Israeli Gov't Revises Draft Bill Granting Powers To The National Cyber Directorate

• Published date: 06 April 2021
• Subject Matter: Government, Public Sector, Technology, Terrorism, Homeland Security & Defence, Security
• Law Firm: Pearl Cohen Zedek Latzer Baratz
• Author: Mr Haim Ravia and Dotan Hammer

The Israeli government introduced a revised version of a draft bill for Cyber Defense and the National Cyber Directorate. The move comes just a few weeks after the government introduced the bill's previous version which would have authorized the National Cyber Directorate (NCD) to instruct an organization how it should prepare for cyberattacks, provided the NCD is convinced that the organization engages in essential activities, it suffers a critical security vulnerability that it does not address, and a cyber-attack against the organization would severely harm the public interest.

The revised bill would require that the NCD obtain a court order authorizing it to instruct organizations to carry out acts on the organizations' computer systems. The court order would be obtainable only after the NCD has liaised with the organization, explained the need and the rationale...