The IDF’s new Cyber Command is beginning its operations, and its structure is different from the one envisaged by IDF Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, in 2015.
As I reported in Jane’s Defense Weekly, Eizenkot originally wanted to unite all of the military’s cyber units under a single roof.
But officers responsible for moving the IDF forward on cyber operations succeeded in convincing the chief of staff that cyber defense should remain as one center, separate, yet linked, to the cyber intelligence collectors from Military Intelligence’s Unit 8200.
In doing so, they argued, the IDF’s cyber operations would be organized along the same lines as the ones that guide the American cyber warfare model.
The new command has been merged with the IDF’s C4i Directorate, and its task will be cyber defense.
As Israel’s enemies continue to develop their cyber capabilities to compliment their physical force build up, the Command is sure to have much to do in the coming years.