Royal Bank of Canada invests $2m in BGU cybersecurity R&D

The collaboration aims to develop protection methods to strengthen AI and machine learning techniques, while limiting their vulnerability to threats.

The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is investing $2 million in research at Ben-Gurion University’s (BGU) Cybersecurity Research Center, RBC and BGU’s technology transfer company BGN Technologies have announced. The funding will support the development of adversarial artificial intelligence (AI), including machine learning-based cyber mitigation techniques.The collaboration aims to develop protection methods to strengthen and evaluate the resilience of current AI and machine learning techniques, while limiting their vulnerability to threats and tampering. The research areas will be developed in collaboration with Prof. Yuval Elovici and Dr. Asaf Shabtai, both from the Department of Software and Information Systems Engineering, at the Ben-Gurion University Cybersecurity Research Center.RBC EVP technology & operations Martin Wildberger said, “In today’s incredibly complex world, we need advanced technology like AI and machine learning to continue developing leading-edge cyber security. This partnership will help support our cyber defense by working with prominent experts in the field, such as the researchers at Ben-Gurion University.”

“We are looking forward to collaborating with RBC, Canada’s largest bank,” said Danny Shtaier, High-Tech Business Development, at BGN Technologies. “This partnership provides our researchers with the opportunity to further apply their leadership in cyber security research to the banking industry, where security is crucial for daily operations and the safety of customers.”

Source: Globes