Royal Bank Of Canada To Invest $2M In Cybersecurity Research At BGU

June 27, 2018 | The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), one of the country’s largest banks, and Ben-Gurion University’s BGN Technologies, the university’s technology transfer company, announced that the bank will enter a cybersecurity partnership, while investing $2 million into research at BGU’s Cyber-Security Research Center. In a joint statement, RBC and BGU said the funding “will support the development of adversarial artificial intelligence (AI), including machine learning-based cyber mitigation techniques.”

The partnership, they said, “will aim to further develop protection methods to strengthen and evaluate the resilience of current AI and machine learning techniques, while limiting their vulnerability to threats and tampering.”

Martin Wildberger, EVP Technology & Operations, RBC, said: “In today’s incredibly complex world, we need advanced technology like AI and machine learning to continue developing leading-edge cyber security. This partnership will help support our cyber defense by working with prominent experts in the field, such as the researchers at Ben-Gurion University.”

Danny Shtaier, High-tech Business Development, at BGN Technologies said the company was looking forward to the collaboration. “This partnership provides our researchers with the opportunity to further apply their leadership in cyber security research to the banking industry, where security is crucial for daily operations and the safety of customers.”