Israel on Monday signed an agreement with the World Bank that is aimed at supporting developing countries with Israel’s cybersecurity knowledge through the Digital Development Partnership (DDP).
The World Bank’s DDP was announced last month in Washington by Yigal Unna, Director General of the Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD), and by Makhtar Diop, Vice President for Infrastructure at the World Bank.
In a collaboration between the INCD and Israel’s Ministry of Economy and Industry, Israel will promote through this Multi-Donor Trust Fund the digitalization and cybersecurity in the developing world.
For the first time, Israel will work with the development community in promoting a strategic sector and will sit around the table with key players in the arena such as Japan, the United Kingdom, Finland, Denmark, and Norway, as well as with major entities such as GSMA, which represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide.
The World Bank will provide, through Israel’s contribution, technical assistance to countries in Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia, and will build the foundations for their preparedness for challenges in cyberspace.
According to the agreement, the Ministry of Economy and Industry and INCD will contribute $ 1 million to the DDP for various outputs of knowledge sharing, awareness and capacity building. In addition, Israel will be part of the Fund’s other efforts to develop digital technologies and cyberspace in developing countries.
Israel will share its knowledge and experience in raising the readiness and resilience of critical sectors for cyber events and will make its academics and entrepreneurs available for the development needs.
The Israeli representatives will be part of the Partnership’s discussions bringing to the table the outstanding Israeli experience in the field and its point of view.
“There is a great demand from African and Asian countries for Israeli knowledge of cybersecurity,” Unna said. “The agreement will allow the Israeli cyber industry and academy to contribute from its vast knowledge and will continue to position Israel at the forefront of global action in the field of cyber capabilities.”
Ohad Cohen, Trade Commissioner at the Ministry of Economy and Industry, stated that “with the increase in the development and in the use of digital tools in developing countries, cyber protection is a central and essential component in building public confidence in these tools and in the economic stability of the countries that rely on them. The World Bank Group, and the DDP as its proactive arm in the digital arena, is an important channel to expand the global cyber protection and extend the Israeli expertise to new places that are in need of it.”
“The end goal of this collaboration is to mainstream cyber protection in any development initiative that is using digital space as a platform to close the development gap in the world,” he explained.
Israel is considered a global leader in the cybersecurity business, and approximately 25 percent of all global investments in cybersecurity go to Israel.
Israel signed the second-largest number of cybersecurity deals internationally, according to a report by New York data firm CB Insights published in April 2018. The US came first.
Israel came in second place with 7 percent, ahead of the United Kingdom with 6 percent, Canada with 3 percent and China with 2 percent, according to the report.
Israel has developed advanced security protocols, as cyber attacks on Israel have risen exponentially in the past four years, reaching up to two million attacks against crucial Israeli infrastructure on a daily basis.
Israel’s rise as one of the world’s leaders in cybersecurity has been boosted by cooperation between the military, government, education and private sectors, a level of partnership unmatched in the Western world.