The U.S. Treasury Department and Israel’s Ministry of Finance finalized an agreement to cooperate on cybersecurity.
The bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Cybersecurity Cooperation builds on U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo’s visit to Israel in November 2021. It was then that a bilateral partnership to protect critical infrastructure in the financial sector was established, in recognition of the importance of deepening cooperation on cybersecurity to protect the integrity of the international financial system.
“We are pleased to have the government of Israel as partners in our global effort to stop ransomware,” Adeyemo said. “This partnership has already resulted in the sharing of real-time cyber threat data to prevent the spread of ransomware and other cyberattacks from impacting the U.S. financial sector. We look forward to expanding this partnership.”
On that November 2021 trip, Adeyemo launched a bilateral Cyber Task Force with Israel to help combat the global threat of ransomware.
While the U.S. Treasury and Israel’s Ministry of Finance have a long-standing cybersecurity information-sharing relationship, this MOU formalizes and strengthens the partnership between the two. Specifically, the MOU enhances cooperation in several ways, including information sharing on cybersecurity as well as incidents and threats in the financial sector; staff training and study visits to promote cooperation in the area of cybersecurity; and competency-building activities such as the conduct of cross-border cybersecurity exercises.