Cyber officials say Iranian, Hezbollah attacks against Israel tripled since Oct. 7
Expert expresses need for global cybersecurity to go beyond information-sharing to collaboration; UK trade commissioner sees opportunities for UK-Israel cyberspace cooperation
Sharon Wrobel is a tech reporter for The Times of Israel
Deputy cyber defense chief Nitzan Amar said Tuesday that the intensity of cyberattacks against Israel has tripled since the outbreak of the war with Hamas on October 7, 2023, with Iran and its proxies, including Hezbollah, joining the hacking efforts.
“The last year was not a normal year, but a challenging and unique one,” said Amar, deputy head of the Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD), at the global Cybertech 2025 conference in Tel Aviv. “Ever since the war broke out, we have observed a major amplification in the scope of Iran and Hezbollah’s malicious activity targeting Israeli entities.”
“Despite our enemies’ efforts, not a single attack targeting an Israeli entity was able to harm neither our national infrastructure, nor the IDF operational freedom to fulfill its missions since October 7,” he disclosed.
Amar cautioned that Israel experienced a 300 percent increase in phishing attacks, the highest ever, seeking to “exploit information, Internet of Things (IoT) devices and disrupt the daily life of Israeli civilians.”
He listed various types of cyberattacks, including rapid exploitation of newly discovered security vulnerabilities, such as “unprecedented-scale DDoS attacks, and cyber intrusions via Managed Service Providers (MSPs).”
“During the war, we began implementing the ‘Cyber Dome’ program to bolster national cyber defense,” said Amar. “We deployed advanced defensive technologies that played a crucial role in mitigating these threats.”
Speaking to an audience of cybersecurity experts, company and government representatives, and cybersecurity agencies from 50 countries, former INCD director-general Gaby Portnoy emphasized the importance of collaboration between governments in the face of the growing threat of state-sponsored cyberattacks, in particular from Iran.
“Iran can attack Israel with the click of a button, and are doing it three times more than before, but they can also attack the UK, US, Albania and even the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, and this is what the world understood,” said Portnoy, who stepped down as Israel’s cyber head last month. “Everybody is trying to work alone, which is not enough – we need to build a joint front to fight our attackers and cyberterrorism together.”
Portnoy said he was concerned about “what will be the October 7 in cyberspace,” raising the question of “whether we are ready for it.”
“To meet this kind of challenge, we need to prepare to build better resilience, improve the culture of sharing, and embrace change together,” he said. “It’s not just about critical infrastructure…but we must also look at our supply chain, our service providers, and the wider range of small and medium businesses.”
Speaking to The Times of Israel on the sidelines of the conference, UK Trade Commissioner for Europe, Chris Barton, said that he sees opportunities for collaboration between the UK and Israel in cyberspace.
“One of the reasons to come to Israel is to demonstrate very strong support from the UK for the people of Israel,” said Barton. “Cyberterrorism is a shared risk and a shared challenge, and that’s why it is one of the areas in which it’s really important that we work together.”
“The UK and Israel are natural partners in thinking about the approach that we want to take, embracing the opportunities, bringing their expertise on the safety side, so when we talk about European partners or in an international forum, UK and Israel can be partners there,” he added.
Barton said that on a business-to-business level, the UK wants to encourage Israeli investment in the UK, particularly in the tech and cyber area, and encourage British companies to come to Israel.
“It’s really important that they can learn from each other — no one has a monopoly of genius in this area,” he noted. “The tech sector in the UK is a very vibrant one as we have over 2000 companies, for example, in the cyber area, and we have 21 academic institutions with special expertise in cyber security.”
Over 400 Israeli tech firms operate in the UK, contributing about £1 billion ($1.3 billion) in gross value to the UK economy and creating around 16,000 jobs over the past eight years, according to data from the British Embassy in Israel. About 80 of these firms operate in the cybersecurity sector, contributing to the UK’s efforts to strengthen cyber resilience across industries.
“At the government level, there’s quite a lot we can do to help us shape the regulation in a sensible way that gets the balance between enabling the development of the sector while ensuring security,” said Barton. “Therefore, collaboration at the government level to get the regulatory environment right is important.”
“We are going to see the benefits of AI and other new types of technology incorporated in the way that businesses and public services are run, and we need to make sure that’s done in a safe way,” he said.
The Times of Israel Community.