Against the backdrop of one of the largest cyber attacks on Israel’s financial sector in late November, IUCC held a roundtable on December 27, 2020 on the ramifications of this and other cyber threats to both IUCC and its member institutions. Led by CEO Odelia Levanon and Eyal Estrin, IUCC’s DPO and Cloud Architect, the session covered some of the measures IUCC implements to mitigate the risks of data security breaches, server protection and more.
While Israel’s academic community is no stranger to cyber attacks, the scope and depth of the attack on the Shirbit insurance company has raised new awareness across the community. Topics included a review of the enormous economic cost to institutions and companies, as well as a discussion on advantages and disadvantages of protecting local data centers versus cloud-based solutions with commercial concerns – that have the scale to invest in cyber defenses that exceeds those of public institutions, like universities. Hanan Rudnik, Infrastructures & Cyber Security Manager, and Hank Nussbacher, Infrastructures & Cyber Security Consultant, weighed in this and shared their rich experience. Odelia and Eyal passed on tips best practices and recommendations on how to protect data from becoming exposed (as customers of insurance companies) and on the importance of protecting employee, customer and supplier data.