Former Mossad chief’s cybersecurity company to operate in Gulf

Israeli cybersecurity firm XM Cyber, cofounded by former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, is getting into the Persian Gulf for the primary time. The startup will promote cybersecurity merchandise to guard the area’s fuel, oil and monetary infrastructures.

Following the signing of the Abraham accords final 12 months, normalizing relations between Israel and Gulf nations the UAE and Bahrain, XM Cyber signed a cooperation settlement with Dubai-based Spire Options, led by Indian specialists who additionally symbolize Verify Level Software program Applied sciences Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKP) and CyberArk Software program Inc.   (Nasdaq:CYBR). Pardo serves as president of XM Cyber and has an equal share in controlling the corporate with cofounders CEO Noam Erez and CTO Boaz Gorodissky, a former head of the expertise division on the Prime Minister’s Workplace.

Big cooperation

As well as, XM Cyber will cooperate with Rafael Superior Protection Programs and a brand new consortium set as much as signal contracts with corporations within the Gulf within the area of fuel and oil infrastructures together with Israel Electrical Corp. (IEC), Power Infrastructures and different cybersecurity corporations like Waterfall Safety Options, TrapX Safety, and Radiflow. Sources near XM Cyber have confirmed to “Globes” in regards to the cooperation though the corporate itself declined to formally touch upon the matter.

XM Cyber has developed merchandise that determine weaknesses in important infrastructures and supply alerts as required. The corporate deploys an array of digital sensors all through the shopper’s operational infrastructure community to simulate operations throughout a cyberattack. Via these simulated assaults, XM Cyber identifies weaknesses within the important infrastructures and potential routes for penetrating the infrastructures, thus testing structural vulnerabilities in addition to human errors in assembling the software program and {hardware} of the infrastructures and the conduct of staff within the interfaces with the infrastructures.

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After its preliminary set up, XM Cyber produces a map of the weaknesses and potential breaches of the infrastructure that the safety supervisor should shut. The corporate’s system continues to scan the community to determine exposures and vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, poorly managed credentials and dangerous person actions that hackers may probably exploit to penetrate a company or infrastructure. All this offers ongoing safety.

XM Cyber started its abroad operations within the US the place it really works with a number of main banks. The corporate has since prolonged its operations to the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and Italy and different Western European nations together with, most lately, France. Prospects embrace Hamburg port and US insurance coverage firm Plymouth Rock.

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At this stage Spire Options will assist XM Cyber work with the one two nations within the Persian Gulf who have been signatories to the Abraham Accords – the UAE and Bahrain. That is in distinction to different Israeli corporations who’re working underneath the radar with nations like Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar who shouldn’t have full relations with Israel.

XM Cyber has raised $49 million thus far from traders together with Shaul Shani’s Swarth Group, the primary to spend money on the corporate, in addition to former CIA head David Petraeus, Nasdaq Ventures, and Australia’s Macquarie Capital

Flocking to Dubai

XM Cyber can also be working in Dubai as a part of a consortium headed by Rafael to guard nationwide infrastructures corresponding to fuel rigs, oil wells, ports and airports. The intention of the coalition is to advertise cooperation offers between Israeli corporations and UAE authorities corporations in order that not each Israeli firm might want to conduct particular person negotiations however relatively Rafael undertakes the preliminary mapping of wants and sells the programs required collectively. A supply near the deal mentioned that along with the UAE, the consortium may also work with different authorities sectors within the Gulf.

In line with the Intelligence On-line web site, the UAE didn’t just like the earlier makes an attempt by particular person Israeli corporations to strategy them individually and from these efforts Israel realized the significance of a joint strategy.

Along with XM Cyber, the Israeli consortium’s members embrace Waterfall Safety Options led by cofounder and CEO Lior Frenkel, who beforehand based encryption programs and digital intervention firm Gita Applied sciences, which was acquired by Verint. Waterfall, which is already working in Abu Dhabi in addition to Singapore and the US, has developed programs that stop cyberattacks from one community to a different corresponding to between a communications community and an oil rig.

Different consortium members embrace Radiflow, led by CEO Ilan Barda, which focuses on industrial management programs; and Cyberpro led by former senior IDF 8200 intelligence unit officer Gal Ganot; and cybersecurity firm Cervello, and TrapX Safety, which protects infrastructures by luring attackers into numerous genuine however false traps.

The race to guard infrastructures

The sector of infrastructure safety is significant for nations just like the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and even Qatar, that are primarily based on the oil and fuel industries. Digital infrastructure safety has grow to be important lately after the ransomware assault on the Colonial Pipeline within the US in Could, which shut down the oil pipeline system for a month and induced severe delays within the provide of oil to the Japanese US. Final 12 months Israel was topic to a cyberattack on its water and sewage system, which didn’t trigger main injury however demonstrated the potential vulnerability of native infrastructures.

Probably the most well-known cyberattack of all, greater than a decade in the past, was the Stuxnet malicious pc worm, which efficiently focused the Iranian nuclear program by means of its Siemens SCADA programs and centrifuges, and was credited to western safety businesses.

Revealed by Globes, Israel enterprise information – en.globes.co.il – on August 30, 2021

Copyright of Globes Writer Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2021