IDF Blames Ten Percent of Computer Glitches on Hacking

Senior IDF officials have said that ten percent of the failures in the IDF’s computerized systems over the past year was the result of cyber attacks, emanating mostly from Arab countries, Iran and Eastern Europe.

The estimate was released by the Cyber-Communications and Defense Division (CCDD) of the Israeli military.

These figures reflect technical malfunction of thousands of computerized systems and software used by the IDF, including operational and classified systems.

Hostile operators are not always immediately recognized as the source of the trouble.

In some cases, it took several hours to determine that the system failure was due to cyber attacks; in other cases, where the hacking was more sophisticated, it took much longer.

The stats also point to a gradual and consistent increase in the use of cyber techniques as a mechanism to launch attacks against Israel and against the IDF’s security apparatus in particular.

Two weeks ago the National Cyber Defense Authority said that 120 attacks against a range of Israeli targets — ministerial offices, public institutions and individuals, by a person whose identity was not disclosed — were thwarted.

“There is a new, infinite arena of operations, where we encounter rivals, enemies and colleagues. It is a weapon for everything,” said Boki Carmeli, head of Israel’s Cyber Authority.