Israel and the Cyber Threat How the Startup Nation Became a Global Cyber Power

The most detailed and comprehensive examination to show how tiny Israel grew to be a global civil and military cyber power and offer the first detailed proposal for an Israeli National Cyber Strategy.

Israel is the subject of numerous cyber attacks from foreign adversaries. As a consequence, it has built an extremely sophisticated cyber security system. Indeed, Israel is now regarded as one of the top cyber powers in the world.

In Israel and the Cyber Threat, Charles D. ("Chuck") Freilich, Matthew S. Cohen, and Gabi Siboni provide a detailed and comprehensive study of Israel's cyber strategy, tracing it from its origins to the present. They analyze Israel's highly advanced civil and military cyber capabilities and organizational structures to offer insights into what other countries can learn from Israel's experience. To achieve this, they explore how and why Israel has been able to build a remarkable cyber ecosystem and turn itself, despite its small size, into a global cyber power. The book further examines the major cyber threats facing Israel, including the most in-depth look at Iranian cyber policies and attacks; Israel's defensive and offensive capabilities and the primary attacks it has conducted; capacity building; international cooperation; and the impact of Israel's strategic culture on its cyber prowess. By placing Israel's actions in the realm of international relations theory, the book sheds light on many of the major questions in the field regarding cyber policies.

The most authoritative work to date on Israeli cyber strategy, this book provides a comprehensive look at the major actions Israel has taken in cyberspace. It also places them in the broader context of global cyber developments to help readers understand state behavior in cyberspace.

Charles D. ("Chuck") Freilich, a former deputy national security adviser in Israel and long-time senior fellow at Harvard's Belfer Center, teaches political science at Columbia University, New York University, and Tel Aviv University. He is the author of Zion's Dilemmas: How Israel Makes National Security Policy (2012) and Israeli National Security: A New Strategy for an Era of Change (Oxford, 2018 and Modan Press in Hebrew). Freilich is the senior editor at the Israel Journal for Foreign Affairs, has published numerous academic articles and over 170 op-eds, and appears frequently on US, Israeli and international TV and radio stations.

Matthew S. Cohen is Assistant Professor of Practice at Merrimack College. He was previously employed at the federal, state, and local levels in America, focused on policy work. Cohen's research is focused on emerging security threats. He has published on cyber-space, international relations theory, Israeli security policy, delegitimization and lawfare, Turkish-Israeli relations, Turkish politics, and Russian politics.

Gabi Siboni is a former colonel in the Israel Defense Forces, a senior research fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, and a consultant to the IDF and other Israeli defense organizations, including as the chief methodologist of the IDF's Research Center for Force Deployment and Buildup. Siboni was the director of both the Military and Strategic Affairs and Cyber Security Programs at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), where he also edited the Institute's academic journals in these areas.

List of Figures and Tables
Acknowledgements
Bios
Glossary
Prologue
Introduction
Part I: My Home is No Longer My Castle; the Global Cyber Threat
Chapter 1: Understanding the Global Cyber Threat
Chapter 2: Primary Cyber Attacks Around the World
Chapter 3: Goldilocks and Other Cyber Quandaries
Part II: War by Other Means; the Cyber Threat to Israel
Chapter 4: The Overall Cyber Threat to Israel
Chapter 5: The Iranian Cyber Threat
Part III: A Napkin That Changed History; Israel's Cyber Response
Chapter 6: Strategic Culture and National Security Strategy
Chapter 8: National Capacity Building
Chapter 9: International Cyber Cooperation
Chapter 10: The Military Cyber Strategy
Part IV: The Way Forward
Chapter 11: Conclusions - and Some Answers to the Cyber Quandaries
Chapter 12: A Comprehensive Israeli Cyber Strategy
Appendix: Types of Cyber-Attacks
List of Interviews
Bibliography
Footnotes
Index