Half of Global Cybersecurity Investment Has Been in Israel, PM Bennett Says

Around half of global cybersecurity investment in the past few years has been in Israel, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett told the World Economic Forum by video.

As more work is done remotely, Bennett said, companies will be increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks.

"This means we need good cyber defense and Israel has massively invested in cyber defense technologies," Bennett said.

"I believe roughly half or almost half of the global investments in cyber companies over the past few years has been in Israel. So Israel has become a powerhouse in cyber defense. I see a bunch of opportunities, and we intend to seize them."

Israeli cybersecurity firms have profited immensely from the coronavirus pandemic, which pushed the world to work from home and increased global web traffic. As a result, companies have needed to enable remote working and have quickly undergone digitization processes that also necessitate security.

Israeli cybersecurity startups in particular have found themselves at the center of venture capitalists' attention. Unicorns, startups valued at over $1 billion, have become a common occurrence in the past year. While 2020 only saw five new Israeli unicorns in the field of cybersecurity, 2021 saw seven of them in just the first six months.