The study was commissioned by the National Cyber Headquarters at the Prime Minister's Office and funded jointly by the Cyber Headquarters and SNI.
The purpose of the research is to describe the current state of academic research and human capital in the field of cyber defense, analyze major issues necessary for setting policies, and lay the foundation of data and indicators that will allow measurement over time, as well as to evaluate the outputs of the headquarters' activity and its effect on the growth of academic research as well as the needs in the area of human capital.
During last year, the Samuel Neaman Institute submitted a final report to the National Cyber Headquarters which included two main chapters. The first chapter deals with a snapshot of the human capital in the cyber defense industry in Israel. The chapter contains interviews with representatives of industries in the field of cyber defense in Israel, and questionnaires were administered to workers engaged in the development of technological solutions in the field of cyber protection. The results of these questionnaires and interviews shed light on the needs of the industry in the area of human capital, the characteristics of the existing human capital, and the gaps between them.
The second chapter deals with the state of research and training in the field of cyber defense in the Israeli academe in recent years and prepares an infrastructure for evaluating the development of academic research in light of Cyber Headquarters' activity in the coming years.
The data about academic research, the needs of the industry, and the characteristics of the human capital in the field of cyber protection did not exist until now. The data gathered in the study would help the National Cyber Headquarters to formulate the desired directions of action for strengthening Israel's leadership position in cyber protection, by positioning the Israeli academe as a leader and promoting programs of human capital empowerment.
