There has been a marked increase of cyber attacks on Israel from Iran over the last few months, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday at the annual international cyber security conference at Tel Aviv University.
Netanyahu said those attacks were being carried out both directly by Iran, and also through its proxies: Hezbollah and Hamas. He said that not only did the attacks target Israel's strategic infrastructure, but also key economic and civilian targets as well.
Netanyahu called for a "digital iron dome" to be set up to deflect the cyber attacks which he said would increase not only in quantity, but also in quality. Netanyahu said this issue was discussed at length with US President Barack Obama during his visit in March.
"Today cyber is part of the battlefield," Netanyahu said. "This is not tomorrow's warfare, it is already here today."
Netanyahu characterized Israel as a "rising star" in the area of cyber security, and said there were two clear signs of that: the first was that one rarely heard of successful cyber attacks against Israel; and the second was the conference, which attracted representatives from around the world who came both to learn from Israel's experience and to explore opportunities for cooperation.
The conference is sponsored by Tel Aviv University's Yuval Ne’eman Workshop for Science, Technology and Security, and the National Cyber Bureau.