RBC announced that it is investing $2 million into research at Israel’s Ben-Gurian University (BGU) Cyber-Security Research Center.
The funding is a result of a collaboration between RBC and BGN Technologies, a technology transfer company at Ben-Gurion University that focuses on establishing partnerships between startups at its university and enterprises and helping companies get to market. RBC said the funding will support the development of AI and machine-learning based cyber mitigation techniques. RBC’s research collaboration will also focus on evaluating the strength of current AI and machine learning techniques while limiting current techniques’ vulnerability to threats and tampering.
“This partnership will help support our cyber defense by working with prominent experts in the field, such as the researchers at Ben-Gurion University.”
– Martin Wildberger, EVP technology and operations, RBC
“In today’s incredibly complex world, we need advanced technology like AI and machine learning to continue developing leading-edge cybersecurity,” said Martin Wildberger, the executive vice president of technology and operations at RBC. “This partnership will help support our cyber defense by working with prominent experts in the field, such as the researchers at Ben-Gurion University.”
According to RBC, the research areas will be developed in collaboration with Yuval Elovici and Asaf Shabtai, professors in the department of software and information systems engineering at the BGU Cyber-Security Research Center.
“We are looking forward to collaborating with RBC, Canada’s largest bank,” said Danny Shtaier, who works in high-tech business development at BGN Technologies. “This partnership provides our researchers with the opportunity to further apply their leadership in cybersecurity research to the banking industry, where security is crucial for daily operations and the safety of customers.”
This is not RBC’s first investment in cybersecurity research. In January, RBC announced it is investing $1.78 million into a cybersecurity research lab at the University of Waterloo with the goal of developing advanced cybersecurity and privacy tools.