{"id":11190,"date":"2016-01-30T04:30:10","date_gmt":"2016-01-30T10:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hcstx.org\/?p=11190"},"modified":"2016-01-30T04:30:10","modified_gmt":"2016-01-30T10:30:10","slug":"israel-the-middle-east-quietly-rising-cyber-super-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2016\/01\/30\/israel-the-middle-east-quietly-rising-cyber-super-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel:  Quietly Rising as a Cyber Super-Power in the Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"headline\">\n<div class=\"d1-title-container\">\n<div class=\"d1-subhead-container\">\n<p class=\"d1-subhead\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-11191\" src=\"https:\/\/hcsblogdotorg.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/01\/netty.jpg?w=620\" alt=\"netty\" width=\"620\" height=\"284\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"d1-subhead\"><span class=\"outer\"><span class=\"inner\"><span class=\"inner-inner\">Israel now has more than 300 cybersecurity companies, exports totaling $6 billion, and 20 percent of the world\u2019s private cyber investment dollars.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cybertechisrael.com\/\">Cybertech 2016<\/a>\u00a0convened this week in Tel Aviv, and I was in the audience for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s plenary address, courtesy of the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/aifl.org\/\">America-Israel Friendship League<\/a>\u00a0and the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Israel has an ambitious domestic and international agenda designed to make it one of the world\u2019s super cyber\u00a0powers.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"d1-inline-subscribe-container newsletter\">\n<h3 class=\"d1-inline-subscribe-title\"><\/h3>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The prime minister has made cybersecurity one of his trademark issues and is a big promoter of the idea that better network defenses are essential for national security and that the information security industry is a driver of economic growth (Israel now has\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2016\/01\/24\/the-startup-landscape-for-cybersecurity-companies-in-israel\/\">more than 300\u00a0cybersecurity companies<\/a>, exports of $6 billion, and 20 percent of the world\u2019s private investment in cyber). In his speech, Netanyahu stressed two large themes. First, there is a need for action now, and as a result some policies may be incomplete or eventually reversed, but the general direction has been decided and everyone needs to start moving.\u00a0 He returned to a metaphor from the army that he has used before of forces in the field changing direction even if every detail is not yet in\u00a0place.<\/p>\n<p>Second, Netanyahu highlighted a contradiction between the necessity of and the risks inherent in cooperation. The Israeli government is actively looking to partner with other countries and the private sector, but sharing information and capabilities will always be a calculated\u00a0risk.<\/p>\n<p>Four specific points in the speech were of interest. First, the standing up of the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/mfa.gov.il\/MFA\/PressRoom\/2015\/Pages\/Cabinet-approves-establishment-of-National-Cyber-Authority-15-Feb-2015.aspx\">National Cyber Authority<\/a>\u00a0and the delineation of its authorities are running into some resistance, presumably primarily from the Shin Bet, Israel\u2019s internal security agency. The Shin Bet is responsible for defending critical infrastructure, has much of the country\u2019s cyber capability, and does not want to give up influence. The prime minister spoke of challenging vested interests, including the intelligence agencies; the officials I spoke with took the resistance as an entirely predictable outcome of bureaucratic politics and expected the turf battles to be resolved\u00a0quickly.<\/p>\n<p>Second, the prime minister used a medical metaphor to explain the government\u2019s responsibilities in defending the country against cyberattacks. The government\u2019s role is to immunize organizations and individuals by developing best practices and standards that everyone should be expected to implement. The government will treat certain types of infections, and in some instances of massive, widespread attacks that could be likened\u00a0to epidemics, the government will\u00a0use military force and the intelligence agencies to \u201cboth treat the attack and treat the\u00a0attacker.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"defenseone-instream-ad\" class=\"ad ad-defenseone-instream hidemobile hidetablet\">\u00a0Third, and unsurprisingly given Israel\u2019s long-held skepticism towards the United Nations, Netanyahu disparaged the idea of a universal code of cyber norms. Instead, he advocated a meeting of like-minded countries to define norms and sanctions against those who violate those standards. The government will use the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/english.tau.ac.il\/news\/cybersecurity_conference\">annual June meeting at Tel Aviv University<\/a>\u00a0to push this\u00a0agenda.<\/div>\n<p>Fourth, the government will soon release new guidance on export control laws for cybersecurity products. The approach is going to be pro-business; anything that is not explicitly prohibited will be allowed. Government officials explained the notice was necessary to eliminate uncertainty among companies about what they could do, but an entrepreneur told me the measures would have the opposite effect. Government attention would only raise anxiety among investors and companies where there was none before.\u00a0Officials were clearly trying to avoid reproducing the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/cybersecurity\/265626-feds-weigh-next-step-for-controversial-anti-hacking-regs\">controversy in the United States<\/a>\u00a0over application of the Wassenaar\u00a0export control regulations,\u00a0but do not seem to be\u00a0succeeding.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Hacked-World-Order-Maneuver-Manipulate\/dp\/1610394151\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1453841164&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=hacked+world+order\">Cyber power<\/a>\u00a0is built on technology, a strong relationship with the private sector, and a good story. There may be different narratives\u2014Erel Margalit, a member of the Knesset, Israel\u2019s legislature, contrasted his vision of Israel as a cyber hub connected to its neighbors with what he called Netanyahu\u2019s vision of Israel as a fort\u2014but it is clear that Israel is putting many of the fundamentals in\u00a0place.<\/p>\n<p>Read the Original Article at <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.defenseone.com\/technology\/2016\/01\/middle-easts-quietly-rising-cyber-super-power\/125472\/?oref=defenseone_today_nl\">Defense One<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Israel now has more than 300 cybersecurity companies, exports totaling $6 billion, and 20 percent of the world\u2019s private cyber investment dollars. Cybertech 2016\u00a0convened this week in Tel Aviv, and I was in the audience for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s plenary address, courtesy of the\u00a0America-Israel Friendship League\u00a0and the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Israel has an ambitious&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[2122,74,883,2378,1814,2450,3176,1286,1189,65],"tags":[4141,2779,4142,4143],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11190"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}