By Eliyahu Berkowitz
Technology is becoming an essential part of modern warfare and, as such, the military must defend against cyber attacks just as it defends against physical threats. A successful attack against an army’s computers can cripple it, or release information the enemy can use to deadly effect. The Israeli navy, an often overlooked branch of the IDF, is on the cutting edge when it comes to technological warfare.
In an exclusive interview, The Jerusalem Post spoke to some Israeli soldiers involved in this new battlefield. The source, an officer from the navy’s Information Systems, Processes, and Computerization unit, known by its Hebrew acronym MAMTAM, stressed the importance of cyber-warfare for Israel’s defense.
“Today, all of our systems are based on computerization and databases. We have to bring things that are in the office out to sea and link the sea to the ground command room. Today, our linkage is much faster than in the past,” the source said.
MAMTAM is a small unit responsible for all Israeli Navy signal and IT systems, both logistic and operational. The soldiers that serve there are mainly programmers and university graduates in engineering, computer science and other technological professions.
“We are not just IT; we also deal with IP [Internet Provider] networks. We need cyber defenses, as does the C4i Branch, Military Intelligence, and Israel Air Force,” he added.
He explained that the navy’s ability to stay at sea is as dependent on the new technology as it is on the integrity of their hulls. “We have to be able to be there for a long time and enable the transmission of data. A navy commander in the control room will want this data flowing to the coast. The navy commander who speaks to the IDF chief of staff from far away – this is a technological event,” the officer explained.
Adding computers to their arsenal has also brought the navy into the battlefield in ways that simply were not possible before. The ability of computer networks to integrate vast amounts of information from divergent sources has brought the navy and infantry together. In last year’s war in Gaza, the switch to network- based warfare brought practical results. Infantry battalion commanders on the ground in Gaza were able to send precise coordinates of an enemy target to a missile ship in the Mediterranean Sea. From an infantry initiated attack, a naval guided missile could destroy ground targets.
“The result is a new sea-based front that we created,” the source said. “All I have to know is the coordinates. This enables me to provide immediate firepower assistance. The battalion commander sends over what he sees. We bring our capabilities to the battle arena. We share visual intelligence,” he said.
But every weapon has a counter weapon and can be vulnerable to attack.
“Every IDF branch has its own fence, its network that it has to defend. Some sections are more exposed than others,” the source added. “The enemy is developing rapidly. An attacker could be a state or a lone hacker. He could be affiliated or unaffiliated but be sympathetic to an enemy, while sitting in a friendly state, far away. He can attack us from the other side of the world.”
“We have cyber warriors,” the source said. “They know our C4i patterns and supply a defensive system, while being able to identify any anomaly in the system. They can identify an effort by an enemy to infiltrate our systems, an effort that will not be accompanied by an announcement. From our perspective, the threat is always lurking on our perimeters – these are ‘borders’ made up of cables.”
When Israel goes to war, the enemy attacks. Last year, while the IDF was at was in Gaza, MAMTAM was defending the Navy’s computer from a wave of attacks.
“We were prepared. Yet we saw the technology they used. This has prompted an arms race on our side. The navy understands that cyber conflicts are wars in their own right, beyond conventional conflicts that we have grown accustomed to. In cyber war, one can engage without firing a single bullet. Attacks can come before a conventional war. There are no official cease-fires. It goes on all of the time.”
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