When Dr. Harel Menashri pushed the Shin Bet to take computers seriously in the 1990s, the agency, which was built around Arabic-speaking case officers, dismissed the subject as “mumbo jumbo.”
Speaking with the Jerusalem Post senior military analyst Yonah Jeremy Bob, Menashri recalled the demonstration that changed officials’ minds. Menashri, a founder of the Shin Bet’s cyber arm who spent 25 years in the service and now heads the cyber program at the Holon Institute of Technology, used a “tiny Trojan” taken from the internet. He said it could have caused Hiroshima-scale damage, killing nearly everyone in the Haifa Bay area.
Three decades later, his warnings have only grown more urgent. Menashri explained how malicious code can kill by manipulating SCADA sensors. SCADA is a system of software and hardware that allows industries to monitor and control utilities and industrial equipment from a central location.
By manipulating SCADA, malicious code can alter the pressure in a gas pipeline and cause an explosion. By hijacking railway signaling, it can derail a freight train carrying chemicals in central Tel Aviv.
Iran, Menashri said, is world-class at weaponizing known vulnerabilities within hours, long before anyone installs a patch, a software update designed to fix a security vulnerability or flaw. AI has shortened that timeline even further, with models now capable of carrying out intrusions from beginning to end.
Cyberspace still has no binding international law, he said, while one word is deliberately missing from the debate: ethics.
Menashri directed his sharpest criticism at Jerusalem, arguing that “China is not Israel’s friend.” He warned that Chinese companies are legally required to provide the government with data and source code, while Chinese vehicles used by hundreds of Israeli defense officials may transmit information to China.
The Haifa Port dispute reflected similar concerns. The US opposeed a Chinese company operationg the new terminal because of its proximity to sensitive naval facilities.
According to Menashri, interventions by Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton, and former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo were needed to bring the issue to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attention.
An oversight body established afterward, Menashri said, remains riddled with loopholes.
Officials who raised the alarm were told that the issue was economic, rather than related to security, and were shown the door, he said.
Source:
www.jpost.com
