Nearly 3/4 of Israelis Confident Their Country Can Handle Major Cyber Attack
by Algemeiner Staff and Agencies
Nearly 3 in 4 Israelis — 73% — believe their country is ready to deal with a major cyber attack, a study published by the Pew Research Center this week showed.
That level of confidence is the highest among the 26 countries where the survey was conducted.
Some 53% of Americans felt similarly about their own country
The publics with the lowest levels of faith in the cyber defense capabilities of their governments were Brazil and Argentina — at 16% and 9% respectively.
On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed their would be no meddling in the April Knesset election, after state censors suppressed a speech by his domestic intelligence chief accusing a foreign power of planning to hack the vote.
Under the gag order described as a security precaution, media in Israel were barred from naming the country that Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman, addressing a by-invitation audience at Tel Aviv University on Monday, said was trying to interfere.
Israeli newspaper commentators speculated that he had pointed the finger at Russia, which Netanyahu’s own intelligence minister, Yisrael Katz, told local media last month could potentially want to replicate in Israel an alleged online influence campaign and email hacking to help Donald Trump win the US ballot in 2016.