Royal Bank of Canada and Ben-Gurion University Enter into Cyber Security Partnership

RBC invests $2M in artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to develop advanced cyber security techniques

TORONTO and BEER SHEVA, Israel, June 26, 2018 /CNW/ - The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and BGN Technologies, the technology transfer company of Ben-Gurion University (BGU) in Israel, today announced that RBC is investing $2 million into research at BGU's Cyber-Security Research Center. The funding will support the development of adversarial artificial intelligence (AI), including machine learning-based cyber mitigation techniques.

As the threat landscape continues to evolve in cyber security, artificial intelligence and machine learning have become the industry standard for providing state-of-the art performance in complex tasks like automatic personal assistant, facial and speech recognition, as well as fraud, malware and cyber issue detection.

This research collaboration will aim to further 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 Cyber Security Research Center.

"In today's incredibly complex world, we need advanced technology like AI and machine learning to continue developing leading-edge cyber security," said Martin Wildberger, EVP Technology & Operations, 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."

"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."

About BGN Technologies
BGN Technologies is the technology transfer company of Ben-Gurion University, Israel. BGN Technologies brings technological innovations from the lab to the market and fosters research collaborations and entrepreneurship among researchers and students. To date, BGN Technologies has established over 100 startup companies in the fields of biotech, hi-tech, and cleantech and has initiated leading technology hubs, incubators, and accelerators. Over the past decade, BGN Technologies has focused on creating long-term partnerships with multinational corporations such as Deutsche Telekom, Dell-EMC, PayPal and Lockheed Martin, securing value and growth for Ben-Gurion University as well as the Negev region. For more information, visit the BGN Technologies website.

About RBC
Royal Bank of Canada is a global financial institution with a purpose-driven, principles-led approach to delivering leading performance. Our success comes from the 80,000 employees who bring our vision, values and strategy to life so we can help our clients thrive and communities prosper. As Canada's biggest bank, and one of the largest in the world based on market capitalization, we have a diversified business model with a focus on innovation and providing exceptional experiences to our 16 million clients in Canada, the U.S. and 35 other countries. For more information, please visit rbc.com.

We are proud to support a broad range of community initiatives through donations, community investments and employee volunteer activities. See how at rbc.com/community-sustainability/.

SOURCE RBC