybersecurity is critical component of companies who maintain big databases of client information, platforms where individuals submit personal information, and caches of political and defense information. It enables companies to protect secretive data against attacks that seek to, through applications, networks, smart devices, and blank, obtain and misuse this information. Since this data is so valuable, companies and organizations spend a lot of money in protecting this data, especially as the amount of people accessing this data gradually increases. As access and amount of data increase, the number of threats to all of this information being exposed is increasing as well. It is estimated that the cost of these cyber-attacks is in the billions range.

The importance of cybersecurity is growing exponentially due to the growing dependence on our computerized systems. The field of computer security can be classified into three different categories. First, information security prevents unauthorized access, fights identity theft, and protects the confidentiality of data and hardware that uses, stores, and transports this information. Network security is the protection of a network’s usability, integrity, and safety. Once secured, potential threats are detected and preemptively blocked from entering and spreading within the network. The last category is known as application security, which secures applications from faulty designs, development, installation, upgrade or maintenance phases that can cause danger to the application itself. Combined, these three subsets of cyber security seek to protect data, software, and hardware from attack.

Moving on from looking at Cybersecurity on the global scale, it’s essential that one looks at some of the countries that are the biggest players in Cybersecurity. One of the largest players in cybersecurity is Israel, who accounts for eight percent of the world’s exports of cybersecurity products (Tsipori). But how is it that a country, which is roughly the size of New Jersey and has less than half of a percent of the world’s population, exports almost one-tenth of the world’s cybersecurity? There are several factors that play into Israel’s cybersecurity success; however, there are many areas for improvement and growth.

Israel’s strengths in the cybersecurity industry lies in their military, government, and talent within the country’s borders. The largest reason that Israel’s cybersecurity is so successful is out of military necessity. Since Israel is surrounded by countries who are always threatening to invade, Israel has always continued to innovate so that they are ahead of their enemies. In recent history, Iran has famously been attempting to develop nuclear technology. Since Iran has publicly stated that they want to destroy Israel, Israel knew they had to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear superpower. In conjunction with U.S. support during 2012, Israel developed a piece of cybersecurity malware to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities; this malware is called “Flame.” Although Flame may just seem like an already established malware, it has many features that have never been seen before. Industry experts say that Flame is the most “sophisticated [malware] to date,” and it has the capabilities “to activate computer microphones and cameras… take screenshots, extract geo¬location data… and receive commands and data through Bluetooth wireless technology”; the technology is so advanced that is can completely hide as a Microsoft office update (Nakashima, Miller, and Tate). The result of Flame is that Iran’s nuclear ambitions were set back several years, thus giving Israel more time to protect itself from this threat. The combination of the capabilities has never been seen before in the field of cybersecurity; however, with the help of the surplus of engineers and scholars, Israel innovated and thought outside the cybersecurity box, so they could simply survive against a looming threat. Beyond Flame, Israel’s army commits specific units that work in intelligence and cybersecurity, such as 8200. As a result, the IDF helps create the most cutting edge technology like Flame. The economic impact of stopping attacks from foreign countries is imperative to Israel as a whole. For example during Israel’s conflict with Lebanon in 2006, Israel lost 3.5 billion dollars in GDP and tourism fell 37 per cent. To add onto that, a nuclear war would grow these numbers exponentially, and could even destroy the state of Israel. This shows that Israel’s investment in military cybersecurity will help ward off possible threats, thus helping GDP and tourism grow.

Although military survival plays a huge role in Israel’s success, Israel’s approach to cybersecurity and their governmental structure also differentiates it from the rest of the world. Most people’s approach to cybersecurity is in response to an attack, rather than being prepared for the attack in the first place. Israeli companies and government have realized the fundamental problem with this approach to cybersecurity; the fundamental problem is that once you solved that type of attack, a new one is already being developed. In response to this problem Israel created a three-layer approach to cybersecurity, which was developed by several branches of the Israeli government.

Before analyzing this three-pronged solution, it is essential to show the recent expansions in the Israeli government with respect to addressing cybersecurity concerns. The main organization that the government established with respect to cybersecurity was the National Cyber Bureau. Founded in 2011 to respond to the rapid growth in the field of cybersecurity, the National Cyber Bureau develops and promotes technology that protects the civilian sector of cyberspace. According to the mission of the bureau, the National Cyber Bureau has three main goals: “Advancing defense and building national strength in the cyber field, building up Israel's lead in the cyber field, [and] advancing processes that support the first two tasks. One of the most notable benefits that came from this entity was the “Magshimim Leumit,” which is a three-year academic program for 16-18 year olds, which focuses on the field of cybersecurity. Although this program is focused on defense, it is programs like Magshimim Leumit that can help grow the number of professionals in the cybersecurity industry. The National Cyber Bureau also creates programs to promote the research of new technology in cybersecurity. One of the most famous governmental programs created by the National Cyber Bureau was called “Kidma,” which is an R&D program that works with the Office of the Chief Scientist to discover new technologies in the cybersecurity field. The program now has over 80 million New Israeli Shekels invested into the program. This newfound governmental focus on cybersecurity will allow the industry to maintain its stronghold as a leader in cybersecurity because the government is continually educating new experts and providing the funding to allow those experts to create cutting-edge technology.

