From: Times of Israel

By David Shamah

For its first major investment in Israeli technology, Lockheed-Martin is looking for innovative cyber-security ideas and projects – which would seem a bit out of character for a company best known for defense systems, aerospace, and even space systems. “A lot of people do think that, but it happens that we actually do a lot of information technology work, which means we need a lot of cyber-security,” said Chandra McMahon, Senior VP Commercial Markets, Lockheed Martin IS&GS. “We need good cyber technologies to protect our customers, and Israel is a great place for that.”

At a special ceremony Monday, McMahon, along Bob Eastman, Vice President Global Solutions at Lockheed-Martin, Dr. Orna Berry, head of EMC Israel, and Professor Rivka Carmi, President of Ben Gurion University, signed a deal in which the three organizations will work together to ferret out promising Israeli cyber-security start-ups, and help them develop their technology into commercial products. Under the deal, the companies will invest together and fund start-ups, which will work at EMC’s R&D facilities in the Advanced Technologies Park in Beersheva.

LH’s Information Systems & Global Solutions unit (IS&GS), which McMahon helps run, is a large division of Lockheed-Martin that is not typically associated with the company – but as it happens, LH is the number one IT solutions provider to the U.S. federal government. “We have nearly $9 billion in sales annually, supporting our clients in the private sector, government, and defense arena,” said McMahon. “All of them use our systems and need cyber-security solutions, which we help them to find and maintain. And of course, as a leading defense contractor, we ourselves are prime targets for hackers.”

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