IDF Sets up Cyber War Room

March 29, 2013

The initiative makes the IDF one of the only militaries in the world to operate such a war room. “We definitely feel a significant increase in the number of attempts to challenge our systems,” an army source said. According to him, the threat ranges from lone hackers “to the recruitment of an army of hackers and the planting of malicious computer programs, which are activated when the order is given in order to shut down the systems.

“This is what happened this year to banks in the US and in Estonia in 2007 (the country's economy was shut down for three weeks, apparently due to a cyber attack by Russian criminal elements). Our enemies are not stupid, and they are determined to act in places where they can gain significant achievements,” the army official said.

The new war room will be manned 24 hours a day by some 20 soldiers who graduated from the IDF's Cyber Shield course. The war room will allow the IDF to monitor and respond to any hacking attempt at all levels—from tank computers to the IDF chief of staff's personal computer.

Source: By Yoav Zitun, www.ynetnews.com

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