18 November 2016

Israel seeks larger slice of security market


The Israel HLS & Cyber conference presents the latest products of Israeli enterprise and experience.

Hundreds of guests and delegations from about 80 countries are participating in the Israel HLS & Cyber international conference at the Tel Aviv Exhibition Grounds this week. The conference includes displays of technologies and capabilities by 160 Israeli companies operating in these two developing fields. Among the developments presented are measures to intercept drones which jeopardize airplanes by flying near airports, ways of preventing cyber attacks on vital infrastructure and databases, measures for maintaining public order, smart cities and border protection. 

Following the wave of terrorist attacks in Europe in the past year and the growing threat of cyber attacks, the conference, held by the Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute (IEI), with the participation of the Prime Minister's Office National Cyber Bureau, the Ministry of Defense and other government agencies, focuses, among other things, on interfaces between physical and cybernetic defense in the fields of intelligence, cybercrime and counterterrorism, as well as the protection of critical infrastructure. 

IEI Deputy Director-General Lior Konitzki estimates that 20% of Israel's defense exports in 2015 were exports of homeland security systems and products. Last year, defense exports totaled $5.6 billion. Konitzki says that there are 400 companies in Israel in these fields, characterized by "groundbreaking innovation, holistic thinking and providing integrative solutions - specifically analyzing threats and understanding client needs, whether these are security organizations, armies or large companies managing critical state infrastructure." 

Alongside intense activity in the field of homeland security, Israel is also home to 300 active cyber security companies which, according to the Prime Minister's Office National Cyber Bureau estimates, exported software and programs to the tune of $3.5 billion last year, 5% of the worldwide cyber market. About a half of Israel's cyber companies are startups founded in the past five years. Almost half of Israel cyber exports were by Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.

At the opening of the conference, director of SIBAT (the International Defense Cooperation Directorate of the Israel Ministry of Defense), Brig. Gen. (Res.) Mishel Ben-Baruch, said that 2017 would be declared "cyber year" in Israel's defense exports. He says that this decision was a result of the "Cyber Situation Assessment", which clearly identifies specific opportunities and needs in over 20 countries around the world in which SIBAT has offices and strong relations with military clients, local police forces and government agencies. "Next year, the Ministry of Defense will invest a special effort in promoting Israel's military and protective cyber capabilities abroad," he said. 

Ben-Baruch told "Globes", "Cyber warfare is a war on terrorism, and cooperation between countries in essential in the effort to eliminate and reduce attacks and the price paid by countries as a result of cyber attacks. Israel's defense industry has immense R&D capabilities in this field, and technologies originally developed for classic defense applications have, in the past few years, been adapted in a manner that enables them to be used for other protective needs." 

Utilizing strengths 

The bloody civil war in Syria and the upheaval in the Arab world in the past few years, as well as the wave of terrorism and the flow of refugees into Europe, present an opportunity for Israeli homeland security and cyber companies to exploit their advantages to expand sales in competitive markets. "The challenges that countries face these days are different from those they faced in the past," said head of Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) (TASE: ARSP.B1) Homeland Security Projects, Brig. Gen. (Res.) Amnon Sofrin. "While in the past we saw drug smuggling across borders, today's problems are to do with illegal immigration by infiltrators. In the past, Europe's borders were completely open, but nowadays European countries are rebuilding their fences; however, everyone understands that a fence alone will not stop infiltrators, and that the effort must be multidimensional - intercepting satellite, social network and cellular communications, while detecting potential threats physically - and preparing accordingly. The world is moving in the direction of preemption, unlike the past, when security services operated in a passive manner, responding to specific incidents." 

This week, both major defense companies and security-related startups are presenting to representatives of security agencies, armed forces and law enforcement agencies a wide variety of developments and aids, which, they claim, can help prevent a mass casualty terrorist attack or devastating cyber attacks. They operate in a highly competitive market, competing against US companies also fighting to expand their market share. Israel's defense firms and startups offer tailored defense solutions, adapted to the needs of individual clients operating in different environments: from law enforcement and security agencies to corporations operating complex infrastructure facilities such as power plants, mass transit systems and financial institutions. 

At the conference, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., chosen by the National Cyber Bureau to establish Israel's Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), will unveil its new cyber security system Wisdom Stone. This system is capable of analyzing enormous amounts of data and information collected from a wide range of sources - such as cameras deployed in large cities and various databases - and building a picture tailored to the needs of the client operating it. Head of Rafael's Cyber and Intelligence Directorate Brig. Gen. (Res.) Ariel Karo told "Globes", "Wisdom Stone is a modular system, which adapts itself to a long line of applications used for information collection and storage - it analyzes specific data in real time, while 'fusing' the information. In our age, I don't know which is worse - delivering all at once the huge amount of information gathered in so many ways, or not delivering it at all." Karo, former IDF chief intelligence officer, added, "Many security and law enforcement services around the world nowadays hold information in volumes only handled by government and intelligence agencies in the past. Our system integrates all collected information and only displays what is relevant and necessary for the client." 

"Combination of entrepreneurship and experience" 

Alongside advanced cyber software aimed at preventing or at least reducing the chances of a cyber mega-attack, the Israeli companies are also offering classic measures for counter-terrorism, managing mass casualty incidents and hostage situations. 


Many of the products were developed in Israel in recent years following lessons learned from the waves of terrorism in the past decade. Others were developed for operational military needs and have been converted for operation in city center and for the maintenance of public order in crowded places, following the rising need in global markets. This is the case with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), used in the past mainly by military units for reconnaissance and intelligence gathering and converted for use by police units and units providing security for sensitive infrastructure. "Israel is responsible for some of the world's leading developments in these fields - thanks to the combination of a culture of business entrepreneurship with extensive experience in defense," said Kunitzki. 

Security off the shelf 

An electric UAV 

One of the products presented by Elbit Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: ESLT; TASE: ESLT) in the conference is the Skylark I-LEX UAV, which enables high-quality video photography and can be relatively quickly and simply operated in different kinds of theaters. It is propelled by an electric motor, which allows silent, continuous, operation for up to three hours. Elbit designates this system for real time visual information gathering in various emergency scenarios such as earthquakes, terrorist attacks, military operations in urban environments and protection of sensitive infrastructure. 

Monitoring oil pipelines 

Any rookie in the Islamic State or a similar terrorist organization knows that the soft underbelly of countries is critical infrastructure such as power, water, natural gas and oil, as well as telephone and Internet lines, and that damaging this infrastructure can disrupt the life of citizens. Rafael is presenting a new system designed for a continuous monitoring of gas and oil lines in order to provide a real time indication that they have been compromised and the exact location of the damage. This makes it possible to minimize the damage and significantly reduce the time required for repairs. The system is called TerraSonic and the company says that it can be connected to the existing sensor array in different facilities, as well as their command and control systems - providing a complementary measure to monitor their routine operation. 

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 16, 2016 

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2016

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