Cyber HQ
Photo: IDF Spokesperson
IDF computerized systems fall prey to cyber attacks
New statistics released by the IDF’s cyber defense unit reveal that around 10% of the failures in the IDF's computerized systems over the past year were the result of cyber attacks.
Ten percent of the failures in the IDF's computerized systems over the past year have been suspected or verified as being the result of cyber attacks, according to new data released by the Cyber-Communications and Defense Division (CCDD).
These figures reflect technical malfunction of thousands of computerized systems and software used by the IDF, including operational and classified systems.
In some of the cases, it took several hours to figure out that the system failure was due to cyber attacks, while in other cases the diagnosis took a lot longer due to the advanced capabilities of the enemy attacker infiltrating the systems.
Photo: Nitzan Dror/IDF Spokesperson's Unit
The stats also point to a gradual and consistent increase in the use of cyber techniques as a mechanism to launch attacks against Israel and against the IDF’s security apparatus in particular.
Two weeks ago the National Cyber Defense Authority said that 120 attacks were thwarted against a mix of Israeli organizations, ministerial offices, public institutions and individual people by a person whose identity was not disclosed.
For all its negatives however, cyber capabilities undoubtedly contain a plethora of benefits which have assisted Israel in combatting the challenge of the wave of terror, particularly across the West Bank.
Using a series of techniques based on computers and the internet, the Israeli security establishment has managed to create a system which provides intelligence warnings and has thus far led to arrests of hundreds of Palestinians who were suspected of intending to carry out terror attacks, before executing their scheme.
"There is a new, infinite arena of operations, where we encounter rivals, enemies and colleagues. It is a weapon for everything," said one IDF officer in the CCDD.
At the new cyber defense headquarters of the IT division, under the command of IDF Cyber Chief of Staff Brig. Gen. Yaron Rozen, a special intelligence division headed by an officer with the rank of colonel performs the task of investigating and sifting through ways, options, capabilities and intentions of enemies to launch cyber attacks against the IDF.
Photo: IDF
Today, hundreds of soldiers work around the clock to counter the cyber challenge. "We should be careful, because Israel is a technological power, everything is 'cyber' here,” Rozen warned in an interview with Ynet.
“If you were to measure Israel by its cyberspace, it would be one of the biggest nations in the world. With that understood, we should keep in mind that if your house is made of glass, you should best avoid getting rocks thrown at it."
He also added that cyber is used by countries to intervene in geopolitical processes such as election campaigns.
