Former Israeli PM Bennett Calls for ‘Data Dome’ To Counter AI-Driven Cyber Threats
Cyber Week opened in Tel Aviv on Tuesday with a call from former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett for Israel to build a national “Data Dome,” warning that the convergence of cyber and artificial intelligence has created an entirely new class of threats. Speaking at the conference’s main plenary at Tel Aviv University, Bennett said Israel must move quickly or risk falling behind international adversaries who are already exploiting AI-powered tools.
He described Israel as a country repeatedly forced to develop solutions to challenges that later reach the rest of the world. “Sometimes I feel like the State of Israel is an experiment. I’m a man of faith, so maybe a ‘Divine Experiment’ of seeing how you take a nation, place it in the toughest circumstances possible, and see how it deals with the mess,” he said, adding that technologies such as Iron Dome and Iron Beam are now used far beyond Israel.
In his speech, he identified three dimensions of the threat landscape that have accelerated with the arrival of autonomous AI systems. “The ability to scale cyber attacks using AI is basically unlimited,” he said, comparing earlier forms of hacking to simple mortar fire. He argued that today’s attacks increasingly resemble coordinated networks of intelligent agents deployed “behind enemy lines” in massive numbers. He also pointed to the anonymity created by synthetic data and rapidly generated code, which he said makes tracing those agents nearly impossible.
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Bennett warned that these capabilities already translate into real-world damage to civilian systems, citing the paralysis of a hospital, potential corruption of financial data, and the prospect of citizens waking to find their savings erased. He said the growing dependence on AI makes the poisoning of models and sensor inputs especially dangerous, calling it “basically corrupting the brain.”
He described large portions of online discourse as fabricated. “In some cases, I see 80–90% of discourse is fake,” he said, noting that AI-generated personas can manipulate public sentiment at scale.
Bennett said Israel is “a bit behind the curve” after years of domestic turmoil but argued the country has the talent and urgency to catch up. He said thousands of veterans returning from the war will strengthen the tech sector and that Israel should lead efforts to develop systems that protect national infrastructure, safeguard AI integrity, and counter manipulation. “Beyond Iron Dome, we need to develop the Data Dome,” he said, adding that Israel should ultimately share such a system with allies.
He closed by urging political unity, saying Israel can rebuild its strategic edge “bigtime” once it refocuses on national priorities.
