The Israeli cybersecurity industry is a rapidly growing sector within Israel's technology and innovation ecosystem. Israel is internationally recognized as a powerhouse in the cybersecurity domain, with numerous cybersecurity startups, established companies, research institutions, and government initiatives. Tel Aviv itself is being ranked 7th in annual list of best global tech ecosystems, as reported by the Jerusalem Post. == History == The roots of Israel's cybersecurity industry can be traced back to the country's strong focus on national security and intelligence. The establishment of elite military units such as Unit 8200, the Israeli Intelligence Corps unit responsible for signals intelligence and code decryption, played a significant role in the development of cybersecurity expertise in the country. Many former members of Unit 8200 have gone on to establish successful cybersecurity companies or join existing organizations, bringing their unique skill sets and experience to the private sector. == Market overview == As of 2024, Israel housed more than 450 cybersecurity startups and companies. In 2023, the value of exits by Israeli tech companies reached $7.5 billion. Israel's cybersecurity industry is characterized by a high concentration of startups develop new technologies in areas such as network security, endpoint protection, data security, cloud security, and threat intelligence. In recent years, the sector has attracted significant investment from both local and international venture capital firms, as well as major technology companies such as Microsoft, Google, and IBM. Several Israeli cybersecurity companies have gained global recognition and success, with some being acquired by major corporations or conducting successful initial public offerings (IPOs). === Key Israeli cybersecurity companies === Some key Israeli cybersecurity companies include: Check Point Software Technologies CyberArk Cato Networks Radware Wiz === Financial activity === Israel’s cybersecurity sector has seen significant financial activity. As of 2023, mergers and acquisitions in the cybersecurity sector totaled $2.8 billion. In the first quarter of 2024, the sector secured $846 million in private funding. == Background == The military experience helped much. Israel's mandatory military service, combined with the expertise developed within elite units such as Unit 8200, has fostered a strong talent pool with practical experience in cybersecurity. Israel's thriving startup ecosystem, often referred to as the "Startup Nation," has fostered an environment of innovation and collaboration that has contributed to the growth of the cybersecurity industry. Israeli cybersecurity companies often collaborate with international partners, both in the private and public sectors, to share knowledge and develop joint solutions. === Government Initiatives and Support === The government also supported well through various initiatives, such as the Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD), which works to strengthen cybersecurity defenses and promote the development of the sector. === Academic institutions === Israeli universities and research centers are involved in cybersecurity research and education, contributing to the development of new technologies and training the next generation of cybersecurity professionals. Academic Tech transfer offices in Israel also facilitate the commercialization of cybersecurity technologies. Some academic institutions with cybersecurity laboratories include: Tel Aviv University Technion Ben-Gurion University
Masking (art)
In art, craft, and engineering, masking is the use of materials to protect areas from change, or to focus change on other areas. This can describe either the techniques and materials used to control the development of a work of art by protecting a desired area from change; or a phenomenon that (either intentionally or unintentionally) causes a sensation to be concealed from conscious attention. The term is derived from the word mask, in the sense that it hides the face from view. == In painting == Masking materials supplement a painter's dexterity and choice of applicator to control where paint is laid. Examples include the use of a stencil or masking tape to protect areas which are not to be painted. === Solid masks === Most solid masks require an adhesive to hold the mask in place while work is performed. Some, such as masking tape and frisket, come with adhesive pre-applied. Solid masks are readily available in bulk, and are used in large painting jobs. Paper products Kraft paper Butcher paper Masking tape Plastic film Frisket Polyester tape Stencils Silk screen === Liquid masks === Liquid masks are preferred where precision is needed; they prevent paint from seeping underneath, resulting in clean edges. Care must be taken to remove them without damaging the work underneath. Latex or other polymers Molten wax Gesso, typically a substrate for painting, but can also be applied to achieve masking effects == In photography == Masks used for photography are used to enhance the quality of an image. Representations of a scene—whether film, video display, or printed—do not have the dynamic contrast range available to the human eye looking directly at the same scene. Adjusting the contrast in an image helps restore some of the perceived qualities of the original scene. These adjustments are typically performed on "blown-out" highlights, and "crushed" or "muddy" shadow areas, where clipping has occurred; or on desaturated colors. Photographic masks are peculiar in that they are produced from the image they will alter, an exercise in recursion. Masks used to produce other effects are similar to those used in painting. === Controlling exposure === ==== Film ==== The basic methods of controlling