Just around the corner, the world will see a full-fledged cyber war led by artificial intelligence (AI) offensive and defensive agents, Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD) Chief Yossi Karadi said on Tuesday.
Speaking at the Cybertech Conference in Tel Aviv, Karadi warned of a doomsday scenario in which energy, transportation, telecommunications, and other industries would be hacked to grind countries to a complete halt, in some cases directly threatening people's lives.
During his speech, Karadi also revealed the scope of serious cyber incidents handled by the Directorate in 2025: more than 26,000, a 55% increase compared to 2024.
According to Karadi, the three most targeted sectors in 2025 were the financial sector, government institutions, and digital service providers.
He said many of the incidents were detected and halted without causing damage, while others caused significant harm to affected organizations, connected entities, or information assets.
AI cyber war poses a threat to energy, transport systems
The Jerusalem Post understands that "many" could be around two-thirds, while the harms were mostly to data, given that a major hack of critical infrastructure would likely have been publicized.
Karadi emphasized that the proposed Cyber Security Law, whose memorandum was published for public consultation a few days ago, marks a historic milestone:
"For the first time, the law will define what national cyber defense means in Israel. It will regulate the obligations of essential organizations and digital service providers to meet security standards in order to protect public security and daily life, and will establish reporting, supervision, and enforcement mechanisms to handle significant cyber incidents," said Karadi.
Further, he states, "The law aligns Israel with international standards and anchors cybersecurity as a national interest, rather than a voluntary decision by each organization."
Karadi also presented Israel’s new national multi-year cyber plan, focusing on three core pillars: cloud security, Cyber-AI, and readiness for the quantum era.
At the same time, he said that the program promotes strengthening national infrastructure, detection and response capabilities, national defensive platforms, and the establishment of national labs for artificial intelligence and deepfake technologies.
In addition, Karadi highlighted the importance of close cooperation between the government and Israel’s cyber industry, as well as international partnerships:
"We cannot choose when the next war will break out – but we can choose to be ready. The government sets strategy and leads national defense, but it is Israel’s cyber industry, with its innovation, agility, and operational experience, that enables Israel to be prepared for the first cyber-based war."
In this context, Karadi noted that in the past month, Israel signed a strategic cybersecurity cooperation agreement with Germany and launched a Maritime Cybersecurity Center of Excellence together with Greece and Cyprus.
On December 9, Karadi revealed that Iran used cyber weapons to try to target every citizen in Israel multiple times during the 12-day June war.
In the same speech in December, Karadi said that 1,200 social engineering hacking operations, each targeting thousands of Israelis, occurred during the war with the Islamic Republic in June.
Karadi replaced former INCD chief Gaby Portnoy in March 2025.