‘Keyboards Rival Rockets’ as Israel Fights a New Front in the War
At a bus station in central Israel, routine announcements suddenly gave way to Arabic curses aimed at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump, a jarring opening scene in Keren Setton’s report on how cyberwar has slipped into everyday life. The messages, followed by a Muslim prayer and siren-like sounds, were the product of a suspected foreign hack of digital signage, an operation that managed to rattle commuters and expose how porous civilian systems can be.
From hacked hospital servers to deepfake videos, Setton maps a battlefield where keyboards rival rockets. Israel’s National Cyber Directorate reports a steep rise in cyberattacks since the October 2023 war with the Hamas terrorist organization, many of them low-skill attempts but frequent enough to keep defenses on constant alert. Hackers linked to Iran have gone after hospitals and the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, while Gaza-based operators mine soldiers’ social media and push propaganda, leak-and-dump campaigns, and psychological warfare.
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The response reaches into Israel’s habits. The Israel Defense Forces are weighing a ban on Android phones for senior officers, shifting them to iPhones, and are reviewing Chinese-made vehicles that could serve as listening posts. A new artificial intelligence tool, “Morpheus,” is being prepared to scan soldiers’ online activity for breaches before Iran or Hamas can exploit them.
Cyber experts tell The Media Line that Israel is locked in a relentless race against hackers and states, with artificial intelligence supercharging fake news online. By the end of Keren Setton’s piece, it is clear that the next phase of Middle East conflict will be waged not only in the skies over Gaza and Lebanon but across every screen, app, and server Israel relies on.
