Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday accused arch-foe Iran of regularly launching cyber-attacks on Israel that the Jewish state blocks each day.
“Iran attacks Israel on a daily basis,” he told a cyber conference in Tel Aviv. “We monitor these attacks, we see these attacks and we foil these attacks all the time.”
The head of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency is reported to have warned that Israel was bracing for a state-driven cyber intervention in its April 9 general election.
“Any country can be attacked today with cyber-attacks and every country needs the combination of a national cyber defence effort and a robust cyber security industry,” Netanyahu said.
“I think Israel has that… in ways that are in many ways unmatched,” he said.
Earlier this month, Israel carried out an air strike on what it said were Iranian targets in Syria, after a missile attack from Syria it blamed on Iran.
Israel has carried out hundreds of air raids in Syria against what it says are Iranian military targets and advanced arms deliveries to Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Related: From IDF to Inc: The Israeli Cybersecurity Startup Conveyor Belt
Related: Israeli Hacking School Trains Cyber Warriors
Related: In Focus With indeni Founder and CEO Yoni Leitersdorf
Related: iPhone Spyware Spotlights Israel’s Secretive Surveillance Industry
Related: Group Launches Secure DNS Service Powered by IBM Threat Intelligence
Related: Cybereason Raises $100 Million to Hunt Attackers
Related: Cybersecurity’s Venture Capital and Private Equity Money-go-Round