January 31, 2018 | IBM, the American multinational technology company, announced on Wednesday it will expand its Cyber Center of Excellence (CCOE) with a new laboratory to be launched in Beersheba. The cyber research center has already operated for four years on the campus of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, but the company has moved to a new location in Gav Yam Negev High Tech Park to launch a new and expanded center, through a collaboration between the company’s global security division and its research division. The new lab was inaugurated by Marc van Zadelhoff, General Manager of IBM’s Global Security Division, in a ceremony attended by the Beersheba Mayor Rubik Danilovich, IBM Israel CEO Daniel Malka, President of Ben-Gurion University Prof. Rivka Carmi and Head of the Excellence Center Dr. Yaron Wolfstal. While much of IBM’s research activity in Israel takes place at the Haifa research lab, IBM’s largest research center outside the US, CCOE will be the southern extension of the research center. The center conducts research that focuses on aspects of information security in cooperation with Ben-Gurion University as well as IBM clients and other organizations in the Israeli cyber industry. It also focuses on fields such as insider threats, the security of networks of connected vehicles, software research, and development to secure databases, and new technologies for the identification of malware and unusual behavior patterns on devices such as laptops and smartphones. “IBM is a key partner in advancing Beersheba as the national cyber capital,” said Danilovich at the inauguration ceremony of the lab. “Expanding the lab’s activities and the move to the high-tech park in Gav-Yam Negev is a significant development for the south.”