Day Two in Israel starts out with a great breakfast and some profound thinking

Started the morning by meeting Eleanor Dallaway and Nicola Humphries who are
here representing Infosecurity Magazine in the U.K.  Eleanor asked why there are so many infosec companies in Israel. I
thought there were three reasons. The first is necessity. As Israel Levy from ControlGuard put it, “It’s
like asking why there are so many umbrella makers in England.” The country simply could not survive without
diligence to protect its infrastructure.

Next is the Israeli culture of innovation – bred from an
early age and nurtured in the Army. Israelis have a natural inclination to
create, and that creative process has given birth to many security concepts
such as network firewalls, intrusion detection, intrusion prevention, and so
many other protections we take for granted.

Third, there is the Israeli culture of entrepreneurship,
also bred from an early age. The business climate embraces new ideas and Israel boasts a
healthy infrastructure of financial support combined with a thousand “early
adopter” corporations, government agencies, and military organizations to be
pilot customers. The country willingly
turns itself into a large and available testing lab. Combine that with a highly
educated high tech population, and first rate Internet connectivity, and you
have business bursting at the seams.

For further proof, just look at the amazing GDP growth Israel enjoys.

OK, not every corner of Israel is the Silicon Valley of the middle east. It
is still a young country with growing pangs. One Israeli described Israel as “a
third world country with a really good Internet connection.”

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