The Israeli Experience

The Straits Times

24 June 2015

Michael Raska

FOR over a decade, Israel has been at the forefront of innovation in tackling cyber-security challenges. The source of its relative advantage in responding to cyber threats is a unique adaptive cyber ecosystem.

In essence, its government, military, academia and private sector have had their cyber programmes and processes converged, creating a framework that benefits from high-value government-coordinated policy initiatives, concerted research and development projects, and continual upgrading of cyber capabilities. Walls between the private and public sectors have been torn down.

More importantly, cyber-security players in Israel share a strategic perspective in which cyber threats are perceived not as a separate security domain, but as another layer in Israel’s continually evolving “hybrid” security environment. After all, cyber threats are embedded in the threats faced by Israel, whether they are proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles, low-intensity conflicts or terrorism. Many of these activities cannot be carried out without attempts to breach cyber security.

… The writer is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, a constituent unit of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University.

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