About

Cyber Week is a large annual international cybersecurity event, hosted each year at Tel Aviv University in Israel.  Over the past 12 years, Cyber Week has become internationally acclaimed as one of the top cybersecurity events in the world. Cyber Week offers a unique gathering of cybersecurity experts, industry leaders, startups, investors, academics, diplomats, and government officials. With more than 9,000 attendees from more than 80 countries, this conference offers a thought-provoking exchange of knowledge, methods, and ideas that you won’t want to miss. Events will run for a full week and include over 50 roundtables, panels, workshops, forums, BSides, competitions, and more.  

Cyber Week, held jointly by the Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center (ICRC), The Yuval Ne’eman Workshop for Science, Technology and Security, Tel Aviv University, the Israeli National Cyber Directorate under the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a leading international conference in cybersecurity.

Major Gen. (Ret.) Prof. Isaac Ben-Israel

Isaac Ben-Israel was born in Israel (Tel-Aviv), 1949.

He studied Mathematics, Physics and Philosophy at Tel-Aviv University, receiving his Ph.D. in 1988.

He joined the Israel Air Force (IAF) after graduating high school (1967) and has served continuously up to his retirement (2002).

During his service, Isaac Ben-Israel has held several posts in operations, intelligence and weapon development units of the IAF. He headed the IAF Operations Research Branch, Analysis and Assessment Division of IAF Intelligence, and was the Head of Military R&D of Israel Defence Forces and Ministry of Defence (1991-1997). In January 1998 he was promoted to Major General and appointed as Director of Defence R&D Directorate in IMOD. During his service he received twice the Israeli Defence Award.

After retirement from the IDF Isaac Ben Israel joined the University of Tel-Aviv (TAU) as a professor (2002).

In 2003 he founded RAY-TOP (Technology Opportunities) Ltd, consulting governments and industries in technological and strategic issues.

At TAU he was the Deputy Director of the Hartog School of Government and Policy (2005-2015), head of Curiel Centre for International Studies (2002-2004), Executive Director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Technological Analysis & Forecasting (ICTAF) (2010-2013), a member of Jaffe Centre for Strategic Studies (2002-2004) and head of the Program for Security Studies (2004-2018).

In 2002 he founded and headed the Yuval Ne’eman Workshop for Science, Technology and Security at Tel Aviv University. In 2014 he founded and became the Director of the Blavatnik interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center at Tel-Aviv University.

He was a member of the Board of Trustees of Ariel University Centre (2009-2011), and a member of the advisory council of Neaman Institute for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology at the Technion (2000-2010).

Professor Ben-Israel was a member of the 17th Knesset (Israeli Parliament) between June 2007 and February 2009. During this period he was a member of the Security and Foreign Affairs Committee, the Finance Committee, the Science & Technology committee, the Chairman of the Homeland Security Sub Committee and the Chairman of the Israeli–Indian Parliamentary Friendship Association.

Isaac Ben Israel was a member of the board of directors of IAI (2000-2002), the board of the Israel Corp. (2004-2007), the R&D advisory board of TEVA (2003-2007), Chairman of the Technion Entrepreneurial Incubator (2007), and member of the board of Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies (2000-2018).

Professor Ben-Israel was the Chairman of Israel National R&D council in 2010-2016, and a member of Bank of Israel committee in charge of nominating Board members of Israeli Banks (2016-2018). He was a member of the Advisory Board of Red Dot Fund (2017-2019) and Chairman of the Board of Bluechain Ventures Fund (2018-2019).

In 2010 he was appointed by the Prime Minister to lead a National Task Force that formulated Israel national Cyber policy. His recommendations, turned into a government formal plane in 2011, including the foundation of National Cyber Bureau in the PM Office. The cyber revolution initiated by him was the first in the world in which the practice of cyber was taken out of the hands of the intelligence-security sector and became a major issue in civilian life, including education, academic research, economics and the like.

In 2014 he was appointed again by the PM to lead another task force which resulted in a government decision (February 2015) to set up a new National Cyber Authority.

In June 2018 he was appointed by the Prime Minister to lead a National Task Force to formulate Israel national Artificial Intelligence (AI) policy and strategy, with the mission to strengthen Israel's scientific and technological resilience. around the concept of (AI). Following that he submitted to the government a Whole-of-Government national plan for Secured Intelligent Systems aimed to position Israel among the top 5 countries in the world in AI.

Professor Ben Israel was for the last 17 years (2005-2022) the Chairman of Israel Space Agency.

