Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked
Justice Minister Ayelet ShakedFlash90

The information security directives issued by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked were approved Tuesday by the Knesset Law Committee.

The directives will regulate the obligation of the economic sector, both private and public bodies, to maintain personal information security when they collect such information in their databases.

The directives are based on similar regulations issued worldwide and they place Israel at the forefront of personal information protection. The directives include organizational tools and methods whose goal is to prevent negative exploitation of the information by sources within the organization or outside of it.

The Law, Technology and Information Authority in the Justice Ministry, which monitors the implementation of the Private Protection law, will also be in charge of supervision and implementation of the new directives.

The Authority will also issue a pamphlet to the public explaining how to implement the directives. In order to allow the business sector to implement the new directives properly, it was decided that they will apply starting 12 months from today.

Justice Minister Shaked said that "the approval of the directives is a significant step on the road to protecting personal information and maintaining people's right to privacy."

"In an era of growing numbers of cyber attacks, and in which broad information gathering is performed by commercial sources as well as by small businesses employing technological tools, the lack of appropriate protection could allow these tools to infringe on people's privacy. The new directives are therefore more essential than previously. Information protection is also the foundation of consumer trust, so essential in a digitized economy which is so advantageous for society and for the individual," concluded Shaked.