Oren Sagi, the Managing Director of Cisco, spoke on the joint stage of Cybertech Global Tel Aviv and Sparks Innovation Summit this morning (Wednesday) about what Israel’s high-tech and business sectors have done for the civilians of Israel since October 7th.

Moshe Lipsker, Israel GM & SVP Global Product Development, Imperva (aquired by Thales), spoke on the main Cyebrstage Global Tel Aviv stage this afternoon (Tuesday) and presented the six global trends expected to shape the cybersecurity arena this coming year. They include:

“Cyber is a dynamic and intelligent threat, unlike most operational risks firms may face, and this is important when discussing what can be done.  Cyber is wrongly perceived as exclusively technical – but it’s actually a business problem, and quite often this gets missed,” said Paul Williams, the President of the UK’s Electric Infrastructure Security Council (EIS).

A unique panel bringing together some of the brightest minds that served in the IDF’s elite Unit 8200 took place at Cybertech Global Tel Aviv this afternoon (Monday). Moderated by the Managing Director of 8200 Impact, Leehe Friedman, the panel discussed the various ways social media can reshape war – with an emphasis on Israel’s current Swords of Iron War.

The industry as a wholeis going through tremendous challenges, but one thing that hasn’t changed is that Israeli cybersecurity is considered the Ivy League of global cybersecurity,” said Sharon Seemann, Partner at YL Ventures, on the Cybertech Global Tel Aviv main stage this morning (Tuesday).

“On October 7th, Hamas succeeded in undermining the physical security of the people of Israel – but at the same time, cyber-attacks directed by the Iranian regime began targeting all of Israel’s sectors around the clock, undermining security in that domain as well, something which is still ongoing” said Gabi Portnoy, Director-General of the Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD), on the main Cybertech Global Tel Aviv stage this morning (Tuesday).

Amiram Shachar, the Co-Founder & CEO of cloud security company Upwind Security, spoke about his cyber journey on the main stage of Cybertech Global Tel Aviv this morning (Tuesday).

“The term ‘Upwind’ comes from windsurfing – a term I love as I’m a surfer myself. After selling my first company, Spot.io, I wanted that adrenalin again and founded Upwind together with about 30 people from Spot,” he explained to Cybertech Founder & CEO, Amir Rapaport.

“AI has evolved and entered our lives in a clap of thunder over the past few years, similar to the disruption on the internet when there was a lot of innovation. As far as cyber security, this is a double-edged sword,” explained Esti Peshin, General Manager of the Cyber Division of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) on the main Cybertech Global Tel Aviv stage this morning (Tuesday).

“We are in currently a perfect storm because extra global complexities are happening while the motivation and the capabilities are at an all-time high. The question is whether this is another inflection point. It’s the nature of the beast, the kind of industry we’re in,” said Nadav Zafrir, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Team8, on the main stage of Cybertech Global Tel Aviv this morning (Tuesday).

“With the increasing of new identities, the shaping of new environments, and new, sophisticated, attack methods, we still need to solve the same problem – securing cyberspace,” said Omer Grossman, the Global Chief Information Officer at CyberArk, on the main stage of Cybertech Global Tel Aviv this morning (Tuesday).

“90% of organizations have experienced at least one identity-related incident over the past year. We have 45 machine identities for every user on average, a growth of 2.5 per person per year,” he said.