“Modern wars in general are reflected in cyberspace,” stated Maya Horowitz, VP of research at Check Point, speaking to Hilla Bakshi, founder of HaMeetupistiot at The Jerusalem Post’s Women Leaders Summit.
More concerning than nations attacking other nations in cyberspace is the rising trend of hacktivism, in which nation-states recruit hacktivists to support their political agendas.
With upward of 40,000 attacks a day, businesses need to know how to protect themselves.
What makes these attacks particularly concerning is their agenda of chaos – while cyber criminals are concerned with intelligence or money, hacktivism is a different thing entirely.
Quite simply, the goal is to cause damage. Using what we call wipers, they wipe out entire systems and databases, leaving them useless.
Women's expectations
The discussion then turned to women in cyberspace, where women currently account for only 20%. Maya explained that one of the issues is that when women are offered an opportunity, they are likely not to take it if they don’t meet all the needs of the role.
“We know that we have higher expectations of ourselves than men do,” Maya stated, highlighting the importance of talking to these women and finding out why they are turning down the opportunity.
Maya also pointed out that women tend to shy away from the spotlight and should be encouraged.
“It’s very important that we have events like this. It’s important that The Jerusalem Post takes the time and the effort to highlight women in technology and in other fields, to show that there are strong women leading also in these fields.”
This article was written in cooperation with Maya Horowitz