exposure are dodging and burning, which respectively lighten (reduce exposure) and darken (increase exposure) areas of an image. The tools a film photographer uses range from shaped pieces of black material (such as studio foil, foam, and paper) to the photographer's hands. To create a photographic mask, a sheet of negative film is contact-exposed to the original film negative or slide positive in a particular way. Both films are then combined to produce a processed positive. The process is similar when applied using digital techniques: the inverse of the working image is reduced to an image mask; filters or other adjustments are then applied, using the mask to selectively block portions of the image. ==== Digital ==== Image editors offer at the very least a "Select All" command and a rectangular "marquee" selection tool. (The word "marquee" describes the "crawling ants" border used to highlight the active region.) Once a selection is created, further changes to the image will be confined to that area. To continue editing the rest of the image, the selection is either "deselected" or the entire image is selected. Advanced suites offer more ways to select portions of an image, as well as ways to combine these selections through. Selection masks can be switched between an editable greyscale image and a mask. They allow the user to create a mask using the suite's painting tools. === Contrast masking === When the contrast range of an image needs to be adjusted, a contrast mask is a simple solution. The processed image resembles what would be achieved when exposing through a neutral density filter, but the effects are focused highly upon the extreme regions of the image. The blocking areas of the mask coincide with the highlights of the image, and the permissive areas with the shadows, resulting in more detail appearing in each. ==== Film ==== The mask is often made from high-quality black-and-white film, such as Kodak Technical Pan, which allows for a degree of softening on the mask. Its processing time is reduced so as to not completely oppose the original negative. Both negatives are combined and registered, and collectively exposed with additional time to compensate for the presence of the mask. ==== Digital ==== Contrast masking is made simpler with digital editing. A grayscale version of the image is produced, either by desaturation or by calculating selected ratios of the image's color channels, inverted, and blurred. The mask and original image are blended together to produce the final processed image. Some image editors allow for refinement of the effect by changing the strength of the blend. Contrast masking can be considered to be the opposite of gamma correction, which adjusts the midtones of an image. Effects similar to contrast masking can be achieved by adjusting the response curves of an image. === Unsharp masking === A derivative of contrast masking is unsharp masking, an unusual term for a process intended to increase the apparent sharpness (acutance) of an image. Unsharp masking uses a blurred form of the image to increase contrast along regions of moderate contrast difference. Around edges, the blur region causes highlights to overexpose and shadows to underexpose. Taken to an extreme, the edges become overly visible and detract from the quality of the image—this is referred to as halation. Unsharp masking does not increase the actual sharpness, as it cannot recover details lost to blurring. ==== Film ==== Unsharp masking allows the photographer to sharpen areas that have become blurred in the original negative, due to long shutter speed/exposure time, or from using a wide aperture/"fast" lens. When creating the unsharp mask, extra space or diffusing material is added between the image and the mask to produce the necessary blur. ==== Digital ==== Unsharp masking has become automated in digital editing, with higher-end suites offering the process as a "tool" or "filter" in their standard sharpening kits—the actual creation of a mask is bypassed in favor of calculations that represent the mask's effect. The process depends on three factors: the radius of the blur, the strength of the effect, and the threshold degree of contrast above which the effect will be applied. (Adjusting the threshold allows the editor to apply the effect selectively upon moderately defined edges and ignore image noise.) Unsharp masking is computationally more complex than other sharpening algorithms, but results in a higher-quality remedy. Deconvolution allows for truer sharpening, but is much more complex than unsharp masking.
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Datacap
Datacap (an IBM Company), a privately owned company, manufactures and sells computer software, and services. Datacap's first product, Paper Keyboard, was a "forms processing" product and shipped in 1989. In August 2010, IBM announced that it had acquired Datacap for an undisclosed amount. == Overview == Datacap sells products through a value-added distribution network worldwide. The software is classified as "enterprise software", meaning that it requires trained professionals to install and configure. Although the Company has focused on providing solutions for scanning paper documents, most recently Company materials have emphasized customer requirements to handle electronic documents ("eDocs"), documents being received into an organization electronically (usually email). Datacap claims that its software is unique because of the rules engine ("Rulerunner") used for processing inbound documents, including performing the image processing (deskew, noise removal, etc.), optical character recognition (OCR), intelligent character recognition (ICR), validations, and export-release formatting of extracted data to target ERP and line of business application.
