Hackers (illustrative)
Hackers (illustrative)Israel news photo: Flash 90

The Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) held on Tuesday its annual international conference on cyberspace. Arutz Sheva was there.

Among other topics, the conference dealt with cybercrime, cyber terrorism and defending critical national infrastructures and industrial control systems from online threats. Speakers included former CIA chief Gen. Michael Hayden and Maj. Gen. (ret.) Amos Yadlin, formerly the chief of IDF intelligence, who now heads the INSS.

Rami Efrati of the Israel National Cyber Bureau at the Prime Minister’s Office told Arutz Sheva that cyber warfare “is a real threat.”

He added, “It may be in the virtual network but it’s a real threat which exists every day, and every day we, as Israelis, and other countries as well, are being attacked.”

Efrati said that cyber attacks are naturally aimed at the defense sector but emphasized that quite a few attacks target the private sector. “The private sector has to be well-prepared for cyber attacks with special cyber defense systems,” he said.

Yadlin spoke about Israel’s capabilities in the cyber world and characterized the Jewish State as an “international superpower” in the cyber world.

“Cyber has three dimensions: defense, collection or espionage and attack,” he said, adding that Israel “is very good at collection. We’re working on defense, but Israel is basically a leading country in developing firewalls, anti-viruses and security companies. This is exactly what this conference is about.”

Efrati said that while some cyber attacks have been attributed to private individuals, it is believed that some of the larger scale attacks were too complex to have been carried out by private people.

“We believe that attacks against private or public companies were not done by private people,” he said. “A young person sitting in front of a computer cannot attack Lockheed Martin [on his own].”

He emphasized that everyone must be prepared for cyber attacks and added, “One of the ideas of the Israeli national cyber bureau is to create regulations that will make sure that you as a human being, or the country itself, will be well-prepared for cyber attacks.”