Israel shares cybersecurity expertise with Philippine financial sector

Officials of the Embassy of Israel in Manila and the Israel Economic and Commercial Mission have shared their expertise and technologies in cybersecurity with the Philippines amid the growing challenges of financial institutions in the world.

The Embassy of Israel in Manila held the virtual event entitled “Optimizing Cyber Protection of the Financial Sector: Best Practices from Israel” in cooperation with the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) on Wednesday, February 16.

Israeli Ambassador to the Philippines H.E. Mr. Ilan Fluss shared his vision of future relations between Israel and the Philippines during his opening remarks.

Part of Fluss' vision was to see cooperation in innovation and technologies, noting that both countries should have more partnerships in the security area.

For his part, Governor Benjamin Diokno of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas shared his insights on the Philippine Cybersecurity ecosystem and challenges in the financial sector.

“I hope this session will strengthen ties and cooperation between Israel and the Philippines so that our respective financial services sectors remain safe, innovative, and resilient in the digital economy,” he said.

Doron Liberman, director of International Cooperation Development in the Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD), shared the Israeli national approach and strategy to the cybersecurity ecosystem.

Liberman explained that the INCD was a national agency that provided national intelligence and active defense tools and methodologies, and awareness events where their assistance was needed.

Meanwhile, Rahav Shalom-Revivo, head of Financial-Cyber Innovation and International Engagements from the Israel Ministry of Finance, discussed the multinational financial cyber simulation, which the ministry implemented with countries that Israel had financial cyber relations with.

“The collaborative understanding that only together we can overcome such dramatic attacks that at some point in time will happen in the future,” she said.

Eden Cohen, head of the Security Operation Center of the Bank Hapoalim, which is the largest commercial bank in Israel, shared a case study that featured the power of collaboration.

She said the best way to handle the new generation-attackers is by collaboration as a necessity to protect themselves and their clients.

The discussion was followed by a pitching session of four companies offering cybersecurity technologies - Semperis: “Protecting your Active Directory, the keys to your Kingdom”; Trustpeers: “Turn Chaos into a Controlled Event with the TrustPeers Cyber Crisis Management SaaS platform”; Cybowall: “AI Powered Cybersecurity”; and CYE: “Continuous Cyber Risk Visibility – Cyber Risk Quantification – Cyber Exposure Optimization.” — DVM, GMA News