The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has invested $2 million in the cybersecurity research center at Ben-Gurion University (BGU), RBC and BGN Technologies, the technology transfer company of BGU, announced.

Funding for the partnership between the financial institution and the university will support the development of adversarial artificial intelligence (AI), including machine learning-based cyber mitigation techniques, BGU said in a statement.

“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,” said Danny Shtaier, a business development manager at BGN Technologies.

The research collaboration will be developed by Prof. Yuval Elovici and Asaf Shabtai, both from the Department of Software and Information Systems Engineering at BGU’s Cyber Security Research Center.

The research will aim to boost and evaluate the resilience of current AI and machine learning techniques, while limiting their vulnerability to threats and tampering.

“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, RBC’s executive vice president for innovation and technology. “This partnership will help support our cyber defense by working with prominent experts in the field, such as the researchers at Ben-Gurion University.”