State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman addressed Tel Aviv University's Cyber Week on Tuesday, warning of the real dangers of foreign influence on the upcoming election cycle, expected to be held in 2026.
In his address, Englman discussed the rising Iranian cyber threat and espionage cases that were recently uncovered in Israel, and said that "we must recognize that foreign influences are liable to come up and affect our democratic process. The State of Israel has entered an election year. During an election year, the threat increases and can endanger the democratic process."
According to the Comptroller, the possible consequences of such attacks are severe: "The creation of chaos on election day, harming public trust in the election system, influence on voters, distortion of election results, erosion of the citizens' trust in the vote count and results, deepening the social division, and more."
Englman revealed that his office is in the midst of inspecting the response to digital foreign election interference, and said: "We are in the midst of audit work into the government's conduct in the face of foreign influence in the digital sphere. We can already say that the findings indicate significant shortcomings."
The Comptroller called on government bodies to act with urgency "to recover and improve their readiness to prevent foreign influence on the elections which are expected to be held in Israel next year."