Israel can fend off a cyberattack

The terrorism the State of Israel grapples with isn't only physical, it's moving into the cyber realm. Israel faces threats of this kind from Hezbollah and Hamas daily. Their cyberattacks are growing more sophisticated, forcing Israel to improve its abilities to provide an appropriate solution.

Of course, Israel isn't the only country facing threats like these. The U.S. and other Western nations are under constant threat by various Islamist groups, including, of course, the Islamic State group which is trying to attack them to avenge the attacks against it by coalition forces.

This is the third year an attack on Israeli websites has been organized. The attackers are mainly hackers from our region. The first cyberattack, two years ago, was a large one. The second was much smaller. We don't know about the third one yet, but we are seeing preparations for a wide-scale operation.

The hacker groups don't have very advanced tools, but the Iranian involvement, which was also a factor in the previous cyberattacks, could make this attack more severe. A study conducted a year ago indicated that terrorist groups that are not government-backed have difficulty executing serious attacks, and that only countries with extensive intelligence can orchestrate significant attacks.

Iran has already proved that it has the ability, and although it won't claim responsibility for any attack, it could take advantage of one. If the attack this time resembles what happened two years ago, Israel will know how to stop it. Our cyberdefense capabilities are improving.

Those entrusted with the task are doing very advanced work and are working with all the relevant authorities, and we are hoping that this time, too, we'll manage to fend off the attack.

Dr. Gabi Siboni heads the Cyber Security Program at the Institute for National Security Studies.