The Israeli cyber industry is expressing satisfaction at the decision by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Cyber Bureau head Dr. Eviatar Matania to halt the process of formulating an order for supervision of cyber systems exports. The decision, published yesterday by the Prime Minister's Office, stated that Israel would supervise only offensive cyber exports through the Defense Ministry Defense Export Controls Agency (DECA) Supervision Department, while exports of civilian cyber systems would be supervised by the Ministry of Economy and Industry.
National Cyber Bureau sources said that security supervision would be conducted on a small scale, and in any case would be relevant to only a very small number of systems. According to the Prime Minister's decision, Israel will continue to conform to the supervision rules for exports of these systems under the Wassenaar Arrangement an international convention adopted by many countries, including Israel.
"We are still studying the decision by the Prime Minister and the National Cyber Bureau," Herzog, Fox & Neeman Public International Law, Defense and Homeland Security partner Adv. Daniel Reisner told "Globes" today. "In this case, the state's conduct was impressive. It is clear that a serious discussion took place here, in which they listened to the industry's comments, and then made the right decision. Such a thing cannot be taken for granted in government formulating an idea, asking the public, listening attentively to its opinion, and then deciding on a change in direction and policy. I would like to see this kind of action in more situations and in other areas."
Together with other lawyers, Reisner led the opposition by cyber companies and entrepreneurs in recent months to the plan for supervision of cyber software exports. Among other things, dozens of objections were raised to the draft supervision order revealed by "Globes" three months ago for the first time, and emergency gatherings of cyber companies were held in an attempt to find a way of dealing with the export restrictions. The objections focused on concern that security supervision of cyber systems exports would cause a halt in investments in the Israeli industry, a flight of companies from Israel to other countries not having such supervision, a loss of deals, concern among customers about buying systems that might have been "treated" by Israeli defense agencies, etc.
"The Prime Minister's decision means that Israel has retracted its initial intention of imposing close supervision of the cyber industry, and the existing and familiar situation has been preserved," Yigal Arnon high-tech department partner and intellectual property and cyber expert Adv. Eli Greenbaum told "Globes." "You can't run a cyber industry while saying that this industry will not be part of the world at large. In order to move forward, the local industry must be part of the world, and close supervision will throttle it. There's no doubt that in this case, the industry has won."
Israel Association of Electronics and Software Industries director general Shlomo Waxe commented on the Prime Minister's decision, saying, "This is the right step in the right direction, and I welcome it. It is a wise decision, and we must now follow it up by examining how it is being implemented in practice in the field, because unfortunately, we have seen many cases in the past of very good intentions leading to Hell. The cyber industry's cry was well heard, and I am glad that they realized in the Prime Minister's Office that if they want to make Israel a power in this field, the objective cannot be attained and the industry developed with an order so severely restricting it."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 20, 2016
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