While Israel has publicly refrained from striking Iran, a secret “cyber war” may have already begun, according to ABC’s Simon McGregor-Wood. Clandestine computer battles are used both to gather information and to launch offensive strikes, he says. Israeli defense expert Alon Ben-David, who spoke with McGregor-Wood, believes cyber warfare has become “a very important area in Israeli strategy.” Israel began hacking into foreign systems years ago, after a routine exercise demonstrated that Israel’s own systems were shockingly unprepared for a cyber assault. It did not take long for Israel to apply those findings to other countries, experts say. Ben-David relates that Israel’s war on Iran has been successful so far. “The Iranians have experienced a number of malfunctions and unexplained breakdowns,” he says.
