By David Shamah

Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat (L) and Director of the Israel Electric Company Yiftach Ron-Tal turned down the lights of the Old City walls in Jerusalem on Earth Day earlier this year. Courtesy of Matanya Tausig/Flash 90

Israel is attacked 1,000 times a minute by cyber-terrorists who are largely targeting the country’s infrastructure — water, electricity, communications and other important services. And while the hackers have so far failed to mount a meaningful attack on major systems that. for example, might leave Israelis without power, there’s no guarantee it can’t happen, said Israel Electric Company (IEC) Director Yiftach Ron-Tal.

In fact, the odds are with the cyber-terrorists, at least as far as the IEC is concerned, because the company is subject to between 10,000 and 20,000 cyber-attacks each day, Ron-Tal says.

Ron-Tal was speaking at the annual meeting of Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). Participants in the event included military leaders and security experts, such as Amos Yadlin, current INSS director and former head of IDF Military Intelligence, and General Michael Hayden, former director of the NSA and CIA.

The IEC, said Ron-Tal, is treating these attacks as a security emergency, with a 24/7 deployment of top security staff, military-style strategies to outwit, thwart, or fight back against attackers, and “redeployment of forces” in order to ensure that attacks do not disable the IEC’s ability to keep the juice flowing.

Read more.

Source: The Times of Israel