Cyber warfare is the bane of sci-fi movies and spy thrillers alike. Now in Israel, it has been taken to a whole new level. This latest report courtesy of the Israeli government provides an exciting glimpse into this war fought in the shadows.
In his first public speech, Gaby Portnoy, Director General of Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD), presented the new INCD project aimed to diminish cyber-attacks: The Cyber-Dome – a new big-data, AI, overall approach to proactive defense. Portnoy presented in the annual Cyber Week event led by the INCD and Tel-Aviv University cyber research center.
INCD data presented at the conference revealed that 1,500 attacks were halted during the last year by INCD’s teams.
Relating to attackers, Portnoy said: “There is no longer only one-type of an official ideological enemy. On the one hand – Iran has become our dominant rival in cyber, together with, Hizballah and Hamas. We see them, we know how they work, and we are there. On the other hand, the spectrum also was stretched – to attackers, attack groups, proxies, independent crime-organizations, and private people”.
Portnoy presented the INCD’s new project: Cyber-Dome – an analogy to Israel’s Iron-Dome. “The Cyber-Dome will elevate national cyber-security by implementing new mechanisms in the national cyber perimeter, reducing the harm from cyber-attacks at scale. The Cyber-Dome will also provide tools and services to elevate the protection of the national assets as a whole. The Dome is a new big-data, AI, overall approach to proactive-defense. It will synchronize nation-level real-time detection, analysis, and mitigation of threats”.
Portnoy added: “We need to protect our national assets in the best possible way and make cybersecurity protocols we use for critical infrastructure available for more sectorial organizations – government and private”. Portnoy stressed that “You cannot fight cyber aggression alone. You have to have partners, at home, in your defense community, in the government, in the different sectors, in the academy, in the private sector, and around the world”.
