For the first time, Israeli cybersecurity firm XM Cyber, cofounded by former Mossad head Tamir Pardo, is entering the Persian Gulf. The company will market cybersecurity technologies to defend the gas, oil, and financial infrastructures in the region.
XM Cyber signed a cooperation agreement with Dubai-based Spire Solutions, led by Indian experts who also represent Check Point Software Technologies and CyberArk Software, following the signing of the Abraham accords last year, normalizing relations between Israel and Gulf countries the UAE and Bahrain. Pardo is the president of XM Cyber, and he shares equal ownership of the firm with cofounders CEO Noam Erez and CTO Boaz Gorodissky, a former head of the Prime Minister’s Office’s technological department.
In addition, XM Cyber will work with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and a new consortium to sign contracts with Gulf gas and oil infrastructure companies such as Israel Electric Corp. (IEC), Energy Infrastructures, and other cybersecurity firms such as Waterfall Security Solutions, TrapX Security, and Radiflow. Although XM Cyber has declined to publicly comment on the subject, sources close to the company have verified the collaboration to “Globes.”
XM Cyber has created devices that detect flaws in key infrastructures and issue notifications when necessary. To mimic activities under a cyberattack, the business builds a network of virtual sensors throughout the customer’s operational infrastructure network. XM Cyber uses these simulated attacks to identify weaknesses in critical infrastructures and potential routes for penetrating them, testing structural vulnerabilities as well as human errors in the infrastructures’ software and hardware assembly, as well as employee behavior at the infrastructures’ interfaces.