Last month, a coordinated cyberattack—widely attributed to the Jewish state—struck Iran, causing significant disruption. Such incidents support the general perception that Israel has robust cyberwarfare capabilities. While this perception is not unfounded, writes Lev Topor, it glosses over Israel’s vulnerabilities:
A critical review of the actual structure of cyberspace in Israel reveals flaws and vulnerabilities often exploited by adversaries or criminals, [which] downgrade national security and especially civilian security, since the whole civilian domain is less-well protected. . . . The simple logic behind this argument was summed up in the Rocky films when the title character said of boxing matches: “It’s not about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” . . . Israel can indeed attack, but can it get hit and keep moving forward? This question has now become very pertinent as the global pandemic shifted much of human life to the cyber domain.
Without sufficient regulations on businesses or a proper response from governmental bodies like the National Cyber Directorate, Israeli citizens are bound to suffer from more cyberattacks in the future. In recent attacks on the Shirbit insurance company and Bar-Ilan University, the entire Israeli security community was exposed—as the hackers knew beforehand that military and intelligence personnel were customers of Shirbit and studied at Bar-Ilan University, which offers special programs to the abovementioned personnel.
Thus, while Israel’s adversaries were not able to penetrate internal military or intelligence intranets, they managed to spy on high-ranking officials indirectly by attacking their service providers. This is only the tip of the iceberg as the personal data of more than 6 million Israeli citizens was exposed in previous election-related data leaks.
Read more at Jerusalem Strategic Tribune
More about: Cyberwarfare, Israeli Security