Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Cyber-Lessons For Israel From The Russia-Georgia Conflict

One of the key elements in the Russia-Georgia conflict has been the way the battle has played out on the Internet as each side tries to control the narrative and gain support for their side.

On the issue of cyber warfare and the threat it poses to Israel, MediaBackspin editor Pesach Benson interviewed Gadi Evron. Evron used to run security for the Israeli government ISP and was formerly founder and manager of the government's computer emergency response team (CERT). Last year, he assisted Estonia's CERT when Russian hackers attacked numerous Estonian sites. Evron also blogs on internet security issues at Circle ID.

One key point:

What can Israel learn from Georgia's efforts to get its P.R. message out to the world in the face of all the hackings?

Georgia and Russia fought a media war, and they are experts. The whole media warfare has been extreme. If you go back and forth between American and Russian news sites, you can't tell who is telling the truth. There's possible evidence that Georgia lied about some of what happened to keep the media on its side.

One thing we can learn from Georgia and Russia is their ability to explain their situation and launch extensive PR campaigns. That's what we lack and we've been clearly shown how the masters do it.

Read the whole thing.

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