MOTHERBOARD
The Future of Cybersecurity Is Being Written in the Israeli Desert
by Hunter Stuart
February 1, 2016

In its ambition to be the cybersecurity capital of the world, Israel is busy building a vast military-industrial security megacomplex in the working class city of Beersheba, improbably located in the southern Israeli desert. The city of Beersheba, population 200,000, is Israel’s fourth largest, but its image is a far cry from that of Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. Historically, it’s better known for immigrants, Bedouins and the Biblethan it is for innovation and high tech. The Negev desert region where the city is located makes up nearly two-thirds of Israel land mass, but contains only 10 percent of its population. But the Israelis are making the desert bloom. The Beersheba cybersecurity complex underway is said to be the biggest infrastructure project in Israeli history, a multibillion-dollar compound of army bases, academic research centers and high-tech startups finding innovative new ways to keep people safe from criminal hackers, foreign and domestic. READ MORE