Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he will unify the National Cyber Authority and the National Cyber Bureau into a single agency that will oversee cyber defense. The new body will set policy and build the the country’s cyber defense apparatus, as well as bear responsibility for operations.
The decision caps a process that began in 2012, when Prime Minister Netanyahu established the National Cyber Bureau in order to lead strategy and to set national policy on cyber defense. Later, in 2015, the National Cyber Defense Authority was established to serve as the main operations arm of the country’s cyber apparatus.
“Several years ago I set a vision that Israel would be one of the five great cyber powers in the world,” Netanyahu said Sunday. “And indeed we are meeting this goal: Whoever has visited the cyber authority in Be’er Sheva – not every civilian can do so – gains the impression that we are among the leaders, if not the leader, in the world in defending our citizens, their bank accounts, our electricity grid and all of our other essential infrastructures against cyber-attack.
Netanyahu admitted that despite the investment of time, money and manpower, there are attempted attacks “all the time.” But he added that Israel-built technology provides top-level defence for civilian and military infrastructure.
“Israel is developing pioneering technology and methods of organizing in the world in order to defend against these assaults. Today’s decision will advance us in this direction,” Netanyahu said.