35 Days in the Start-Up Nation. #TAVtech

Having spent the past month in the "Start-up Nation", I learned much about what makes them the best in cybersecurity and a hotbed for start-ups. From Zebra Medical Vision to Argus to Waze and many other Isreali start-ups at the forefront of innovation, it is evident that they have discovered the secret sauce. You can attribute some of this to the mentality that they possess which is in part due to having to survive despite their lack of natural resources and being surrounded by enemies. Here, people are straight to the point, rarely ask for help, and encourage failures in order to learn from them. It is also the social norm to question anything and everything which allows them to discover different sides of an issue. If a commander sends a lower ranking soldier to change the settings on a firewall, it is not unusual for the soldier to ask "why" and then propose a better solution if they have one. The Israeli demeanor is at the root of their innovative ways and is one of the many reasons why they continue to see billions of dollars pouring into their economy. Whether it is companies like Google, Facebook or Microsoft building R&D centers or a company like Intel acquiring start-ups like Mobileye for $15.3B, it is clear that there is something magical in Israel.

For years, I watched Israel's cybersecurity scene taking off and read about the Israeli Defense Force's Unit 8200 (NSA-Equivalent). Thanks to the TAVtech fellowship, I was finally able to experience this first-hand. The fellowship immerses students in the Israeli start-up ecosystem while teaching them programming skills in either Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, Big Data, Intro to Data Science or Web Development. This year's cohort consisted of 80 young technologists from 7 countries and different universities such as MIT, Harvard, and UC Berkeley.

While attending the Cybersecurity class for 3-5 hours a day for 5 days out of the week, I developed valuable web application penetration testing skills that sparked a deeper interest in my understanding of offensive security. I learned how to carry out attacks such as XSS, SQL injection, malicious file upload and several other web-based attacks. This allowed me to realize that almost every potential target has a web presence which can be exploited to gain access to some of its most sensitive documents and systems. The experience taught me the art of thinking like a hacker which reshaped the way I approach cybersecurity.

This was the same mentality that I brought with me to the hackathon which concluded the fellowship. Although not as sexy as other projects, I focused on developing a platform that would bring a different, more secure approach to the configuration management of critical IoT devices such as industrial control systems and autonomous vehicles through the use of a new technology. Other creations for the hackathon included projects like AI-enhanced facial recognition, predictive analysis using big data sets, and a crypto-charity platform where one can donate computing power.

Reflecting back on my time in Israel, I can say that it opened my mind and changed the way I view success and failure. After spending 35 days in the "Start-Up Nation", I am more motivated than ever and ready to start my new journey in vehicle and medical device security.

If you would like to know more about my experience in Israel with TAVtech, message me and let's talk! 

thanks to the TAVtech team for making this happen and Salve Regina University for allowing me to grow immensely over the past 4 years.