This government agency has been imperative to the development of Israel’s new cybersecurity strategy, which has three steps: robustness, resilience, and defense. The first step, robustness, is an initial stage where companies receive basic advice from the government on how to protect their cyberspace using new technologies. Government agencies have required that all companies that they oversee have a baseline level of cyber security; however, beyond this the government does not interfere with companies. For example, factories are now being monitored by the Environmental agency with regards to cybersecurity. This is a group of companies that usually don’t deal with cybersecurity, but with the increased focus on cybersecurity in the government, they are now required to be protected. The hope with this stage is that companies are proactively protecting themselves, so that there is a baseline defense from potential attacks. However, the second phase, resilience, is where the National Cyber Bureau steps in. The National Cyber Bureau aids organizations by sharing data and stopping specific types of attacks. For this system, the first two levels should take care of the majority of cyber-attacks, but if they fail or are not executed properly, the third step is defense. In this case, only the government acts and organizations like the National Cyber Defense Authority will find out who the attacker is and attack back.

This strategy has several positive consequences. First, Israel’s three-step solution is a more efficient system of stopping cyber-attacks because the government requires that organizations are protected and the government shares data with those organizations. As a result, businesses are able to run smoothly without interference from attackers. Another positive result of this system is that the government and private companies have freer communication between them, thus increasing the strength of their cybersecurity. A physical representation of this is the Advanced Technologies Park, which is “a unique public-private partnership blending the outstanding achievements of Ben-Gurion University and the City of Be'er-Sheva with high-tech companies seeking to develop innovative commercial applications for the world”. This park is home to several research and development centers, venture capital firms, and cybersecurity startups. On top of all of these companies, the IDF, the Israeli military, will be moving some of its top cybersecurity projects and teams to the park; they will in fact be taking up one-third of the park. This park shows how the Israeli government, and civilian corporations will work together to provide the best defense, as well as high-quality products. The increased communication between these two entities will allow both parties to develop even more rapidly. Overall, the increased focus in the government on cybersecurity and their restructuring of how Israel approaches cybersecurity has proven to increase venture capital investment of cybersecurity companies in the growth stage by 165% between 2016 and 2017. If Israel’s government and private cybersecurity companies continue to share knowledge and work together using their new approach, Israel will continue to flourish as a hub for cybersecurity technologies.

Although Israel’s cybersecurity industry is one of the strongest in the world, it does have weaknesses that will harm its ability to grow. Israel is home to many great engineers, who have helped Israel receive recognition as the “Start-Up Nation.” However, Israel is lacking cybersecurity experts who have the knowledge to keep improving Israel’s cybersecurity industry and economy. In early 2017, Israel had about 1,700 open jobs for professionals in the cybersecurity market, and this number is expected to grow to 2,100 by the end of 2018. There are several contributing factors to this giant gap, but by far the largest is the job competition between IT departments in companies and startups. Over half of people who are trained cybersecurity experts end up in start-ups that create consumer products, not cybersecurity technology. This creates a problem for the government and other companies that need their expertise because the available cybersecurity experts are limited and therefore the demand and wages for those people increase dramatically; wages for Israeli cybersecurity experts were on average 3.5 times higher than the average person of their same skill in the U.S. This creates a problem for companies who are trying to protect their information because they will struggle to pay for the talent they need to complete essential cybersecurity projects. Without the ability to complete these projects, companies will be vulnerable and can have their data compromised.

Israel’s cybersecurity industry also has many opportunities that they can take advantage of in order to continue to grow. Within the State of Israel, the government recently signed an order that required government agencies to become certified in ISO 27001. ISO 27001 is a standard that was created by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in order to help organizations better manage information security. What makes ISO 27001 very different from other cyber standards is that it requires a continual state of monitoring and fixing issues within a certain cyber system; organizations must be proactive, not reactive, which aligns well with Israel’s cyber philosophy. ISO 27001 has many requirements, which demand that advanced cybersecurity measures are put in place to organize and protect data. In order for all government ministries to follow this standard, they will need help from various companies within Israel. In order for the Israeli cybersecurity industry to capitalize on this opportunity, they must familiarize themselves with these standards and work closely with government agencies through places like the Advanced Technologies Park to grow the industry.

Outside of Israel’s borders, one of the largest opportunities in data and cyber security is the General Data Protection Regulation (colloquially known as “GDPR”). The European Union passed GDPR on April 14, 2016, but was officially enforced on May 25, 2018. Given the recent scandal with Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, governments across the globe have been increasingly concerned about consumer data protection. With that in mind, the EU created several new, tougher regulations regarding companies dealing with consumer data. The most relevant part of GDPR that relates to the cybersecurity industry in Israel is privacy by design. What this portion of GDPR does is that companies must have the proper cybersecurity and data measures implemented into their systems. Furthermore, GDPR requires that companies notify the people whose data they own if there is a breach; if these people do not feel secure with this company having their data, the company must delete all of that person’s data. This new legislation has monumental impact on companies like Facebook, who survive on selling user data. For example, if Facebook users do not want Facebook to sell their data because of a breach, Facebook will lose their entire business model. On top of that, if Facebook does not comply with GDPR they could be fined 4% of their “annual global turnover” or 20 million euros. Although Israel is not in the EU, many European Union companies will invest heavily in cybersecurity measures in order to protect themselves against GDPR. More specifically, 98% of EU companies are not GDPR ready, so they need to invest now to become prepared. It is estimated that the global cybersecurity spending because of GDPR will increase by 3.3 billion in 2018 alone. This is a huge opportunity for Israel to capitalize on. If Israel is able to learn about the requirements of GDPR to its fullest and supply the proper cybersecurity measures to the EU companies they can see a huge boost in revenues. If Israel matches their current market share (10%), they can see a growth of 330 million in 2018. Israel’s future in cybersecurity relies on their ability to adapt to this huge shift in the EU market.