“Make Products Cyber-Secure By Design” – Advice from Israel’s National CERT Director
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“Make products cyber-safe. If you’re developing new technology and want to sell it in the market, make sure your R&D is cyber secure,” this is the advice of Erez Tidhar, the Executive Director of the Israel National CERT (computer emergency response team) at the National Cyber Directorate. He was speaking at the opening of the second day of INNOTECH – the cyber, HLS and innovation conference organized last week by iHLS at EXPO Tel Aviv.
Tidhar calls entrepreneurs and companies to invest a lot in cyber security by design, from the single chip to the autonomous vehicle level. “Remember that attackers wait for new products in the market,” he warns.
“In the post-corona era, as so many people are working from home, we see a peak in the number of attacks by single hackers.”
There are various modus operandi, e.g. some infiltrate into the organization’s network and wait for the right time.
Tidhar said that his agency’s policy is first – get prepared. “We provide the public with tools to be prepared. If an attack occurs, we first focus on which kind of attack it is – is it meant to cause damage? get financial gains?”
“Cyber attacks are similar to terrorist attacks – Israel should react. It’s warfare.”
Regarding recent attacks on a hospital in Israel, hospitals are the weak point of every country, and Israel is not different in this matter. Efforts are being made, and there is a cyber specialist in almost every hospital in Israel.
