Former Israeli Defense Official: Cyber-Attack on Israeli Water Supply Represents New Phase in Iranian Aggression

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – A former national security adviser to Israeli PM Netanyahu, says Iran’s failed cyber- attack on Israel’s water supply in April represents a new phase of Iranian aggression, World Israel News (WIN) reported. The Iranian attack sought to cause computers to add too much chlorine to Israel’s water supply. An official source told the Financial Times that the attack was almost successful.

A senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS) and first distinguished fellow at the Jewish Institute for the National Security of America (JINSA), Maj. Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror told the Jewish National Syndicate on Sunday that caution was required when assessing cyber-wars because there is no previous experience of them to draw from.

Cyber-attacks can lead to war if the side under attack “feels that it has been greatly harmed, and it cannot suitably retaliate against its enemy, and therefore remains vulnerable to attacks from it,” Amidror said.

Although Israel has not confirmed it, the Times of Israel reported that Israeli retaliation was likely behind a hack that brought the “bustling [Iranian] Shahid Rajaee port terminal to an abrupt and inexplicable halt” on May 9. In attacking Israel, Amidror noted, Iran had also “placed itself at great risk.”

Acknowledging it remains to be seen if Iran is deterred from continued attacks on Israel, Amidror said the Iranians have, to some extent, opened a “Pandora’s box’ in a cyber-attack designed to harm civilians.”

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