The Battle for Your Computer

The Battle for Your Computer

by Alon Arvatz
Released September 2023
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9781394174157

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial

Book description

Discover the extraordinary realities of the world’s most advanced cybersecurity companies and tech

In The Battle for Your Computer: Israel and the Growth of the Global Cyber-Security Industry, Israeli Defense Force (IDF) cyberwarfare veteran and tech product leader Alon Arvatz examines the “why” and the “how” of the extraordinarily strong connection between Israel’s elite cyber military unit and that country’s booming offensive and defensive cybersecurity industry. In the book, you’ll explore the central role played by Israel in the global fight for cybersecurity supremacy.

Featuring interviews with some of the world’s leading cybersecurity professionals and leaders, The Battle for Your Computer explains how the IDF’s “Unit 8200” became the globe’s most fruitful incubator of cyber technologies. You’ll also find:

  • Explanations of how the technologies that protect your own computers at home and at work probably began their lives in IDF personnel or equipment
  • The stories of the men and women working to protect Israel and how they pivoted to protecting her technology against attack
  • Answers to fascinating questions like: How does an offensive cyber company decide to whom to sell its tech?

An endlessly engrossing take on an equally engrossing subject, The Battle for Your Computer is a must-read for laypeople and cyber experts alike.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Preface
    1. From territorial commando to cybercommando
    2. A wonder called Stuxnet
    3. Birth of an entrepreneur
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. SECTION 1: What Is Cybersecurity?
    1. CHAPTER 1: The New Gold—Cybersecurity 101
      1. The battle over data
      2. Gold on the cloud
      3. The Internet of Things
      4. Notes
    2. CHAPTER 2: The Keyboard War—How Global Militaries Exploited the New Domain
      1. The new Trojan horse
      2. Hacking public opinion
      3. Notes
    3. CHAPTER 3: “Hello, It's Me, a Nigerian Prince”—New Crime
      1. Fraud
      2. Extortion
      3. Hacktivism
      4. Notes
    4. CHAPTER 4: The New Money—Catalysts of Cybercrime
      1. The dark web
      2. Bitcoin
      3. Notes
  7. SECTION 2: Cybernation
    1. CHAPTER 5: The Pioneer—The Story of Check Point
      1. Before cyber was fully cyber
      2. Notes
    2. CHAPTER 6: The Love Letter That Leaked—From Personal Security to Systems Security
      1. Sanctum: Firewalls for browsers
      2. “You idiot!”
      3. Imperva: A firewall for websites
      4. The man who walked away
      5. The love letter that leaked: CyberArk and the digital wallet
      6. Cyber: A booming market
      7. Notes
    3. CHAPTER 7: From Security to Defense—The Cyber “Iron Dome”
      1. The turning point of 2010
      2. Paradigm shift
      3. From inertia to growth
      4. Notes
    4. CHAPTER 8: The Best Defense—“Daddy, What Do You Do?”
      1. The birth of an idea
      2. Rise and fall
    5. CHAPTER 9: From Crisis to Crisis—Israeli Cyber Grows Up
      1. Safe browsing: Island & Co.
      2. The massive switch to networks
      3. Is the bubble about to burst?
      4. Notes
  8. SECTION 3: Offensive Cybersecurity
    1. CHAPTER 10: Reaching Through the Darkness: NSO and Zero‐Click Disruption
      1. The cyberblacklist
      2. The birth of a revolution
      3. The breakthrough
      4. Notes
    2. CHAPTER 11: In the Right Hands—The Israeli Companies That Stretched the Boundaries of Possibility
      1. Candiru: The covert company
      2. Surveillance van hacking: The story of Intellexa
      3. Notes
    3. CHAPTER 12: Criticism of Offensive Cybertechnology
      1. The enemy of offensive cybertechnology
      2. Bad publicity
      3. Between privacy and security
      4. The sales dilemma
      5. Notes
    4. CHAPTER 13: Selling to the Good Guys—Regulation, Self‐Criticism, and “Clean” Offensive Cybertechnology
      1. The Israeli regulator
      2. Offensive cyber as a geopolitical tool
      3. Final reflections
  9. SECTION 4: Building a Cyberstate
    1. CHAPTER 14: The Israeli Silicon Valley—Small State, Big Data
      1. Notes
    2. CHAPTER 15: Unit 8200—Secrets of the IDF's Success
      1. “We've got to go up a notch”
      2. The story of Unit 8200
      3. Unit 81: Making the impossible, possible
      4. Cyberintelligence: Challenges and opportunities
      5. Building the Israeli military's cybersecurity apparatus
      6. The ARAM Course
      7. From offense to defense
      8. The key to success
      9. Overcoming any obstacle
      10. The old boys' club
      11. Closed club?
      12. Notes
    3. CHAPTER 16: A Professor and a Hacker—Academia and Cybersecurity
    4. CHAPTER 17: Free Hand or Bear Hug—The State's Role in the World of Innovation
      1. The Yozma Program: Government‐funded venture capital
      2. The innovation and bureaucracy authority
      3. Capital of the Negev, capital of cybersecurity
      4. Just keep out of the way
      5. The prime minister's agenda
      6. Notes
    5. CHAPTER 18: Small and Nimble—Being a Small Island‐Nation in the Middle East Is Not Such a Bad Start
      1. Hackathons lead to global thinking
      2. The “American Dream”
      3. Backs against the wall
      4. Two degrees of separation
      5. Notes
    6. CHAPTER 19: “Bro”—What Makes Israel's Culture an Incubator of Cybersecurity Innovation?
      1. The “Jewish genius”
      2. The culture of mutual assistance
      3. The pioneers
      4. Our ambassadors abroad
      5. Notes
    7. CHAPTER 20: The Cybersecurity Industry Snowball Effect—Elements of the Israeli Ecosystem
      1. Made in Israel venture capital
      2. Venture capital discovers the cyberindustry
      3. Venture capital and offensive cyber
      4. The entrepreneur community's fund
      5. The well‐trodden path
      6. Angel capital
      7. International corporations
      8. From start‐up nation to exit nation
      9. Importing knowledge
      10. Living the good life?
      11. When Israel gains kudos
      12. “Israel is one of our advantages”
      13. Cybertourism
      14. The cyberstate: The secret sauce
      15. Notes
  10. Conclusion: Where Is Everything Going?
    1. Bring me people: The challenge of human capital
    2. What's cyber in Yiddish?
    3. Where are the women?
    4. The Israeli offensive cyberindustry: Beginning of the end?
    5. What's next? From small companies to major corporations
    6. “There are too many cybercompanies”
    7. Will there ever be another Check Point?
    8. With all due humility
    9. Notes
  11. The Ten Commandments of the Budding Entrepreneur
  12. Index
  13. End User License Agreement

Product information

  • Title: The Battle for Your Computer
  • Author(s): Alon Arvatz
  • Release date: September 2023
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9781394174157