With the terrorist attacks in Paris, the sense of urgency among the Swiss financial community to ramp up their defensive measures against sabotage aimed at their electronic systems has increased. A cyber-security specialist trained by Israel's defense forces is providing them with the necessary equipment.

The terrorist menace by IS isn't confined to physical objects, but potentially equally deadly when aimed at electronic systems. Institutions by the state are kept busy attaining a technological knowhow that allows them to penetrate the encryption software used be the terrorist organizations to disguise their communications.

The threat to electronic systems calls into question the preparedness of companies in the Western world faced with potentially devastating attacks.

«Companies and governments have to think about protecting critical infrastructure like railway-networks, powerplants, water facilities etc.,» Shira Kaplan, an Israeli cyber-security specialist, told finews.ch.

Trained by Israel's Armed Forces

The Israeli is well versed with threats against electronic systems. The 32-year old worked as analyst analyst at an elite technology unit of Israel's armed forces intelligence department during her compulsory military service. After her army years, Kaplan studied at Harvard and St.Gallen, before founding Cyverse in 2014.

Cyverse, based in Kuesnacht, will provide Swiss companies with cyber-security equipment invented in Israel. The startup particularly aims at Switzerland's banks and insurers, where her knowhow is eagerly studied, Kaplan explained.

The hype about the use of fintech technologies may soon lead to a cyber-security boom as data protection will be a key for the nascent fintech industry, the Cyverse CEO believes.

Source Code Security

Swiss companies already have shown strong interest in software that detects weaknesses in the programming codes, so-called source code security. Credit Suisse in 2014 invested $10 million in Secure Islands, an Israeli data-security startup, which recently was sold to Microsoft for $100 million.

These are the types of transactions that are of interest to Kaplan. She wants to act as a bridge between Israel's data-security industry and European companies eager to ramp up their protection measures. Cyverse will introduce technology developed in Kaplan's home country to Swiss companies and also plans to invest in those startups she's working with.

Kaplan founded Cyverse together with Anat Bar-Gera, a tech entrepreneur known in the Swiss financial community and Ronen Lago, a security specialist who served in the same unit as Kaplan.

Trained in Electronic Warfare

Israel's armed forces and intelligence community is a rich source of data-security personnel, people trained to defend electronic systems against threats from the outside. They are the basis for the data-security industry, which developed in Israel. Each year, more than a thousand specialists leave the armed forces – a rich reservoir of personnel ready to be employed by international companies.

Microsoft, IBM, McAfee and Paypal last year spent more than $1 billion on Israeli cyber-security companies.

«As the trend in cyber-security moves from prevention to detection, ex-army-experts from Israel enjoy an important advantage as they were trained to do exactly that,» Kaplan said.