Israeli cybersecurity firms keen on exploring Chinese market

JERUSALEM - China's growing cybersecurity market has attracted more attention from global companies including those from Israel, which is strong in the cybersecurity sector.

Chinese cybersecurity market is huge and growing, not only because of its huge population of computer users, but also its deepening connection with the digital world, said Jony Fischbein, head of the Technical Marketing & Innovation of Check Point Software Technologies Ltd, the largest network cybersecurity vendor globally.

During an interview with Xinhua at the Cybertech 2018 being held in Tel Aviv, Fischbein said his company is "more than keen to cooperate with Chinese partners on how to protect the next wave of cyber attacks."

As the cyber world becomes increasingly connected, the risks of more advanced attacks disrupting the cyberspace are no longer a science fiction.

To protect cyber security and order requires global cooperation, especially when the world is being connected in the era of the IoT (internet of things), most experts and industrial leaders attending the Cybertech 2018 agreed.

Yigal Unna, director general of Israel's National Cyber Directorate in the Prime Minister's Office, emphasized the importance of global cooperation in the cybersecurity sector.

One of the important solutions is the establishment of an international cyber coalition, because the cyber threats affect the entire world, and so are the ways of dealing with them, Unna said.

Unna pointed out that it is important to identify early threats and develop counter measures using analytical capabilities, artificial intelligence and the best technologies.

So far, Check Point, which has offices in China's Beijing and Shenzhen with almost 100 employees, has cooperated with China's Alibaba, the world's largest online B2B marketplace on cybersecurity.

And the company is planning to expand its presence in China, attracted by the growth of the Chinese market.

An IoT industrial system is expected to be formed by 2020 in China, with an overall industrial value surpassing 1.5 trillion yuan ($230 billion), according to China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

In China, such huge IoT system will require higher standards of cyber defense to deal with cyber attacks. While China is sharpening its own cybersecurity power, it is also in need of seeking more cooperation with global leading cybersecurity partners.

Neri Zin, vice president of Cyberbit, a subsidiary company of Elbit, Israel's major cybersecurity vendor, said Cyberbit is keenly exploring the opportunity of seeking cooperation with China.

"China has a huge market and we should explore," Zin told Xinhua.

The world is connected, and cyber attacks are taking advantage of it, said Nadav Tsafrir, former commander of the 8200 unit of the Israeli Defense Forces, at a panel discussion of the Cybertech 2018.

"What is important today is cooperation on the resources invested in cyber defense and cybersecurity," Tsafrir said.

Delegates from over 80 countries and dozens of multinational companies attended the fifth Cybertech 2018, the world's largest cyber technology event outside the United States.