INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION
INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION
Tokyo city.
JAPAN AND ISRAEL’s CYBER COOPERATION FOR THE
2020 OLYMPIC GAMES
By Ori Bar-Chaim, Director General at Regional Branch of Custodio Pte. Ltd - a subsidiary of
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Camila Edry, Department Manager of Cyber Centers at Cyber
Directorate - Elta, IAI
Following bilateral cyber discussions with Japan, the Israeli Ministry of Economy has established the Israeli Cyber
Companies Consortium (IC3). IC3 is led by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and includes several leading Israeli cyber
companies. Its goal is to provide a solution for Japanese concerns over potential cyber-attacks and offer an end-to-end
solution for enhancing the cyber security of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
T
wo years ago, the prime ministers of Israel and
Japan met to discuss collaborating on cyber
security. During these discussions, Israel proposed
to help Japan to prepare for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic
Games. The Japanese side expressed an interest
in using cutting-edge cyber-security technologies
that could provide a solution for potential cyber
threats and challenges related to the Games. Israel
suggested technological solutions that could be
provided by Israeli cyber companies, with the Israeli
government’s consent; Japan responded to Israel’s
proposal positively.
The Israeli National Cyber Bureau is responsible
for cyber cooperation with its Japanese counterpart.
It found the appropriate framework to promote the
Japanese request through the Israeli Ministry of
Economy’s Consortium programme. As part of this,
IAI’s Cyber Programmes Directorate has approached
several leading Israeli companies – CheckPoint, Verint,
Bynet, ECI, Cyber X and ClearSky – and prepared
a plan to establish the Israeli Cyber Companies
Consortium, IC3. The plan was approved by the Israeli
Ministry of Economy and the Consortium was officially
launched on 1 January 2016.
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The Consortium was formed to provide a solution
to the cyber challenges of the 2020 Olympics and to
promote its members’ business activities by providing
state-of-the-art cyber solutions to potential customers.
Israel is a renowned leader in cyber security
innovation. Its leadership was fostered by the
government emphasis and incentive programmes, as
well as several characteristics of the Israeli cyber ecosystem, including:
•The growing need for cyber security solutions, the
exponential rise in cyber threats, the growth in the
amount of data and ever-growing connectivity,
supporting the IOT (Internet of Things) trend.
•Israel’s position and reputation as a hub of
international excellence.
•Israel’s talent pool, deriving from several academic
cyber faculties and the military.
The collaboration between IC3 companies is
particularly notable as they are joining forces to build
a better cyber security solution. The ability of the
Consortium members to rise above the extremely
competitive cyber marketplace and to collaborate
48 CYBER SECURITY REVIEW, Summer 2016
and present the holistic, end-to-end cyber solutions
is highly commendable. The IC3 companies work
well together. The Consortium is loosely structured
so several companies work together for specific adhoc projects. The members often work with leading
government cyber defence organizations, cutting-edge
technological companies, start-ups and international
cyber and intelligence companies. This adds value and
serves as power multiplier. As in defence and security,
in the cyber industry there is no technology that offers
a 100% end-to-end solution. The combination of cyber
solutions and technologies by leading Israeli cyber
companies could be a recipe for success. In the case
of IC3, there is no doubt that the whole is bigger than
the sum of its parts.
In recent months the Consortium has been busy
setting up the Japanese operation. This includes signing
the agreement between the Consortium companies,
preparing a detailed business plan, contacting and
coordinating with the Ministry of Economy, the National
Cyber Bureau and Japanese institutions, producing
advertising and marketing materials, creating a budget
and appointing a director and local representatives.
INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION
In March 2016 IC3 members travelled to Japan
for the Consortium’s launch, where they also met
government officials. The Embassy of Israel organized
the meetings with complete support from the Israeli
Ministry of Economy. The Consortium also participated
in Tokyo’s IT Week in mid-May 2016 as part of the
ministry rather than on an overview of an entire sector
or nation. A national-level solution gives a broader
perspective as well as integration with additional
information sources beyond the organizational level.
