14 DAY TRIAL // Israel is constantly attacked by foreign hackers and while adversaries such as Iran and Syria are not as sophisticated as China, they can still cause some serious damage if they manage to breach critical infrastructure networks.
Tal Pavel, an expert on Internet crimes in the Middle East, has told Times of Israel that cyberattacks can be more dangerous than even nuclear weapons. That’s because not anyone can afford nuclear weapons, but almost anyone can purchase a destructive computer virus.
“Iran, Syria, and the other likely cyber-attackers are not China, which has billions of people and high levels of computer sophistication,” Tal noted.
“Nevertheless, it’s certainly possible for Iran to get top-flight training for its hackers, raising their skills to the point where they can successfully attack Israel’s considerable cyber defenses.”
He highlights that the Syrian Electronic Army has managed to breach the systems of Israeli newspaper Haaretz, despite the fact that Syria’s Internet infrastructure is in poor condition because of the ongoing conflicts.