Julie Beth Lovins
Julie Beth Lovins (October 19, 1945, in Washington, D.C. – January 26, 2018, in Mountain View, California) was a computational linguist who published The Lovins Stemming Algorithm - a type of stemming algorithm for word matching - in 1968. The Lovins Stemmer is a single pass, context sensitive stemmer, which removes endings based on the longest-match principle. The stemmer was the first to be published and was extremely well developed considering the date of its release, having been the main influence on a large amount of the future work in the area. -Adam G., et al == Background == Born on October 19, 1945, in Washington, D.C., Lovins grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her father Gerald H. Lovins was an engineer and her mother, Miriam Lovins, a social services administrator. Lovins' brother Amory Lovins is the co-founder and chief environmental scientist of Rocky Mountain Institute. For her undergraduate degree, Lovins attended Pembroke College, the women's college of Brown University, which later combined into Brown University in 1971. At Pembroke College, Lovins studied mathematics and linguistics, graduating with honors. Her thesis was named, A Study of Idioms. She received the inaugural Bloch Fellowship in 1970 from the Linguistic Society of America to attend graduate school. Lovins obtained her Master of Arts in 1970 and Doctor of Philosophy in 1973 from the University of Chicago, studying linguistics. At the University of Chicago, her dissertation was titled, Loan Phonology -- Subject Matter. A revision of her thesis on loanwords and the phonological structure of Japanese was published in 1975 by the Indiana University Linguistics Club. == Teaching career == Following Lovins' PhD, she spent a year working as a linguist-at-large at a University of Tokyo language research institute and as an English conversation teacher. She then joined the faculty at Tsuda College as a professor of English and linguistics, where she taught for seven years. During her time as a faculty member at Tsuda College, Lovins also served as a guest researcher in the University of Tokyo's Research Institute of Logopedics and Phoniatrics, a research center for speech science. == Industry career == After teaching Japanese phonology at Japanese universities abroad, Lovins moved back to the U.S. to work in the computing industry. She worked on early speech synthesis at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey. At Bell Labs, Lovins worked with Osamu Fujimura, a Japanese linguist who is credited as a pioneer in speech sciences. Lovins also worked as a software engineer at various companies in Silicon Valley and served as a consultant for computational linguistics throughout the 1990s. As a consultant, she called her business, "The Language Doctor." == The Lovins Stemming Algorithm == Lovins published an article about her work on developing a stemming algorithm through the Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT in 1968. Lovins' stemming algorithm is frequently referred to as the Lovins stemmer. A stemming algorithm is the process of taking a word with suffixes and reducing it to its root, or base word. Stemming algorithms are used to improve the accuracy in information retrieval and in domain analysis. These algorithms help find variants of the terms being queried. Stemming algorithms bring value in their reduction of a given query into its less complex form, allowing more similar documents to be retrieved for similar queries. Stemming algorithms are prevalent in search engines, such as Google Search, which did not implement word stemming until 2003. This means that up until 2003, a Google search for the word warm would not have explicitly returned results for related words like warmth or warming. As the first published stemming algorithm, Lovins' work set a precedent and influenced future work in stemming algorithms, such as the Porter Stemmer published by Martin Porter in 1980 which has been recognized widely as the most common stemming algorithm for stemming English. Additionally, the Dawson Stemmer developed by John Dawson is an extension of the Lovins stemmer. The Lovins stemmer follows a rule-based affix elimination approach. It first removes the longest identifiable suffix from the target word - producing a base stem word - then indexes a lookup table to convert the (potentially malformed) stem word to a valid word. This process can be split into two phases. In the first phase, a word is compared with a pre-determined list of endings, and when a word is found to contain one of these endings, the ending is removed, leaving only the stem of the word. The second phase standardizes spelling exceptions that come from the first phase, ensuring that words with only marginally varying stems are appropriately paired together. For example, with the word dried, phase one results in dri, which should match with the word dry. The second phase takes care of these exceptions. Compared to other stemmers, Lovins' algorithm is fast and equipped to handle irregular plural words like person and people. Disadvantages, however, include many suffixes not being available in the table of endings. Furthermore, it is sometimes highly unreliable and frequently fails to form valid words from the stems or to match the stems of like-meaning words. This is most often caused by the usage of specialist terminology and domain-specific vocabulary by the author. == Personal life == Lovins moved to Mountain View, California, in 1979, and later to Old Mountain View in 1981 with her partner and later husband Greg Fowler, a software engineer and advocate for environmental issues & the blind. In their free time, she and her husband enjoyed taking walks and volunteering for their local community. Lovins actively volunteered for organizations like the Old Mountain View Neighborhood Association, Mountain View Friends of the Library, League of Women Voters, Mountain View Cool Cities Team, and the Mountain View Sustainability Task Force. In 2016, Lovins' husband died unexpectedly, following a heart attack. Eighteen days after her husband died, Lovins was diagnosed with brain cancer. She died on January 26, 2018, at a hospice, surrounded by friends, family and caregivers.
Dyme (company)
Dyme is a Dutch fintech start-up and subscription management app that allows users to cancel and renegotiate their recurring costs. In 2019, Dyme was the first independent Dutch company to receive a PSD2 licence from the Netherlands' central bank (DNB). == History == Dyme was founded in 2018 by Joran Iedema, David Knap, David Schogt and Wouter Florijn. The four had previously founded Cycleswap, a bicycle rental platform launched in 2015 and sold to the American platform Spinlister in 2016. The company gained notability in the Netherlands in 2020 when it appeared on Dutch television in Dragons Den, where Pieter Schoen made a €750,000 bid in an attempt to acquire 51.01% of the company. Dyme's Joran Iedema rejected the deal. == Recognition == Wired described Dyme as one of the "hottest start-ups in Europe" in 2021. As of 2021, the company reportedly had 350,000 registered users in the Netherlands and Great Britain.
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