Israel Active

Israeli cyber-security firm Check Point has discovered a serious flaw in online e-commerce giant eBay’s security, allowing hackers and cyber criminals to use malicious code to target users and steal their online information. =

Israel’s Hola is the most popular free VPN service in the world, used by tens of millions of people daily, mainly to watch TV shows in countries outside the country of origin. Hola is so busy, it is now offering $7,000 to anyone who refers new hi-tech employees to the company.

Researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University have developed a new bird tracking device called Atlas. The tag transmits radio signals that tells more about wildlife than ever before – and for a fraction of the cost of previous devices.

The technology of Israel’s Water-Gen can extract clean water from the ambient air humidity. The technology is now used by the Israeli, British, French and US armies. GENNY, the civilian version, is now used in India, Africa, Central America and China.

NanoIsrael 2016 in Tel Aviv on Feb 22 will show the world just how far Israel’s nanotechnology industry has come. There are 1,995 nanotechnology PhD graduates plus 2,908 with masters’ degrees from Israeli universities. Israeli nanotechnology researchers have filed 1,590 patents.

Israeli entrepreneurs Yair Brosh and Shachar Vilner have set up a new platform using Edvantage - a combination of venture capital fund and accelerator - to encourage start-ups in informal education. Edvantage, from Israel’s Time to Know, helps build technological solutions and assists start-ups to enter international markets.

Israeli streaming company Vonetize's may be the first 2016 launch on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. The company's service is called Smart VOD (Video On Demand) and is a similar service to Netflix.

Hagihon - Jerusalem’s water company - has been awarded a key role on the 4-year European Union project to improve governance and social awareness of water environmental challenges. It involves setting up a Digital Social Platform to share details of water scarcity, security, quality and water consumption-related issues.

Last week there was good news about seven Israeli cybersecurity companies - the first six are their first mentions in my newsletter. LightCyber won awards in both SC Magazine and CRN Magazine; SafeBreach launched its continual testing platform; Fireglass raised $20 million of funds for its critical systems solution; ImVision raised $4 million for its anomaly detection technology; Nubo raised $7 million to expand its Cloud-based mobile protection; and ForeScout became a billion-dollar value company. Finally, Elbit’s CYBERBIT unit exposed the workings and solution for Dridex - the most dangerous virus in existence.

Thousands of products were displayed to over 100,000 visitors at the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Both winners in the “Last Gadget Standing” category were Israeli. The VUZE Camera from HumanEyes was the Live Audience winner and SteamCC’s Ripple Maker was the on-line winner