Prime Minister Netanyahu at cyber center. Photo courtesy of Kobi Gideon / GPO
With cyber attacks targeting governments, businesses and other groups around the global regularly, Israel set up a national cyber event response center in September 2016. Since then, the center has been involved in blocking “dozens of national-level cyber-attacks” along with addressing “hundreds of cyber events,” according to an Israeli press release.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently toured the National Cyber Defense Authority (NCDA) facility that houses the center. He emphasized the importance of the center’s work. “The cyber threat is one of the biggest threats against both developing countries and our country,” Netanyahu was quoted by the press release as saying. “There are very many elements in the world that can disrupt our lives, steal bank accounts, obstruct our energy supply and cause accidents and sabotage in field after field. The threat here is very great.”
The press release from Netanyahu’s office reported that he had the opportunity to observe a “simulated event involving significant events affecting the economy, the NCDA’s efforts to protect the civilian economy from attacks similar to those that have occurred around the world in recent months, and how the NCDA deals with hacks to organizations if and when they occur.”
Netanyahu noted that the NCDA control room is “one of the most developed in the world.” Despite their advancement, Netanyahu doesn’t want to rest on their success thus far.
Said the Israeli leader, “There is much work to be done, but Israel is showing the way to the world.”
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, July 30, 2017)