The IDF has opened a new cyber defense school for combat commanders. PHOTO: IDF Spokesman.

The Israel Defense Forces plans to open a cyber school to introduce combat officers to cybersecurity and cyber-warfare, Israel’s NRG reported on Sunday.

The school will enroll 1,400 soldiers at the level of company commander, along with personnel from the IDF’s Inter-Ground Forces Command and Staff College, members of the brigade and battalion commanders course, as well as telecommunications personnel.

The institution is expected to begin operations in January, 2016.

Curriculums at the school will seek to familiarize this broad variety of military personnel with the world of cyber-warfare and to the wide campaign within the military to advance in this field.

“We want to raise the understanding about the threat of cyber-warfare against the means of warfare which these commanders control,” Col. Nitzan Amer, the commander of the training base of the IDF’s Telecommunications Division, said.

His division is responsible for establishing the new center, which will be hosted at the Gidonim camp in central Israel.

“The school will allow us to expose this world to all of the IDF, and it is designed to convey organized and institutionalized information onto the commanders, and to expose them to the threats and the means of cyber defense,” said Amer.

The school will also run interactive exhibits which simulate cyber attacks for the participants to observe.

“We want to familiarize this world to the people that have not yet gotten to know it. The commanders need to understand the vulnerability of our networks, and the means of defense that are available to them,” said Amer.