(Cyberwar.news) The United States and Israel have signed a cyber defense accord along with dozens of other nations as a means of thwarting the use of technology as a weapon, Israel21c reported.

Nearly 5,000 government, industry and academic representatives from 45 countries met in Tel Aviv from June 19-23 for the sixth annual International Cybersecurity Conference, part of which involved signing the new joint cyber defense cooperation pact.

Among the many events over the course of the week were the first-ever CyberStorm Startup Competition as well as individual roundtable discussions on commercial, academic and governmental cybersecurity cooperation between Israel and Spain, Singapore, China, India, Italy and the United Kingdom, Israel21c reported.

Israel will be among the first nations in the world to join the DHS Automated Indicator Sharing initiative, a system designed to create an automated platform between governments and private industry for efficient, rapid sharing of information in order to defend against or stop cyber attacks.

The U.S.-Israel declaration demonstrations that a international coalition of countries, research facilities and industries can more efficiently deal with cyber threats to each or all of them, in order to protect critical infrastructure. The multilateral declaration builds partnerships with the private sector and research institutions to better aid in the development of critical cyber defense and detection technology.

In September, Fortune reported that Israel had become a leader in cyber security, if for no other reason than out of need to protect itself and give it offensive cyber capability to strike back. Fortune noted:

A regional power devoted to ensuring its own survival, Israel has burgeoned into a high tech epicenter built around Internet security, anti-virus software, and other cyber defense technologies. Much of this is an extension of its self-reliance, and the added fact that since the creation of modern Israel, the nation has faced enemies on its borders.

“The challenging environment Israel faces in the Middle East in the physical world has reflections also on the cyber world,” Dudu Mimran, CTO of the Cyber Security Research Center at Ben-Gurion University, located in Beer Sheva, Israel, told the web site. “Security is a subject that can be taught theoretically, but nothing is a substitute for a real hands-on experience and we’ve got lots of it.”

More:

• Israel Is Now A Cybersecurity Superpower And Here’s How It Happened
• Claim: FBI Used Mercenary Hackers To Access Terrorist IPhone
• U.S. Intelligence: Foreign Hackers Are Spying On Political Campaigns

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