BDO Israel acquires Israeli cybersecurity advisory firm SECOZ

BDO Israel has acquired Israeli cybersecurity advisory firm SECOZ for an undisclosed sum. Ophir Zilbiger, the current President of SECOZ as well as its founder and former CEO, joins BDO as Partner. The SECOZ team will be integrated into BDO’s regional cyber security offering, strengthening its position within technology and intelligence advisory services.

SECOZ was founded in 2002 in Israel. The company provides business and information security advisory services to the regional market. The firm has a team of around 30 experts, specialised in a range of areas, including Cyber Defense, Information Security, Business Continuity, Standards & Regulations and IT Risk.

The acquisition announcement sees the SECOZ team integrated into BDO’s local cyber defence, cyber resilience and cyber risk management team. The new team will provide cyber defence readiness assessment, APT and pen-testing, a monitoring and security operations centre (SOC), cyber and information security services as well as incident management and cyber risk assessment for its regional clients. The aim of the deal is to part of BDO Israel’s general strategy to consolidate and maintain its market position through an expansion of its technology and intelligence services. The value of the transaction has not been disclosed.

SECOZ President and former CEO, Ophir Zilbiger, joins BDO as a Partner, and will lead the SECOZ Cybersecurity Center at the firm. Zilbiger was formally a Managing Director at PwC, where he led the risk management practice for PwC Israel and held a global network security SME position while working for PwC UK. Regarding the transaction, Zilbiger remarks that the team is "happy to be joining the BDO Israel consulting group.” Zilbiger further states “We think it is a great opportunity to further develop these services globally, to work with other BDO firms and to offer services that can be delivered remotely and on a managed service capacity.”

Yaron Peled, the Partner heading BDO Israel Management Consulting, including Technology Advisory, adds "We would like to warmly welcome Ophir Zilbiger, the founder and CEO of SECOZ, together with his staff, to BDO Israel. This deal will greatly enhance BDO’s cybersecurity capabilities due to the deep and unique knowledge of SECOZ, combined with industry and international experience.”