CybersecurityCyber Gym in Israel trains cyber-defenders

A group of IT and infrastructure companies in Israel have teamed up to launch Cyber Gym, a facility consisting of a series of small buildings near Orot Rabin power station on Israel’s northern coastline. The facility, inaugurated this month by Israel Electric Corp. (IEC), will train participants to defend against cyberattacks.

“Israel, we believe, is the most-attacked country,” Cyber Gym director Ofir Hason told Agence France-Presse. “And as the most-attacked civilian company in Israel, this gives us the unique capabilities to train other companies around the world” to combat hackers.

IEC experiences about 10,000 attacks per hour, according to CEO Eli Glickman, and the instructors at Cyber Gym are well-versed in the art of cyberwarfare. “We’re a group of professionals from the army, security services and (straight) from university,” said a Cyber Gym instructor who called himself “Mister.”

One of the simulated attacks involves instructors launching attacks against the computer systems of trainees, who operate in an adjacent building. “It’s a playground to simulate real cyberattacks,” Mister said.

Cyber Gym’s inauguration was attended by members of Israel’s intelligence community, proving the seriousness of the task assigned to instructors and trainees.

The trainees, mostly IT and system operators from Israel’s energy and infrastructure sector, are subject to cyberattacks drills in real time as they operate from a “defense room.” Each attack is different, and there is no set scenario or a scripted attack. “If the hackers succeed, the lights go off and the system shuts down,” said an instructor who refers to himself as “A.”

Setting the room to darkness after a successful attack is one of the ways Cyber Gym shows the real result of an actual cyberattack. “An attack could end with damage to equipment, or a blackout around Israel,” Hason said. “In the cyber arena, when you fail to protect your system, the influence could be physical damage to your system.”

Agence France notes that at a security conference in October 2013, Israel’s armed forces chief of staff, Lieutenant General Benny Gantz, described the scenario of a future war in which the country would be subjected to a simultaneous attack both on the ground and in cyberspace “It is possible that there will be a cyberattack on a site supplying the daily needs of Israeli citizens; that traffic lights would stop working or the banks would be paralyzed.”

Around that same time in October 2013, the Israeli security services reportedly fought a cyberattack and an attempt at industrial espionage which originated in China. In addition, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Iran of increasing cyberattacks against Israel, directly and through Hezbollah.

Cyber Gym is currently aiming to assist Israeli companies, with hopes of training employees in other countries. “There’s a possibility it will be opened up to American companies, western Europe, eastern Europe and Asia,” IEC vice president Yaakov Haim told AFP.

When Sivan Shalom,  Israel’s Infrastructure and Energy Minister, was asked whether Israel was more concerned about a physical or a virtual attack, he said: “I think the future battle will be in cyberspace.”