UK Deepens Cyber Security Cooperation With Israel

16 February 2016 | The United Kingdom and Israel will deepen cooperation on cyber security with a new academic agreement whereby universities from both countries will cooperate closely to research and mitigate cyber attacks on critical infrastructure, such as electricity grids, water treatment facilities, and transport lines. The announcement will be made by British Cabinet Minister Matthew Hancock who is in Israel this week leading a trade delegation of British government officials, private companies, and academics. “I welcome this opportunity to forge even closer links in the field of cyber security with our Israeli partners,” the Minister said in a statement. “The UK’s world class companies and universities combined with Israel’s cutting edge technology and entrepreneurial culture is an unbeatable combination.” The Minister will also announce an agreement between the Cyber Emergency Response Teams of both countries (CERT-UK and CERT-IL), enabling the organisations to share incident information, malware analysis, methodologies, policies and best practices. Visiting Israel for the first time, Minister Hancock will discuss bilateral relations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and visit Ben Gurion’s University cluster of cyber security startups at CyberSpark, as well as Israel Electric’s CyberGym, and numerous other private sector companies. Organised by the UK Israel Tech Hub, the Minister’s visit comes after Prime Minister Netanyahu met British Prime Minister David Cameron in September of last year, and shortly after the Israeli electricity grid and the Israeli Ministry of Finance came under cyber attack; both incidents were quickly mitigated without severe damage.