Today, Minister of Defense Benny Gantz addressed participants of Cyber Week at Tel Aviv University.
“I would like to address the terror attack that took place on our northern border," he said. "The State of Israel is interested in seeing a prosperous, peaceful and stable Lebanon. Unfortunately, the situation in Lebanon is worsening, since Hezbollah and additional terrorist organizations are operating against the interests of Lebanese citizens. We have responded overnight to the rocket fire, which violated Israel’s sovereignty. I would like to emphasize that the State of Lebanon is responsible for this violation. Israel extended a helping hand and offered humanitarian aid to Lebanon, yet every security threat will be met with an 'iron fist' from the same hand that was extended. I call on the international community to take action to return stability to Lebanon.”
On defense export licenses from the Ministry of Defense, he said: “I wish to address recent developments – we are aware of recent publications regarding the use of systems developed by certain Israeli cyber companies. Israel, as a liberal western democracy, controls exports of cyber products in accordance with its defense export control law, complying with international export control regimes. As a matter of policy, the State of Israel authorizes the export of cyber products solely to governments, only for lawful use, and exclusively for the purposes of preventing and investigating crime and terrorism. The countries acquiring these systems must abide by their commitments to these requirements. We are currently studying the information that is published on the subject.”
Regarding cyber-attacks against Israel. he said: ”In recent years there has been a significant increase in the number of attacks perpetrated by hostile actors, including Iran and its proxies, which seek to access the ICT systems of Israel’s national infrastructure. In the face of this rise - from several individual attacks to dozens of attacks per year- Israel has been resilient, and demonstrated its technological advance and Qualitative Military Edge.”