The Chief Scientist for Research, Innovation, and Technology, Mr. Dimitris Skouridis, visited Israel from January 13 to 15, 2025, with the aim of strengthening cooperation in the sector of innovation and start-ups, as well as his briefing on the cybersecurity sector.

During his visit to the city of Ber Sheba, which is a technology hub for Israel, Mr. Skouridis had the opportunity to closely monitor the work and activities of the department of Israel Cybersecurity (INCD), as well as to chat with the head of the department, Doron Liberman. 

Within this framework, the advanced cybersecurity model was presented to Mr. Skouridis of Israel, as well as Chronicle CyberShield, an innovative initiative and cooperation of the State of Israel with the worldwide giant Google to protect government and private entities from cyberattacks.

Chronicle CyberShield provides protection from a wide range of cyber threats, using artificial intelligence, threat analysis, and automation to proactively and immediately respond to attacks.

Further on, it offers protection against DDoS attacks, which aim to overload infrastructure; ransomware and malware, which encrypt or steal data; as well as phishing and social engineering attacks, intended to intercept credentials.

In addition, it detects and prevents Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs), monitors insider threats within organisations, protects against zero-day exploits that take advantage of unknown security gaps, and ensures IoT and cloud infrastructure security.

An important aspect of the visit was the contact of Mr. Skouridis with Venture Capital organisations, which are active in the aid startups, within the framework of attraction of investments in the country, which in 2024 witnessed an advancement of 9 places in the Startup Ecosystem Index, ranking for the first time 45th worldwide.

In the context of the visit, Mr. Skouridis also met with his Israeli counterpart and CEO of Startup Nation, Mr. Avi Hasson. The two officials held an extensive and productive discussion about Israel’s practices, methods, and strategy for strengthening the Startups ecosystem.

It is worth noting that Israel ranks 3rd in the Global Index Startup Ecosystem and is internationally recognised as a Startup Nation, having one of the most advanced startup ecosystems.

The country is leading the way in areas such as technology, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology, with more than 2,000 artificial intelligence startups operating on its territory.

 The success of the Israeli ecosystem is attributed to military innovation initiatives (such as the famous Unit 8200 of the IDF), the strong government support through investment programs such as Yozma, the high investments from international venture capitals, the contribution of leading universities such as the Technion—Israel Institute of Technology and the Weizmann Institute, as well as the particular culture of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Mr. Skouridis was accompanied during his meetings by the Ambassador of Cyprus in Israel, Cornelius Corneliou, who, for his part, contributed to the deepening of Cyprus—Israel relations and to strengthening cooperation in the fields of Research and Innovation.

The visit of the Chief Scientist, Dimitris Skouridis, to Israel is part of the national strategy for the promotion of research, innovation, and technological development of Cyprus. Via partnerships with leading ecosystems, such as Israel’s, the strengthening of the Cypriot Startups ecosystem and attracting investments, which will contribute to the economic development of the country, are sought.

Also read: NCC-CY | Launch Event of the Cyprus National Cyber ​​Security Coordination Center