A new report by Israel’s INSS reveled that Iran’s cyber power is growing fast and Israel should be both afraid and prepared for it.
According to a newly released report by Israel’s National Security Studies, the history-long rivalry between Iran and Israel has come to a new era where no direct military confrontation is expected, and yet the two have been engaged in new forms of indirect war for years, especially in the domain of cyber.
The report explains with great concern that Iran’s cyber power is growing so fast and Israel should be both worried and prepared to confront it.
“Iran was one of the first countries to formulate a coherent national cyber strategy, including the creation of the necessary government institutions and the development of the necessary technological capabilities in this field,” the INSS report says.
It also explains that Iran’s interest in cyberspace was first sparked by two early developments: First, the effective use of the Internet by Iran’s opposition forces to incite mass protests after the fraudulent presidential election of 2009. And second, the dramatic Stuxnet attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities in 2010, which was later found to have been carried out by Israel and the United States.”
The report then continues to note that ever since after these two events in Iran, the country’s cyber capabilities have grown steadily, and now Iran is at the top of the world’s second-tier cyber powers.
The report indicates that its founding has been on the basis of available, albeit limited, open-source information, some partial statements by Iranian officials, the broader literature on Iran’s national security, and the observable behavior of Iran in both cyber and military fields.
The report then addresses Iran’s cyber strategy by noting that “unlike Israel’s Arab enemies, who in the past sought to defeat Israel in short-term battles, Iran does not pursue such a policy because it knows that it is not capable of defeating Israel in a head-on battle. Instead, Iran has adopted a long-term strategy of attrition designed to weaken Israel’s military power, undermine Israel’s international standing, and weaken Israel’s social resilience, ultimately leading to its total collapse.”
The INSS report then explains that Iran’s use of cyber power is in good agreement with the strategic culture, which emphasizes ambiguity, denial, and the use of proxy forces. But it notes at the same time that many of Iran’s cyber offensive operations, have been reactive rather than proactive. In other words, Iran uses cyber attacks as a means of defense and reactions to attacks than a means of first attack. That’s why Iran first greatly increased its cyber capabilities in response to the Stuxnet attack back in 2010.
Israel must change course in the realm of cyber
The report concludes that Iran’s growing cyber threat should not be ignored, and that although Israel is a well-developed country in cyber, much has changed in the meantime and a significant update to Israel’s cyber strategies is needed.
“The Israel Defense Forces developed an operational cyber doctrine, but not an overall military cyber strategy, and it is now eight years since it decided to create a unified cyber command, which is still pending further review. Today, there is no statutory body under the Cabinet responsible for determining and coordinating military and intelligence cyber priorities and integrating Israel’s civilian and military cyber strategies,” the report warns, concluding that “these issues must be corrected if Israel is to maximize its cyber capabilities and confront Iran’s growing cyber power.”