Professor Ben-Israel has written numerous papers on military and security issues. His book Dialogues on Science and Military Intelligence (1989) won the Itzhak-Sade Award for Military Literature. His book on The Philosophy of Military Intelligence had been published by the Broadcast University (1999) and has been translated into French (2004). His book Science, Technology and Security: From Soldiers in Combat up to Outer Space, was published in 2006. His book on Israel Defence Doctrine was published in 2013. His book on Cyber Security in Israel was published by Springer in 2015. His recent book is Does the World Really Exist? A Philosophical and Scientific Journey from Kant to the Quant (2022).

The Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center (ICRC), inaugurated in Tel Aviv University (TAU), is a joint initiative with the National Cyber Directorate, Prime Minister’s Office, and provides an academic framework for the interdisciplinary research on the dynamic and constantly evolving field of cyber. The Center’s 50+ TAU faculty members and 200+ cyber researchers have attained national and international prominence for their scholarship and industry expertise. They are drawn from many different disciplines including Exact Sciences, Computer Sciences, Law, Engineering, Social Sciences, Management and Humanities.

Since its inception, the ICRC has aimed to
• Enrich the volume and quality of academic research in the cyber field
• Provide information to the security sector for future use
• Help advance academic training and the efforts of academic personnel in the field
• Increase the academic efforts and awareness of the field of cyber security
• Provide an important intersection between government, industry and academia

The ICRC researches key issues such as security software, attacks on hardware and software, cryptography, network protocols, security of operating systems and networks, as well as the impact of these topics on national security, society, regulation and the business sector.

The Center operates a research fund which is supported by the Israeli National Cyber Directorate , Prime Minister’s Office.

 Visit the ICRC website here

The Yuval Ne’eman Workshop for Science, Technology and Security was launched in 2002 by Major-General (Res.) Prof. Isaac Ben-Israel in conjunction with the Harold Hartog School of Policy and Government and the Security Studies Program at Tel Aviv University. The Workshop was founded with the clear directive of exploring the links between science, technology and security. The Workshop conducts a broad range of research activities that include the publication of research papers and policy reports in the field of national security strategy & policy. Alongside its research activities, the Workshop also holds a senior executive forum that promotes public-private partnerships and initiatives and a popular series of monthly conferences at Tel Aviv University with the participation of senior IDF staff and security organization members, politicians, academia, and executives from leading Israeli and International companies. The goal of the Workshops’ activities is to create an open and fruitful dialogue with the general public in the fields of interest of the Workshop: Cyber Security, Space and Emerging Issues of National Security.

Other topics covered by the Workshop include; international relations and strategy, missiles and guided weapons, robotics, the interplay between society and security, nuclear energy, homeland security, force build-up policy, government decision-making processes, and more. So far, the Workshop has held more than 100 conferences, each attended by hundreds of delegates. The crown jewel of the Workshops’ conferences is the Annual International Cyber Security Conference. This conference is held every summer since 2011 and enjoys the participation of senior politicians, foreign diplomats, academics, senior representatives of the IDF and other Israeli security services, and cyber security experts from around the world.

Cyber Security:
The Yuval Ne’eman Workshop has been leading research and initiatives in the cyber security field for more than a decade and aims to find security solutions to help protect cyberspace from the rising threats. As we make progress as a society, our cyber abilities advance. The many possibilities the cyber space offers are unfortunately perceived to our enemies as vulnerabilities, and so – with every passing day, we witness evolving cyber threats and targeted attacks on critical infrastructures, with new forms of hacktivism and the growing danger of cybercrime creating a complicated threat landscape to nations worldwide.

Therefore, The Yuval Ne’eman Workshop has set as a goal for itself to advance awareness of cyber security issues and the unique challenges that this emerging field of conflict presents to countries. The cyber domain, including the internet and social networks, has brought forward many opportunities and challenges, along with new legal, ethical, and social dilemmas. These challenges and dilemmas are particularly relevant to politics, public policy and international relations as a result of their critical influence on the use of force. Thus, it is necessary to give these issues due consideration and seek effective methods of action, cooperation, international agreements, and more. In 2010, as part of decision to streamline and coordinate the allocation of national resources towards cyber security, the Prime Minister of Israel has set up the National Cyber Initiative Task force with Prof. Ben Israel as its’ head and members of the Workshop coordinated the work of the task force. The Task forces’ recommendations were accepted by the Prime Minister, and were approved in a government decision. As a result, the government voted to establish a National Cyber Directorate (NCD) to coordinate national cyber security activities, and to formulate cyber security policy.

Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD) is a national-level agency responsible for advancing and implementing cyber policy, reporting directly to the Prime Minister. The INCD tasks includes protecting civilian cyber space, developing national cyber defense capabilities, and improving Israel’s ability to meet strategic challenges in the field of cybersecurity. The INCD is also responsible for strengthening Israel’s international presence in cyber, specifically its status as a world leader in the development of cyber-related knowledge and technologies.