Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Security (SIT), Europe’s largest private organization dedicated to applied scientific research, plans to open a cybersecurity center in Israel later this month, David Shamah of  The Times of Israel reported Friday.

The project will be officially launched at the end of June, when dozens of German government and business officials will converge on Tel Aviv for events marking the 50th anniversary of Israel-Germany diplomatic relations.

On June 30, Fraunhofer will hold its first Israel event, a cyber-security innovation workshop to be attended by top cyber defense, IT and government officials from Israel and Germany. At the top of the agenda is likely to be a discussion on an incident that has shocked Germany — a major cyber attack on the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament. The attack began over two weeks ago, and apparently is still active, with malware sucking out sensitive information from over 20,000 computers — which, the government believes, may have to be replaced altogether. …

A private organization with extensive ties with governments throughout the European Union, Fraunhofer is a one-stop shop for cyber-security testing and malware repair. The staff is often called on to perform practical tests to review a system’s security, simulate the security features by using appropriate software, and “harden” a network to ensure that it is as impenetrable to hackers as possible.

The Fraunhofer Institute’s applied research should benefit Israel’s information technology sector, and German companies will now be more exposed to Israeli technology and its “highly innovative start-up scene.”

Israel’s tech sector has been partnering with a growing number of international organizations and companies. Multinational corporations such as Lockheed Martin, IBM, Cisco, and Apple have opened research centers in Israel. In addition, Tech Mahindra and Infosys, two Indian tech giants, are expanding their operations in Israel.

[Photo: DW (Deutsche) / YouTube ]