START
00:00:03 Narrator
Cyber crime is testing our security measures to the limit.
00:00:10 Nissim Bar-El, founder and CEO of Comsec
What is happening now is a complete different level of attacks, which we were not used to.
Narrator
And now there’s a new target: our banks. (this line should be over the shot of computer screen and then going into shot of reporter walking with nissim bar el)
00:00:50 Nissim Bar-El
The situation is quite bad and it is going to get worse, I believe. Unfortunately we are seeing a trend which is becoming worse and worse in terms of attacks. But the motivation behind them is not completely clear.
00:01:05 Narrator
Nissim Bar-El is the CEO of COMSEC, an Israeli agency specialising in international banking security. Experts like him are at the forefront of a cyber war. These days it’s not just hackers performing cyber attacks.
00:01:18 Nissim Bar-El
Definitely, the Chinese were the first ones that admitted they have a unit inside their army that deals with cyber attacks. So we know about them, know exactly what they're doing.
00:01:29 News extracts SUBTITLE
The Netherlands have become too popular with internet criminals.
The DigiD site has been down since yesterday.
Bank hit by another cyber attack.
00:01:38 Reporter
Is my money safe?
00:01:41 Nissim Bar-El
The money's safe as long as the Central Bank is taking the responsibility. I would say that the bank cannot really resist this situation in which it cannot operate because of a Ddos attack more than a couple of days, three days, four days. This is a catastrophe for a financial organisation.
00:01:58 Reporter
So the answer is: 'I don't know'.
00:02:01 Nissim Bar-El
The banks are vulnerable in this country as well as in other countries. There are some countries that are...
00:02:07 Reporter
At the same level or are we more vulnerable than for instance in Israel or in the USA?
00:02:16 Nissim Bar-El
In general, Western banks, Western European banks are more vulnerable than banks in the US and of course in Israel. You know that Israel has been attacked by hundreds times more than any other country in Western Europe, and therefore we have developed for our survival all kinds of tools and methodologies in the approach to protect ourselves.
00:02:38 Reporter
So you are ahead of us?
00:02:41 Nissim Bar-El
Israel leads by all means ahead of many of Western countries, definitely. The approach is completely different, we understood that and acted accordingly.
00:02:52 Narrator
Specialists at Nissim Bar-El's Israeli security company patrol the Internet. But they've also stepped into the shadowy world of the ‘darknet’, a hidden network where hackers and other cyber criminals operate.
00:03:08 Shiran Kleiderman, computer expert at Comsec
All of the, let's say, the initial attacks or the organisations start over there, and today it's easy – like going to a rental site for cars, or to buy things online. Then a normal person that wants to create havoc, they go to this underground, to this 'darknet' and rent or hire these high demand cyber attack services.
00;03:37 Reporter
What can we learn from Israel?
00:03:39 Nissim Bar-El
I think that the first thing to be learned is that the government has to take a decision that this is really on the highest level to be approached. The approach taken by some of the countries in Western Europe is not suffficient. I can just tell you, that about a year ago, the prime minister of Israel has decided to form a national council under his own responsibility with a budget, with targets, with approaches, with methodologies, and they are reporting to the prime minister of Israel on a very frequent basis, on how the country is prepared, how the banks are prepared, how the criticial infrastructures are prepared. So I would say the first advice is really to take this kind of aspect of responsibility to the higher level...
00:04:25 Reporter
It should be on the plate of the prime minister?
00:04:28 Nissim Bar-El
At least this is the way it has been done in Israel, and as you know...
00:04:33 Reporter
Would you advise the Dutch prime minister the same thing?
00:04:35 Nissim Bar-El
I think yes.
00:04:37 Narrator
According to the Dutch Minister of Security and Justice, banks should protect themselves rather than rely on governement help.
00:04:44 Ivo Opstelten, Dutch Minister of Security and Justice SUBTITLE
It is crucial for the banks to take responsibility.
00:04:48 Reporter
We have a cyber security centre in this country.
00:04:50 Nissim Bar-El
Yes, of course.
00:04:52 Reporter
With a budget of four million euros a year, this year. Next year, five.
00:04:59 Nissim Bar-El
(laughs) Yes, of course, this is a...
00:05:00 Reporter
What's so funny?
00:05:02 Nissim Bar-El
(laughs) Figures that you have just mentioned. Yeah, I think that the figures have been published so I can tell you that the figures in the place where I'm coming from are 750 million dollars, not euros, but still - 750, you can see the figures that have been published by the US government, and the presidential has added, president Obama has added just last week, I think it's about 200 million – plus the budget that already exists in cyber protection in his own office.
00:05:37 Barrack Obama, speech excerpt
It's now clear, this cyber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation.
00:05:44 Reporter
So what you're saying, really, is that five million euros is a joke.
00:05:48 Nissim Bar-El
(laughs) I'm not critising any of your decisions...
00:05:51 Reporter
Yes, you are. Yes, you are.
00:05:52 Nissim Bar-El
(laughs) No, no, I'm not.
00:05:53 Reporter
Yes, you are.
00:05:53 Nissim Bar-El
But yeah, I can say from my professional point of view, and we know exactly what it takes to be protected, a country cannot be really ready by investing four, five million euros in preparing all the infrastructure needed.
00:06:09 Reporter
So the cyber police should be provided with more tools.
00:06:12 Nissim Bar-El
More tools, more resources, more knowledge, more training.
00:06:17 Narrator
Nissim Bar-El believes we have to get used to the idea that in their fight against cyber terrorism, security forces will increasingly operate in our private domain.
00:06:26 Nissim Bar-El
We are talking about the open source intelligence. You have put this information, you know...
00:06:32 Reporter
But that is Big Brother.
00:06:34 Nissim Bar-El
Yeah, but you know – you mention the Boston case. In the Boston case now under the investigation, as much as I understand, the guy has published some of his thoughts, and now we understand they we have this kind of information. So again, of course, you know, my privacy is not the same when I have to go through the airport, and take off my jacket, and everything else, and sometimes my shoes. This is not nice, I don't like it, but this is the price we pay against terrrorism. The same will be the price you are paying for using the internet the way we are using it.
00:07:10 Reporter
We just should be looking more closely.
00:07:14 Nissim Bar-El
We should be looking more closely, we should analyse this type of information, and at least look under the bad guys, look for the bad guys, look for the bad information that is there, and try to understand if really information is as simple and innocent as it is.
00:07:30 Reporter
So, the prime minister should take the lead, the budgets for the cyber security centre should be raised enormously, because otherwise it won't help and the police should be given more tools.
00:07:45 Nissim Bar-El
I cannot disagree with you (laughs), I cannot disagree with you, yes, yes. These are at least the basics, and the approach, if I may add one advice to the two you've just mentioned – a new approach combining between the industry, the academy and the government, creating the task force on the different levels, on the higher level of the government and the industry and the universities, on the executive levels, on the technical levels, on the researchers' levels, all these kinds of fruitful relationships will create the right solutions.
00:08:22 Reporter
I thank you very much.
00:08:23 Nissim Bar-El
Thank you.