From the Command and Control Center of Israel Electric Corporation in Bangalore India

At the end of 2013 Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) established CyberGym™‘s Arena, a unique cyber-war training facility. At the launch ceremony of this facility Yiftah Ron-Tal, Chairman of the Board of Directors of IEC, mentioned that “We face hundreds of thousands of penetration attempts into our systems on a monthly basis, IEC stands ready to fend off these attacks and CyberGym™, the unique cyber facility we have established, is the best training environment in the world for cyber defense.” According to Frost & Sullivan the cyber defense market for oil and gas industries will reach US$ 3.75 billion by 2021. They further mentioned that, over 88,000 kilometers of oil and gas pipes will be placed in the upcoming years; the need to protect this infrastructure will generate a market demand for physical and cyber security solutions. F&S believe that the cyber defense market for oil and gas infrastructure will show the fastest growth in this field.

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According to Yaron Blachman, head of Information Security and Cyber field at PwC Israel, “Experts believe that the actual number of attacks against SCADA systems is 100 times larger than what is officially published. These systems are part of our everyday lives and exist in water and sewage systems, electricity plants, gas networks, stop-lights, trains, production lines, amusement parks, medical devices etc., and all have extensive security vulnerabilities”

Several cyber-attacks have been documented in the past against energy, oil and gas infrastructure; including against the Sau Paulo electricity company in 2009, STUXNET in 2010 and NIGHT DRAGON in 2011, yet it is known that the overall number of attacks against oil and gas infrastructure is growing at an alarming rate. India is a country well documented for both the countless cyber-attacks it faces, and for the number of attacks generated from it on a daily basis. According to the Russian security firm Kaspersky, India is second only to Russia in the number of cyber-attacks it faces. Most attacks target financial firms and government organizations. Following Russia and India on this list are Vietnam, Ukraine and UK.

An invitation by Israel’s Commercial Consulate in Bangalore to Mr. Gilad Yoshi, Vice President of CyberGym™ to visit Bangalore and explore business cooperation with local partners led to a unique security event at the Consulate on March 10-11, 2014, in which Mr. Yoshi gave a seminar to and conducted one-on-one meeting with several local cyber firms. Mr. Yoshi presented CyberGym™’s capabilities and solutions in protection of critical infrastructure such as power stations, oil and gas infrastructure, air fields and additional organizations. Among the local companies that attended the event were Karnataka Power Corporation, ABB, Karnataka Water Board and Rockwell. Mr. Yoshi had evaluated the potential of the market and mentioned that he believed this is a growing market with an increasing demand for cyber products, solutions and training. He also added that we can see an overall growth in the number of Israeli security products and solutions provided in India and that it is his belief that “India will be a major market in the growth of CyberGym over the next couple of years.”

By: Avi Friedman, Commercial Attaché, Bangalore, India