Every January, leading IT experts gather at Israel’s largest cyber conference, Cybertech Tel Aviv. This year was no exception. Perseus was there to see where cyber security is headed.
Cybertech Global 2020 brings cyber security experts from all over the world to the Israeli business metropolis. Representatives from companies such as Microsoft, IBM or Nestlé are there, as well as researchers, ministers and representatives of the intelligence services. Many of the leading companies in the field of cyber security are based in Israel.
One of the big trends at this year’s conference was operational technologies (OT). These are hardware and software solutions that monitor and control the performance of physical devices. Simply put, OT controls things like vehicles and lifts or infrastructure like power plants or water treatment plants. Some of the speakers presented examples of how such systems can also be manipulated. At the same time, they presented concepts to prevent unwanted interventions. Among the examples was a self-driving car that was made to exceed the speed limit or to stop. In another case, the experts manipulated a computer tomograph in such a way that it delivered a false cancer diagnosis.
Other important topics were protection against the misuse of legitimate system access, so-called “inside perpetrators.” Artificial intelligence (AI) in cybersecurity was also an important topic. Cylance, the cybersecurity software that Perseus uses, also uses AI in the form of an Endpoint Dectection and Response (EDR) solution to better protect its users against threats. At the same time, there are efforts by hackers to use AI for their criminal purposes.