The NJ Office of Homeland Security held a conference at NJIT with reps from Israel about securing infrastructure.

By Michael Hill

Correspondent

Nathan Security Consultants of Mercer County came to explore.

“We’re here to see what they have to say and get exposed to the Israeli security companies and their specialties and see how I can blend in with them and offer my services to them also,” said William Nathan, CEO.

Nathan joined other private sector executives at NJIT for this New Jersey Homeland Security and Israel conference on securing critical infrastructure.

“I feel that this collaboration is growing and hopefully we’ll be able to see how it grows also to a viable win-win situation,” said Israeli Economic Minister to North America Nili Shalev.

The U.S. and Israel have a growing technology and tactics-sharing relationship. The military recently announced it had adopted the Israeli practice of a “roof knock” to warn civilians to leave a building before an airstrike.

This conference builds on that partnership with a dozen Israeli companies offering their technology to Garden State businesses and industries, technology such as neutralizing a drone and reportedly the software that helped the federal government crack the iPhone security code of the San Bernardino terrorist.

Is that true?

“No comment,” said Chris Dinkelmeyer, forensic salesman for Cellebrite.

That’s all Dinkelmeyer would say about that, but he did elaborate on what the company can offer.

“We get phones four to six weeks before they come out, sometimes 12 weeks before they come out, which gives us the availability to do research and development on brand new phones prior to them being released to the public, which is extremely important for law enforcement,” he said.

“And these constantly evolving threats require this innovation. And we need to make sure that we’re in the best position to counter and respond to any threat that may come up in the physical or the cyber space,” said Chris Rodriguez, state director of the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness.

Several of these Israeli companies already are working to protect America and its liberty, literally.

BriefCam offers video surveillance at the Statue of Liberty and the Passaic Valley Water Commission. It’s one of the companies that says the tech industry is uber important to Israel, surrounded by adversaries.

When asked where he would be without that, Amit Gavish, general manager for BriefCam Americas, said, “I’m not sure. I want to imagine that idea of not having those capabilities, I think it’s very clear that the capabilities provided today in Israel assist and are being used day in and day out to combat some of the threats that Israel is facing.”

“The constant threat that the state of Israel lives under and operates under requires it to constantly innovate and create technologies that can better protect their way of life,” Rodriguez said.

It’s the same security New Jersey and its industries seek to deploy.

Follow @HillNJTV