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Doron Amir (דורון אמיר, born December 1975) is an Israeli high-tech entrepreneur in the fields of software and cybersecurity. He is the founder and CEO of CyTaka – the world championship in cyber for programmers. Doron Amir promotes education and employment in the high-tech industry.

Biography
Doron Amir was raised in Holon. In 1994, towards the end of his high school studies and the beginning of his military service, he enlisted in the Israeli Air Force's technological reserve program, intending to pursue further vocational training before joining intelligence unit 8200. However, at the end of training and before his assignment, in light of the security situation in Israel at that time, he asked to become a combat soldier, volunteered to the Paratroopers Brigade, and served in "Orev", a special commando unit.

Career Launch: Training, Programming, and Consulting
Upon the completion of his military service, Doron Amir worked as a software and cybersecurity instructor at New Horizons, John Bryce (Hebrew) / Matrix (Hebrew), Ramat Gan College (Hebrew), the Technion, and See Security. and as a programmer at Amdocs.

Concurrently he attained multiple technology and training certifications by Microsoft,  researched the field of cybersecurity, focusing on vulnerability analysis, and provided consulting services in IT to multiple organizations. In 2008 he relocated to London to work for Pilat Media (nowadays a SintecMedia company) to train international software teams in broadcast encryption.

Business career and cybersecurity ventures
In 2015 Doron Amir was a co-founder of the Chinese holdings company TLV Ventures, in which he worked as CTO and helped promote Israeli companies' technology in China and Taiwan. In 2017 he left TLV Ventures to found Plexivo, a cybersecurity company that developed a computer games-based simulation system (in the style of the GTA computer game series) to train cybersecurity professionals, alongside a unique cyber-capable, sensors-featuring hardware component. The initiative, whose advisory board featured a large number of highly prominent security figures of diverse backgrounds gained considerable media interest, but it was discontinued due to cybersecurity regulation issues and internal discord. Following the termination of the project Doron Amir conducted research in the field of algorithm development, to improve computer performance on Nvidia products platform, and to carry out speech recognition, at a daughter company of TLV Ventures.

CyTaka
In 2021 Doron Amir founded the cybersecurity company CyTaka, whose purpose is to train new ranks of cybersecurity professionals by increasing software developers' awareness of cybersecurity issues, thus providing the general public better defense against growing cybersecurity threats. Doron Amir serves as the CEO of CyTaka and is a member of the founding group of its parent company, Globus Research and Development, which owns the brand CyTaka. In March 2022 it was published that the parent company raised from a group of private investors $50 million at a valuation of $0.5 billion for the purpose of spreading its cybersecurity initiative beyond the bounds of the Middle East towards the European market.

Products, services, and competitions
CyTaka offers programmers and cybersecurity professionals opportunities to demonstrate and improve their skills in cybersecurity by way of solving challenges on its dedicated mobile app and in national and international competitions. The company holds, both in Israel and internationally, cybersecurity competitions in increasingly innovative and sophisticated formats, such as capture the flag, red team (attackers) vs. blue team (defenders), and hacking into smart devices. These events are often attended by former senior defense and security officials, who are invited to speak to the audience, award prizes to the winners, and overall support the initiative.

At the 2022 Cyber Negev competition, the company launched CyTaka Cube – an auxiliary system for training purposes that produces various cybersecurity scenarios and uniquely simulates to competitors scenarios tantamount to real world situations.

Building bridges between Jews and Muslims
Doron Amir has worked intensively with the Muslim and Arab world, among else from the offices of Globus Research and Development in Dubai. In August 2021 CyTaka held its pre-qualifying event for the world cyber competition at the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai. At the event, at the invitation of Doron Amir, former undefeated MMA champion Khabib Nurmagomedov took the stage to talk to the audience. A known public critic of Israel until the event, Nurmagomedov expressed support for the initiative to establish educational institutions for the high-tech industry in Arab countries.

Establishing and leading vocational training projects for Israel's Haredi population (men and women)
Until 2007 Doron Amir established and operated vocational training initiatives for the Haredi community, in collaboration with Manpower Bereshit, Keren Kemach (Hebrew), an employment program team at JDC (Joint) Israel, and the Modi'in Illit branch of The Mercaz Chareidi Institute of Technology. The initiatives' purpose was to expand the array of opportunities facing this often closed population overall, and particularly to promote gender equality by encouraging Haredi women's employment in the high-tech sector.

Activities to bolster high-tech excellence
Doron Amir has collaborated with the People and Computers group (Hebrew) since 2003. He served as a judge in many of the group's contests, including Israel's largest high-tech competitions. He regularly writes articles and gives interviews to the group's publications and he serves as a speaker and panelist at the group's conferences.

His views
On cybersecurity technology subjects, at the Mobility 2013 conference, Doron Amir demonstrated on stage how to break into smartphones of all operating systems, in order to convey a firm message on consumer privacy to the telecommunications service providers. In the aftermath of the Israeli Police NSO affair (Hebrew), Doron Amir welcomed the issue's breaking into the media and public awareness, a step which he claimed would promote the formation of a mechanism to regulate and oversee private companies that develop arsenals of advanced cyberweapons.

On cybersecurity defense subjects, in the wake of the elimination of multiple senior Hamas commanders in Operation Guardian of the Walls in 2021, Doron Amir determined that the money that is being channeled to Hamas, allowing it to hire cyberattackers, poses a new major challenge for the State of Israel and Unit 8200, and he estimated that the world is on a path to forming a global collaboration to find correlations between money transactions and to trace their sources back to specific countries of origin, which would make it possible to act against the assailants at the international level. Doron Amir also warned against the accumulation of funds and brainpower by malicious cyber organizations and stressed that the combination of money and manpower makes an army for all intents and purposes.

On economic subjects, Doron Amir encouraged the Haredi population to strive to mingle with the general population and called upon companies hiring Haredi workers to stop assigning them to work areas that are fully separate from the other company employees. On the one hand, he denounced investors who excessively dilute entrepreneurs and who strongarm startups into changing their strategies to fit the formers' needs; and on the other hand, he opposed funding small startups that intend to compete against global behemoths in futile battles. He also supported a full subsidy of a bachelor's degree to all Israelis who complete their military or otherwise alternative civilian service as required.

Over the years Doron Amir voiced opinions supporting the creation of a safe and global world, in alignment with his actions for the cause.

Personal life
Doron Amir is married and lives in Ra'anana. The couple has two daughters.