DHS expands Abraham Accords to cybersecurity

TEL AVIV, Israel – In a visit to Israel, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Under Secretary for Policy Robert Silvers discussed the expansion of the Abraham Accords to include shared cybersecurity priorities.

Silvers was in attendance at the CyberTech Global Conference delivering a keynote address where he met with representatives from Israel and several key Middle Eastern nations the DHS said. Those included: President of the State of Israel Isaac Herzog, Israel National Cyber Directorate Director General Gaby Portnoy, Head of the UAE Cyber Security Council H.E. Dr. Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, CEO of the Bahrain National Cyber Security Center Shaikh Salman bin Mohamed bin Abdulla al-Khalifa, and Director General of Morocco’s Directorate General of Information Systems Security Brig. General El Mostafa Rabii to discuss the accords and enhancing their regional cooperation.

“The expansion of the Abraham Accords into cybersecurity is advancing our defensive operational collaboration with Israel and our partners across the Middle East to protect our critical infrastructure,” said DHS Under Secretary for Policy Robert Silvers. “Together we can harness our capabilities to address the most pressing cybersecurity challenges to drive security and resilience.”

 The Abraham Accords were signed in 2020 and are a series of normalization statements between Israel, The United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, and mark the first such instance of normalization since 1994. Silvers’ keynote address underscored the importance of international cooperation and private sector engagement in order to combat growing cybersecurity threats.

Silvers also worked jointly with the U.S. Department of State in order to convince Israeli leaders to meet requirements for eligibility in the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) to enhance U.S.-Israel security and travel partnership.

More on the conference available at www.cybertechisrael.com.