Israel’s Cyber Warriors are Getting into Shape
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עברית (Hebrew)
Cyber-Control, a company specializing in training personnel in large organizations, opened the new Cyber-Gym yesterday, the Electric Corporation’s new training center.
Mr. Yasha Hain, Director of Business Development at the Electric Corporation, said that the idea for the facility came up about ten months ago: A training facility for cyber-attack simulations meant to increase the readiness of Israek Electric Corporation employees. Mr. Hain added that the facility will be used by the Electric Corporation, the state of Israel and other, similar organizations worldwide. The facility will also be used for research and development, and it is already booked for the next six months.
Mr. Ofir Hasson, founder and General Manager of Cyber-Control, said that these days just being familiar with the technology isn’t enough if you want to be ready for emergencies. In order to protect yourself efficiently you also have to understand how the attacking hackers think, and the Cyber-Gym’s vision is “increasing the skills of cyber-defenders.” He added that there are ongoing contacts to build additional training facilities in Europe and the Far East. The Cyber Gym is intended to overcome the challenge of moving from theory to practice, from theoretical cyber-warfare studies to actual, real time cyber-defense.
Mr. Elli Glickman, IEC General Manager, said that the corporation is always under threat of cyber-attacks, being targeted by up to 10,000 attacks each hour (!!!). In the past cyberspace has even been referred to as the “fifth arena”, in addition to the land, sea, air and space arenas.
IHLS – Israel Homeland Security
Maj. Gen. (Res.) Iftah Ron-Tal, Chairman of IEC, drew from his military background and compared the cyber arena to the traditional ones, saying that today the threats are different and the lines between front and home front, between right and wrong are constantly growing more and more blurred. Maj. Gen. Ron-Tal added that the supply of electricity is a vulnerability, power can’t be stored in preparation for crises and Israel is an “island of energy” in the Middle East, without the ability to rely on its neighbors for power.
The Minister of National Infrastructures, Silvan Shalom, was present at the opening event. Minister Shalom said that the government considers cyber-defense a priority – the establishment of the cyber-center in Ben-Gurion University, for example, the National Cyber Command in the Prime Minister’s Office, and more. The National Infrastructures Ministry itself also established a cyber-command.
The facility itself is divided into a number of booths, each with its own team. The blue team are the trainees, the red team are the attackers and the white team are the guides and trainers. All activities are recorded for later analysis. The experienced trainers construct attack scenarios for every company according to its own needs, and Cyber-Control hopes that in the future global scenarios could be simulated, with several Cyber-Gyms around the world working simultaneously.
