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Israel opens 'cyber gym' to combat cybercrime

Israel Electric has taken on hackers in a new way: by opening a "cyber gym" to give cybercrime combatants the opportunity to practice.
Written by Charlie Osborne, Contributing Writer

As cybercrime continues to rise across the globe, Israel Electric has taken matters into its own hands: by opening a "cyber gym" to give cybercrime combatants the opportunity to practice.

The state-run utility is a constant target for hackers looking to infiltrate its networks and disrupt operations, fending off as much as 20,000 attacks a day. In response, Israel Electric has created a virtual training arena where security experts and trainees can fight against simulated attacks.

The arena is currently under construction and models of other Israeli firms are being replicated by Cyber Control for additional coverage of network attacks.

Once the system is ready, security staff across the globe will be able to participate and learn about different cyberattacks levelled against corporate servers -- including denial-of-service (DoS) attacks in order to take the knowledge back to their own firms to shore up defenses.

According to U.S.-based security advisory service Soufan Group, Israeli government networks are among the most constantly attacked in the world.

The "cyber gym" is the first of its kind in the region, and is a necessary step if security practitioners are going to protect corporate and governmental networks against the constantly-evolving nature of cybercrime, something Prof. Yuval Elovici, Director of the Telekom Innovation Laboratories at Ben Gurion University in Israel understands. Speaking at a press conference hosted in Beer-Sheva, Elovici said that trying to protect such infrastructure and core systems isn't hopeless even in the face of rising attacks:

"You know that a burglar can enter your home at night, but you still lock your door. You need to make entry a challenge."

Read More: Bloomberg

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com

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