IDF to unify cyber warfare units

Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot recently decided to create a “cyber branch” within the Israel Defense Forces to consolidate all of Israel’s cyber capabilities into a single fist. This branch will identify the candidates it wants to become cyber specialists, train them, drill them, build up their skills and activate them. It will encompass all operational capacities pertaining to cyber warfare, including defense, offense and intelligence collection. Just like Israel’s air force, it will provide services to all of the IDF’s branches, divisions and commands that require its services.

For example, if the IDF decides to conduct a secret raid on some target deep in enemy territory, representatives of the cyber branch will participate in the planning of the operation.

Today, everything pertaining to cybersecurity and warfare is scattered throughout the Israeli defense network, and can be found in many different divisions and units throughout the IDF. These include the Computer Service Directorate and the legendary Unit 8200 (famous for its graduates, who are often successes in the startup world), which handles intelligence gathering. At the same time, both the Shin Bet and the Mossad have their own separate cyber capacities. Now, however, all of the IDF’s cyber activities will be consolidated under a single roof. It is even possible that this new roof will one day cover the cyber activities of the Shin Bet and the Mossad as well, to avoid redundancy. It is thought that the new cyber branch will be headed by an officer with the rank of major general.

“Unless a war breaks out, this is the most important decision that the current chief of staff will make during his entire tenure,” Al-Monitor was told June 16 by a senior military official who spoke on condition of anonymity. “It is a decision of historic proportions, underscoring how central cyberspace has become, not only in the wars of the future, but with what is happening now, too.”