Bennett cyber warning to Iran: ‘If you mess with Israel, you’ll pay a price’

Iran will “pay a price” if it interferes with Israeli cyber-infrastructure, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned on Tuesday.

Speaking at the Tel Aviv University Cyber Week, Bennett said, “just like there is nuclear deterrence, there is going to be cyber deterrence. My approach generally, and especially with Iran is – and we don’t go around wreaking havoc in Tehran, that has never been our policy – but our policy is if you mess with Israel you’ll pay a price.”
“You can no longer hit Israel indirectly and through proxies and think you’ll get away with it.”

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett

Future cyber warfare

“You can no longer hit Israel indirectly and through proxies and think you’ll get away with it,” Bennett continued.

The prime minister said, “if you are a bully who sends folks – we will try to hit you,” with kinetic, covert and cyber, adding “anyone attacking us in cyber, we are going to attack back. We are not going to be feeble here.”

Bennett stated, “we can get stuff done hitting your enemy through cyber. Before we needed to send 50-100 commandos behind enemy lines with huge risks.”

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at Cyber Week (credit: Cyber Week)

“Now we get a bunch of smart folks together sitting at a keyboard and achieve the same effect…It is inevitable that cyber is going to become one, if not the most, prominent dimension of future warfare,” he said.