Israel is building a digital version of its Iron Dome air defense system to counter growing threats in cyberspace, Israeli media said this Friday.
According to a report by Times of Israel this Friday, Israel is developing a digital version of its “Iron Dome” air defense system to deal with the growing threats in the cyber space.
Aviram Atzaba, head of international cooperation branch at Israel’s National Cyber Agency, said in this regard that the facility, called the “Cyber Dome,” will be built with the help of artificial intelligence and a small group of Israeli intelligence personnel.
He also noted that the facility will be about 90 minutes from Tel Aviv, the capital of economic and technological development in Israel, working under the rule of Israel’s prime minister.
does not disclose figures for its staff, budget or computing resources. Describing the cyber domain as a silent and invisible war, Atzaba said that in the past two years, Israel has been developing a cyber dome against cyber attacks to act like an iron dome against missiles coming from the sky towards Israel.
According to the report, employees of various government departments, including Intelligence Unit 8200, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the J6 Cyber Defense Directorate, the Cyber Defense Division of the Israeli Army, the Mossad and Shin Bet cyber units, and the Israeli Ministry of Defense will act as the staff of the Cyber Doom. The creation of the Cyber Dome was announced as of summer 2022, but its development is now slow due to the conflict in Gaza.
Atzaba added that while Israel has been fighting Hamas since the October 7 war in Gaza, it has continued to face a significant increase in cyber attacks. He further clarified that the Israeli system of cyber dome will have various scanners that continuously monitor Israel’s cyberspace for vulnerabilities and inform stakeholders of serious threats when the occur.
“Israel’s cyber strength relies on close cooperation and integration between the government, private and academic sectors, as well as Israel’s “white hat” hackers who help identify vulnerabilities,” Atzaba further asserted.
Israel accuses Iran of cyber offense: How true is the claim?
While pointing to the help that Russia and China offer to Iran, as well as the much larger population of Iran and Tehran’s emphasis on cyber training for students and soldiers, he added that this trend will be worrying in the future for Israel.
Israel claims that since the war in Gaza started, hackers affiliated to Iran have carried out hundreds of cyber attacks against different targets in Israel. “Since the beginning of the Gaza war, about 800 major attacks have been neutralized, among them were government agencies, military and civilian infrastructure mostly related to Iran,” Atzaba said.
Contrary to what Atzaba claimed, however, the history of Iran and Israel’s rivalry in the realm of cyber space tells a different story.
In other words, Israel has been much more offensive in cyber attacks against Iran than Iran has been against Israel. The best example to prove this claim is Israel’s cyber attack on Iran’s nuclear sites in 2010 known as the Stuxnet attack. Following the attack, the Stuxnet computer virus was detected in computers at the Bushehr nuclear power plant. The virus then spread to other facilities. By September, 30,000 computers across at least 14 facilities, including the Natanz facility, were reportedly infected.
Although neither the US nor Israel has openly admitted responsibility, multiple independent news organizations recognize Stuxnet to be a cyberweapon built jointly by the United States and Israel in a collaborative effort known as Operation Olympic Games.