Dr. Lior Tabansky

Strategic technology adviser

I solve problems in cybersecurity,
AI and critical infrastructure
with and within enterprises
and public institutions.

My work spans advanced and emerging economies, including assignments undertaken with the World Bank.

National cybersecurity strategy

Singapore

I helped a new national cybersecurity agency define its vision and strategic choices—including what not to do—so cybersecurity would advance digital transformation and wider national priorities.

Singapore’s Cybersecurity Strategy 2016 · CSA ↗

World Bank / PROGRESS

Four sectors across
11 countries

With colleagues, I developed PROGRESS to build cyber resilience across whole sectors. We applied and refined it alongside local teams; the resulting recommendations are being implemented.

Read the paper and field record →
Dr. Lior Tabansky

Keeping power engineers in charge

Power engineers were responsible for keeping electricity flowing. A proposed cyber unit, staffed by outsiders, would change their operations while leaving them accountable. They resisted.

A new national cyber agency brought me in as a foreign expert. After studying local arrangements and interviewing sector professionals, I recommended keeping the engineers in charge, with cyber specialists alongside them.

Within weeks, the sector accepted my recommendations. Engineers helped design and review the changes, removing opposition and avoiding the cost of establishing and staffing a separate unit and duplicating systems.

New tools gave cyber specialists visibility across industrial control systems and IT: data they could correlate, use to establish normal behaviour, and monitor for anomalies—a foundation for measuring performance and deciding what to improve.

Related work on critical-infrastructure resilience →

Alongside advisory work, I research innovation, defense and warfare.

My defense research examines why states with advanced technology and well-funded armed forces still leave civilian infrastructure exposed to destructive cyberattacks. I argue that AI, robotics and geopolitical disorder make institutional change more urgent: who is responsible, how money is spent and how people work.

Head, Cyber Resilience Laboratory
Tel Aviv University ↗