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Rabat – The Tel Aviv Cybertech global summit kicked off on Tuesday, convening high-level delegations — including cybersecurity experts, senior government officials, as well as local authorities.
“Cyber redefines and shapes the world around us,” a large screen welcoming the attendees to the summit showed at the beginning of the event.
The event, which is the first symposium on a full scale following COVID-19, is gathering 20,000 people from dozens of countries across the world.
Gil Shwed, Founder and CEO of CheckPoint, stressed the importance of the event and expressed satisfaction to see the symposium attract the “best people” around the world in the cyber tech sector.
“Cyberthreat is not only one that needs you to be prepared. You need to be prepared for the entire past… Because these attacks can still hit you if you are not ready,” Shwed said, stressing that experts see the “cyber pandemic” as a high risk in the coming years and decades.
Also speaking at the opening event was Daniel Chamovitz, President of the Ben-Guirion University of the Negev. 
Panel convening officials from across the world
“It’s an honor for our university to be part of it,” Chamovitz said, stressing Israel’s top-tier potential and assets in the field of cybersecurity.
Sami Khoury, head of the Canadian Center for Cyber Security, shared an overview of the challenges his country faces on the cybersecurity front.
The opening ceremony also featured Dave Dewalt, Founder and Managing Director of US Night Dragon, who is working with a wide range of cyber companies across the world – including in Israel.
Cyber “threats continue to rise, followed closely by an increase in cyber budgets,” Dewalt said, emphasizing the need for world governments to expand their cybersecurity infrastructure.
Robert Silvers, Under Secretary for Policy Department at the US Homeland Security, joined the other speakers in highlighting the importance of cybersecurity in today’s increasingly complex, ever-shifting world.
“We need transformational change in how we build cyber defense. None of us can defend on our own,” he said. “It is no longer enough to have meetings … We must move hard in the direction of direct operational collaboration between the government and private sectors.”
Countering Iranian cyberattacks
With the event principally convening représentatives from countries that have signed the Abraham Accords, Silvers also spoke at length about the need for the US and its allies to work more closely on countering attacks from the Iranian regime and its proxies.
“Together we take on the cyber threats posed by Iran,” he said, stressing that Iranian cyber threat actors have continuously worked to improve their cyber capabilities to attack US and Israeli interests.
Silvers emphasized that Tel Aviv and Washington conduct joint collaboration to intensify cooperation against cyber threats.
Cybertech global summit in Tel Aviv
A 2021 report from Kaspersky showed that Morocco is among the five countries that are most affected by cyber-attacks through mobile malware.
The US official stressed America’s commitment toward working along with partners to counter cyber attacks.
“Securing our networks in the US and Israel requires engagement in the Middle East. Later today, I will take the stage with my counterparts from Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco.We are expanding the Abraham Accords to cybersecurity,” the US official said.
For Silvers, the expansion of countries’ normal security cooperation to cyberspace is a “piece of “diplomatic history. A piece of cybersecurity history, a piece of regional history, and a wonderful opportunity to deepen longstanding security partnership.”
