Analyzes advanced cyberattacks on Israel’s power infrastructure and the growing capability of North Korean hackers.
Warns that critical infrastructure in Japan and the United States could also become targets of high-level cyber operations.

“They have the capability to inflict damage on infrastructure in Japan, the United States, and elsewhere,” he warned with a strong sense of urgency.
2018-01-31.
The following is a continuation of the previous section.
Israel has been exposed to fierce cyberattacks believed to originate from Iran and Islamist extremist groups and has developed cutting-edge defensive methods.
Among them, IEC, the country’s largest electric power company operating 17 power generation facilities nationwide, receives more than 6,000 attacks per day, and its defensive technology is regarded as the best in the world.
According to experts involved in IEC’s cyber defense, the company analyzes the sources of the daily attacks.
Attacks aimed at destroying IEC systems or causing malfunctions had traditionally originated largely within the Middle East, but since around last year, attacks attributed to North Korea have increased.
IEC warns that North Korean attackers possess “a high capability to create malware designed to cause malfunctions in power generation and transmission systems.”
North Korea’s intentions remain unclear, but experts analyze that “there is a strong possibility that these real attacks against Israel, which possesses advanced defensive technology, are being treated as exercises to improve offensive capabilities.”
Ofir Hasson, CEO of IEC’s research facility “CyberGym,” which provides simulated training on cyberattack countermeasures to power companies and government officials in Israel and abroad, pointed out that North Korea’s attacks demonstrate extremely high-level capabilities and warned that they “have the ability to inflict damage on infrastructure in Japan, the United States, and elsewhere.”
Regarding North Korean infrastructure attacks, a report last October revealed that a hacker group believed to be linked to North Korea had attacked a U.S. power company.
However, since no damage was confirmed, a view had spread that North Korea did not possess the capability to successfully carry out infrastructure attacks.
Hasson emphasized that “we must not be complacent.”