CybersecurityIsrael bolsters cyber defenses to cope with an escalating number of cyberattacks

Published 29 July 2015

In 2013, Israel’s grid was cyberattacked, on average, a few hundred times per hour. Last year the average hourly attacks on Israel’s grid was 20,000.The number of detected cyberattacks on Israel reached two million a day during the war with Hamas last summer. The Israeli government decided there was a need to reorganize and improve the cyberdefense systems protecting Israel’s critical infrastructure.

In 2013, Israel’s grid was cyberattacked, on average, a few hundred times per hour. Last year the average number of hourly attacks on Israel’s grid was 20,000.The number of detected cyberattacks on Israel reached two million a day during the war with Hamas last summer.

The Israeli government decided there was a need to reorganize and improve the cyberdefense systems protecting Israel’s critical infrastructure. Earlier this year Israel has created a government agency to oversee the country’s cyber protection, and the IDF has reorganized its cyber efforts under a unified command. Israel’s central bank has become the first in the world to define – and require – mandatory cyber protection measures of all financial institutions.

The different layers of Israel’s government, military, and private sector take cyberattacks seriously. “If I ranked the existential threats, cyber would come right behind nuclear weapons,” Carmi Gillon, former head of the Shin Bet domestic security service and chairman of Cytegic, a company developing a digital dashboard and tools to help keep companies protected, told Bloomberg.

The cyber threat to Israel is only growing. In April, the hacking group Anonymous called for hackers around to world to attack Israel. Israel is now the second most-hit country by hackers, following the United States, which is the most sought-after target for hackers..

There are just two cables that connect Israel’s Internet network to the world, and some experts see it as an advantage. Yaron Blachman, director of cyber and technology consulting at PricewaterhouseCoopers Israel, believes that in case of an emergency, authorities can just ask their Internet service provider to disconnect.

Israel began to build its cyberdefenses a little over ten years ago. The National Information Security Authority was established in 2002, and the National Cyber Bureau was created in 2012. This year a new agency was launched, tasked with safeguarding civilian organizations such as banks.

Gen. (ret.) Amos Yadlin, a former military intelligence chief, told Bloomberg that “You can’t be a good defender unless you understand the offense …. Therefore, defensive efforts must overlap to some degree with offensive efforts, including those of intelligence collection.” Israel is believed to be behind the Stuxnet malware which infected and disabled Iran’s uranium enrichment centrifuges, and behind other sophisticated viruses which managed to collect sensitive information about Iran’s nuclear program.

Israel’s broad effort to protect its critical infrastructure and military from cyberattacks has also proved profitable, as government agencies invested in different cybersecurity companies. Israeli cybersecurity companies are highly regarded for the quality of their solutions, and some of them were acquired for hundreds of millions of dollars by American and European companies, while others formed strategic partnerships with American and European companies.

Still, as is the case in other countries, experts say that many Israeli corporations are not sufficiently protected against cyberattacks. One of the most vulnerable industries in the country for today is banking.

This is a worry, as hackers’ attacks on banking system have become more advanced.

“Israel is a geopolitical target and attacking the banking sector can damage our economy,” Rachel Jacoby, head of the OpRisks management unit for technology and cyber at the central bank, told Bloomberg.