Israel under 'non-stop' cyber attack from Iran

Iran and its allies targeting Israeli infrastructure, Netanyahu claims

Israel's computer systems are subject to constant cyber attacks from Iran, Lebanon and Palestine, the country's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed.

While giving no indication about the number of attacks, Netanyahu told a cyber security conference in Tel Aviv that critical infrastructure, including that in the power, water and banking sectors, have all come under fire.

"In the past few months, we have identified a significant increase in the scope of cyber attacks on Israel by Iran. These attacks are carried out directly by Iran and through its proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah," he told a conference on cyber warfare in his country's commercial hub, Tel Aviv.

"Despite the non-stop attacks on us, you hear only about a few of them because we thwart most of them," he added.

Israel established a national cyber directorate in 2011, charged with the responsibility of protecting the country against cyber attacks. Earlier this year, Israel said its government websites were subject to a pro-Palestinian cyber attack. They were briefly disrupted before order was restored.

Israel itself, along with its ally the United States, is believed to be behind a Stuxnet attack against Iranian nuclear sites, an act of computer hacking that put Iran's nuclear programme back a number of years.

Speaking to Computing in April this year, News International CISO Amar Singh said every nation is engaging in cyber attacks.