Israel in 2013 boasted $3 billion in cyber-related exports, more than all other nations in the world combined outside of the United States.
Israeli experts in the field told the annual Herzliya Conference earlier this month that the Jewish state’s cyber exports represent some 5 percent of the entire global market, and that the figure could easily reach 10 percent in the next five years.
Other figures of interest include the fact that 11 percent of all global cyber-related investments come to Israel, and that 14.5 percent of all cyber firms worldwide that received funding in 2013 were Israeli-owned.
Israel is clearly a cyber superpower, despite its minuscule size, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is determined to strengthen Israel further on that front.
In 2011, Netanyahu established the National Cyber Bureau, a government body that reports directly to him, and that has been doing much in recent years to bolster Israeli hi-tech companies.
“We established the National Cyber Bureau for the purpose of transforming the state of Israel into a cyber superpower,”
Netanyahu saidfollowing a briefing earlier this year. “I see [NCB] also as a huge economic force multiplier. There is tremendous international interest in our abilities.”
Netanyahu later commented that “we always knew that we have a land flowing with milk and cyber.”