The Consortium’s solution may also be implemented
by large organizations with a wide distribution.
exhibition’s Israeli booth.
Since the Consortium was established, its unified
solution has been presented to different customers
around the world. Customers are aware of the great
advantage in receiving an integrative and unified endto-end solution from Israel’s leading cyber companies.
The Consortium offers a solution that includes a
centre for early warnings on a national level that enables
for monitoring of a variety of regulated organizations
and critical infrastructures. This single centre provides
broad and modular cyber situational analysis at the
national, sector and organizational level. Currently,
most solutions focus on a single organization or
The Consortium incorporates an end-to-end
solution including:
•Cyber threat intelligence alerts: There is a great
deal of information on the web, some structured
and some not. It is critical for identifying impending
cyber-attacks and intentions to conduct potential
attacks. The IC3 solution provides investigative
tools and services that include intelligence reports
tailored to the customers’ essential information
requirements.
•Monitoring critical infrastructure: This is
a challenging subject since more often than
not, Critical National Infrastructures (CNIs)
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INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION
have outdated and proprietary systems. The
Consortium has a solution for monitoring traffic and
identifying attacks.
•A cyber alert centre that includes state-of-theart abilities to monitor and analyse events at
the organizational, sector and national level:
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
The centre features unique algorithms that identify
attacks by monitoring end-points, servers, network
elements and reported events. This monitored
information and raw data is fused with the collected
intelligence for identifying sophisticated and
complex attacks.
•A cyber research laboratory: If an organization
is attacked, an system is required to investigate
and identify the attack and define the appropriate
countermeasures. This system includes automatic
tools and access to the global information
databases of our Consortium partners.
•ConOps (Methodology): IC3 offers support
in defining the correct and effective ConOps
(Concept of Operations) and methodology, suited
for our customers’ needs and based on our broad
knowhow and experience.
•Training,
instruction
and
assessment:
Establishment of a centre for training, instruction
and assessment for the cyber operations
centre’s staff.
•Managed security services: IC3 offers managed
security services for monitoring organizations that
do not have a satisfactory defence infrastructure
in place.
also a Director of the Israeli Cyber
Companies Consortium, IC3.
From 2014 to 2015 he was
Director - Europe & America of
SIBAT - International Defense Cooperation at Israeli
Ministry of Defense. From 2010 to 2014 he was Head
of the Israeli Ministry of Defense Mission to Thailand,
Vietnam, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Myanmar
and Laos. For three years, from 2008 to 2010 he
took a role of Deputy Director as well as Head of
Preparation Division and Head of Doctrine at Training
and Development Division at the Israeli National
Emergency Management Authority (NEMA). He spent
eight years at the Israeli Ministry of Defense Heading
the Overseas Department from 2001 to 2008. Ori
acquired University Certified MA degree with honors
on Public Policy at the Tel Aviv University. He also
holds Bachelor degree in Management and Political
Science from the Israeli Open University, with honors.
IC3 offers an end-to-end solution. The integration
of various elements in the system and the fact that
they are tailored to our customers’ specific needs
offers unique value. The Consortium is proud to offer
Israel’s thriving cyber eco-system’s best technology
for its customers to create a safer cyber environment
for all of us.
IC3 has recently received requests from other Israeli
cyber companies interested in joining the Consortium.
In August 2016, IC3 will hold discussions to include
additional companies, subject to the consent of all
Consortium companies. ■
50 CYBER SECURITY REVIEW, Summer 2016
Ori Bar-Chaim is Director General
at Regional Branch of Custodio
Pte. Ltd - a subsidiary of Israel
Aerospace Industries, IAI. He is
Camila Edry is the department
manager of cyber centers in
cyber directorate at Elta, IAI. The
department is developing and
integrating cyber awareness centers
(CERTS) and national/enterprise
Cyber security operational centers.
Camila holds a B.sc. in
Mathematics and computer science from Bar-Ilan
University and executive MBA from Bar-Ilan University.
Camila has over 20 years of experience in
nation-wide intelligence systems development and
management in various fields (SIGINT, COMINT etc.).