Former intelligence officer warns: Iran's cyber war against Israel continues despite ceasefire

Despite the ceasefire reached between Washington and Tehran in April, the cyber conflict between Israel and Iran continues unabated, according to former Israeli military intelligence officer and cybersecurity executive Julia Kogan Erlich.

“There is no ceasefire in cybersecurity,” Erlich told The Jerusalem Post.

“The fire is maybe in a byte and not in a missile,” she said. “Our physical world may not be jeopardized, but our infrastructure is constantly under attack.”

Erlich said that while the military confrontation between Israel and Iran was visible to the public, the ongoing cyber campaign has continued largely out of sight. Like conventional warfare, she noted, cyber conflict involves both offensive and defensive operations.

The Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD) reported that Iranian cyberattacks against Israel tripled during the conflict, known in Israel as Operation Roaring Lion.

“The world just twisted from the kinetic and moved to a different vector of war,” Erlich explained. “People are going back to a normal life right now. Nobody knows how many people are working long hours to make sure that all the Israeli infrastructure, everything behind the scenes, keeps moving.”

The former intelligence official stressed that the Israeli public is not aware of the vast majority of the cyber attacks on Israeli infrastructure.

“Ninety-eight percent of the attacks, people are not even aware of,” she said. “They’re seen behind closed doors, because they’re being defended against.”

Israel has so far successfully thwarted most cyberattacks. However, Erlich warned that the consequences of a successful enemy attack could be devastating.

“Critical infrastructure, healthcare organizations, hospitals, even clinics. Every aspect. You can take it to the national database,” she said, noting that artificial intelligence is playing an increasingly important role in cyber warfare.

“AI now completes tasks. Complex tasks. It analyzes information for your benefit,” she explained. “And everything you can do as a benefit can be used as a malicious tool.”

“The battlefield is not people against people anymore,” she continued. “Sometimes it’s a machine against humans.”

In March, INCD Director Yossi Karadi acknowledged the growing cyber threat Israel faces from the Iranian regime and its allies, “Operation Roaring Lion is an exceptionally just war, but it is being fought on two parallel fronts, against Iran and against cybercrime.”