"Iranian targeting of critical infrastructure in Israel is a dire warning for every organization"
“We are in the midst of an escalation in the entire cyber attacks arena; Iran is investing resources to strengthen itself in this arena,” said Nir Bar Natan, Director of SQLink’s new cyber protection service, following the exchange of cyber-blows between Israel and the Islamic Republic.
By Yossi Hatony,

“The fact that the Iranians were able to hack a critical infrastructure facility in Israel necessitates switching on of warning lights in every organization in every sector in Israel,” said Nir Bar Natan, Director of Information and Infrastructure Systems at SQLink. Bar Natan was referring to an attack by Iran a few weeks ago on water facilities in Israel, apparently with the intention of poisoning them. According to a report published two days ago (Monday) in the Washington Post, Israel subsequently launched a cyber attack on an Iranian port – an attack that led to a two-day long shutdown of the ports.
In an interview with People and Computers, Bar Natan said: “We are in the midst of an escalation in the field of cyber-attacks. Iran, like other Muslim countries in the region, is investing resources in order to increase its attack and defense capabilities in this field.”
“In this war, Israel will be measured by the level of innovation it will generate,” he said. “Innovation is the name of the game. The more innovative we are, with more attack capabilities, the more the element of surprise will work in our favor and enable us to win the battle. But regrettably, I estimate there will be further escalations down the road. Without going into too much detail regarding the success of the Iranian attack, the very fact that they managed to reach critical Israeli infrastructure is significant, and it is likely to seep into other sectors of the industry. The war in this arena will be wide-ranging, and as part of it we will have to make sure to constantly regenerate and improve – and do so, among other things, with better intelligence.”
“Our system is based on two main features: a business intelligence mechanism and real-time reporting,” he noted. “The intelligence mechanism receives information about attacks that occur in real time throughout the world, thus enabling preparation of a defensive infrastructure for our customers.”
Additional Israeli player in the field of cyber defense
SQLink recently announced that it is entering the field of cybersecurity and protection and will provide managed solutions in this area. Bar Natan is in charge of this new service. He said that “we have entered the field of cyber protection because we identified a real need and demand among organizations in the market for professional solutions, and most importantly – managed solutions. Even organizations that have already implemented comprehensive information security solutions in the organization are talking about how to expand them.”
“Our system is based on two main features: a business intelligence mechanism and real-time reporting,” he noted. “The intelligence mechanism receives information about attacks that occur in real time throughout the world, thus enabling preparation of a defensive infrastructure for our customers.”
According to Bar Natan, “Every expert knows that there is no 100% protection against cyber attacks. Attackers improve the attack vectors and security experts must make modifications. Meanwhile, organizations are given the time they need to deal with the incident when it is still in its infancy – before it spreads and causes the organization to shut down, as we have seen in quite a few cases that have occurred recently.”
He went on to describe SQLink’s solutions in the field. “We offer several managed services: managed SIEM-SOC, with added business intelligence value; advanced monitoring of Azure and AWS cloud environments; interfacing with the IoT and OT worlds, and building a unified SOC for both, all under a single dashboard and screen; a database firewall for implementing an in-depth protection approach – from the database layer to the applicable level, the network and then outside the organization through Chief Information Security Officer as a Service (CISO as a Service), to address regulations, ISO 27001 certification, with risk surveys and intrusion tests all as part of the service,” said Bar Natan.
In conclusion, Bar Natan estimated that “by 2021 we will have dozens of customers in the field. Already today we see interest among the Group’s customers in SQLink’s cybersecurity service that offers a comprehensive solution based on the Defense in Depth cyber security model, providing an organization with 360-degree protection and significant reduction in the damage that may occur from information leakage or encryption.”