Head of National Cyber Bureau in the Israeli Prime Minister's Office Dr. Eviatar Matania yesterday participated in a session titled Paradigm Shift - Local and Global Forecasts: Utilizing Opportunities in the 21st Century, held at the "Globes" Israel Business Conference. Matania presented his outlook on global changes resulting from the cyber era and the future of companies and countries in this era.
Matania talked about the way cyber is perceived by the general public: "Cyber elicits connotations of fear - infiltrating computers and national systems," he said. Matania believes, on the contrary, that "cyber, first and foremost, is a phenomenon that boils down to the formation of a new space of computer and digital communications networks, a space that generates new possibilities, for the country's society and economy - and also affects various security aspects."
Matania says that this new space appeared out of nowhere. "Cyberspace creates new opportunities for global economy and society and yes, it also affects security. First of all, cyber is primarily a phenomenon that is comparable in importance with the agricultural and industrial revolutions, in terms of what it is going to do to people, and we are only in the beginning."
Matania presented on a particular aspect of this issue: "I do not focus on threats, but rather on cyber as a formative economic element. Let us take Waze as an example. What had Waze brought to the world? Digital navigation had already existed beforehand. There had been maps, including digital maps, and any device could have generated a route to a destination. Once Waze had connected all devices, it discovered something that was not present in any one of them. Waze brought 'the wisdom of the crowd': insights not present in any single device - but only in connecting the data in every one of them, integrating and analyzing it.
"Let us take a different issue," Matania said, "big data, the capability to store large volumes of information of different types, analyze it and use it to draw new conclusions, things that already exist. Cyberspace has brought something new to these massive volumes of data, the capability to create in real time a huge volume of data of a different kind, and generate insights for many people or devices, for example mobile devices. Tomorrow it could become relevant to IoT and connect with houses and places.
"Like many other fields, global retailing, for example, changes with its enhanced presence in cyberspace. The internet, as it is now, was formed in 1990. Before that, there were US military and university networks. The internet as we know it started in the 1990s. Then, there were sites like AOL and Yahoo. Amazon sold books. They took things that existed in the physical world and moved them into cyberspace, creating an interesting opportunity because of better access.
"What happens today? Internet retailers such as Alibaba and Amazon, for example, are change leaders. Connecting with so many retailers and people makes it possible to take the wisdom of the crowds and make it accessible to clients. It is possible to provide the client with a tailored product at a price that he could not find himself. In general, I do not pretend to predict where cyber it taking the global economy - one decade ago we were not even able to predict the effect of smartphones. Then, we barely knew the capabilities of iPhones and did not know what immense effects it would have on the world. We should understand that a decade ago, we were still not there and therefore it is difficult to predict where the world is going and where cyber is taking us."
"Build up presence
Matania referred to private sector involvement in this new age: "So far, there has been this huge race between global companies for control of the future. These companies include Google, Facebook and Apple, as well as Cisco, Intel and IBM. Each one of these companies understands that it must build up its presence and market share in the world of the future."
As for the effect of the changes on state economies, Matania says, "the UK, for example, focuses on its defensive capabilities, while China tries to convert its economy into one based on data and the internet. Estonia is also a country which is noteworthy in this respect. We can look at the process we are undergoing at present as very similar to the processes that took place during the industrial revolution of previous centuries. Then, as well as now, there were countries and economies which adjusted themselves to the changes, and ones that did not manage to adapt to the new age.
"The age of cyber constitutes an extraordinary opportunity for individuals, companies, and also countries, to build a new kind of economy and become relevant in the modern world. It could become a threat to those who do not do this. Relying on the natural innovation we have here, the government also has a role to play in this, the primary role being safeguarding this space, as a safe space to do business; once it is protected, it can be used to grow new things."
As for Israel's future in the world of cyber, Matania defines a clear objective: "Israel, a highly-innovative and technology-rich country, should first and foremost defend cyberspace and turn it in a safe space for business operations.
"In addition, the state should generate, enable and make accessible various tools and resources that could be used for private initiatives in this field. The government will of course not replace individuals and businesses, but it must create and enable the right platforms for these things to be generated. This is an extraordinary opportunity here, which lies in the capability, in the understanding that this space enables us to reach insights; we are only at the beginning of what we see here."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 13, 2016
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