Rohit Kumar Sharma
Threat actors linked to Hamas and its allies have been incessantly targeting Israel since the onset of the Israel–Hamas conflict in October 2023. According to the Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD), which is responsible for securing Israel’s national cyberspace, the intensity of cyberattacks has increased threefold since the beginning of the conflict.1 The head of the agency also shared concern over coordinated attacks by Iran and Hezbollah across various sectors in Israel. In response to growing attacks against its infrastructure by formidable adversaries like Iran and its proxies, Israel recently announced that they are building a ‘cyber-dome’ or a digital ‘Iron Dome’ system to protect Israel’s cyberspace to defend against online attacks.2
Explaining Cyber Dome
While there are no definite details regarding the mechanism and tools that constitute the cyber-dome initiative, one can parse the official statements and specific initiatives to get an overview of the rationale behind such a system. The concept can be traced back to the first public speech in 2022 by Gaby Portnoy after being appointed as the Director General of INCD. He presented the cyber-dome as a new big data and AI-driven approach to proactively defending domestic cyberspace.3 He singled out Iran as Israel’s dominant rival in cyberspace. The initiative aims to provide tools and services to elevate the protection of national assets by synchronising real-time detection of threats at a national level to mitigate emerging threats. Furthermore, Portnoy also emphasised the need to replicate cybersecurity protocols used for critical infrastructure in other sectors.
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