The head of one of the world’s main suppliers of banking software has discussed how his company hires Israeli companies to try and hack its systems and expose security flaws.

Francisco Fernandez is the founder of Avaloq, a Swiss banking security company. It provides protection to some of the world’s top banks, including Barclays, HSBC and RBS in the UK. It is responsible for protecting accounts holding just over £3 trillion.

In a piece published by the BBC, Mr Fernandez discussed some of the techniques his company uses to defend against cyberattacks, including paying Israeli companies to attempt to breach its defences.

"The Israelis are very, very good, they [the young tech workers] are coming out of active military service, and they are brilliant,” said Mr Fernandez.

"We regularly appoint them to attack our systems in a controlled way, and then with their help we try to make our systems bulletproof.

"We do our homework, security is a constant thing... we get thousands of attacks per year but so far, touch wood, we have never had an intrusion into our systems."

Israel is famous for its cybersecurity industry, both domestic and further afield. Veterans of the Israeli Defence Force’s Unit 8200, responsible for signal intelligence, have gone on to found companies including CheckPoint, Palo Alto Networks, CyberArk and Gilat.