Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu praised Ben-Gurion University Tuesday, singling out BGU researchers for their contribution to Israel's position as a global leader in the field of cyber security.
Speaking at Cybertech 2019, an annual gathering that attracts industry professionals from around the world, Netanyahu said that BGU had turned the city of Beer-Sheva into Israel's cyber capital.
"I decided several years ago, to turn Israel into one of the five cyber powers of the world and that required allowing this combination of military intelligence, academia and industry to converge in one place. And we're doing that in Beer-Sheva. That's where you should have this conference.
"In Beer-Sheva there is Ben-Gurion University. This is where we're putting our military intelligence. We're going to put even more of that. This is where you have the central command center for defending the country against cyberattacks and the cyber park of some of the leading cyber security powers and it's all within 200 meters walking distance.
"We're creating in Beer- Sheva now this complex that will encourage the same kind of development that we saw, that I saw in MIT and you may have seen in San Francisco. It's already happening here in Tel Aviv. We're just duplicating it there as a means
of additional growth."
Earlier, BGU's Prof. Dan Blumberg opened the conference, noting the University's development over the past decade of an advanced ecosystem combining private companies, organizations and academia.
“This all began in 2004 in partnership with Deutsche Telecom. Five years ago we opened the Advanced Technologies Park combining industry and academia. Today we are announcing a new partnership with Rafael, which will employ a few hundred engineers in Beer-Sheva, becoming not only a cyber-center but also an AI center," Prof. Blumberg said.
Prof. Blumberg noted the current challenges in the field of data protection "with more than 20% of the companies in the field of AI screened, there are concerns relating to ethics and data protection. The term artificial intelligence was created in 1950 and has taken off over the last few years. However, people are worried about the way in which AI systems will affect our lives. The rumors we hear touch on the different aspects of AI. From Sofia the robot through to Alexa, these systems are all around us all the time and cause amazement. What is sure is that cyber security will be a central part of new artificial intelligences. Cyber security research is here to stay."
BGU is a central partner in the conference which takes place once a year attracting thousands of visitors from around the world and is a unique meeting place for decision makers, government entities, industry leaders, entrepreneurs, huge venture capital funds and advanced research centers. The conference deals with the wider aspects of the cyber revolution and the way it influences every facet of our lives – health, job market, transportation, economy, law, consumer needs and so on. Cloud, AI, and quantum computing technologies were presented at the conference along with cyber-attack events.
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