Cyber-War? Ambiguities in Israel's National Cyber Crisis Preparedness

• In Event: Explaining the Israeli Government’s Response to Crises

Abstract

The contemporary landscape of national security policies, threat perception analysis, force buildup processes, and national crisis management is heavily influenced by cybersecurity. However, many states grapple with challenges in assessing national cyber crises due to the inherent ambiguity between civil and military cyber threats. States consistently face difficulties in distinctly defining the line separating minor cyber incidents, managed by the private sector with law enforcement agencies, from national-scale cyber crises requiring intelligence agencies' monitoring and military response. This fundamental cyber challenge raises critical questions: How do states evaluate the severity of cyber-attacks? When do cyber-attacks constitute a "national crisis," necessitating national or military actions? Can states delineate the threshold between cybercrime and cyber acts of war? What is the role of the general security context in assessing cyber threat and forging preparedness capacities? This paper aims to address these questions, focusing on the Israeli national case.

Author

• Amit Sheniak, Hebrew University of Jerusalem