Comptroller Englman at the Cyber Week at Tel Aviv University: "We are examining whether hostile bodies carried out a cyber breach on the Prime Minister's Office, on the drones and more"

The State Comptroller and Ombudsman, Matanyahu Englman, said that: "We are currently examining Israel's preparedness for cyber events during the course of the Swords of Iron War. One part of the audit deals with the gaps in the level of cyber protection and in Israel's resilience, and in the actions taken by the regulatory bodies in order to reinforce the resilience. The second part examines the preparedness of critical bodies for cyber-attacks and how these attacks have been dealt with.

Likewise, we are examining the method by which Israel is handling the awareness activities (the war on fake news), the protection of the IT systems at the Prime Minister's Office, cyber protection for drones, protection against cyber threats on the Home Front Command control systems and the gaps in the functional continuity of certain systems in the IDF on the day the war started.

In addition, we have completed a report on protection against cyber threats to ICT systems in one of our defense industries.

I attach supreme importance to these audits in view of the increasing attacks on Israel at this time. Since I took office as State Comptroller, I am dedicating a great deal of attention to the field of cyber protection, information technology and the protection of privacy, for the benefit of the citizens of Israel.

Last month I took office as president of EUROSAI, the European Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions. 51 state comptrollers from all over Europe are members of this organization and our office leads a joint international audit on the subject of AI with many state audit institutions in Europe. As part of the audit, we are also examining the preparedness of the states for cyber threats in the age of artificial intelligence. ​I would like to wish for better days and hope for the safe return home of all the hostages".​