Thyssenkrupp
Photo: EPA
Former MK says blueprints for Israeli subs were hacked
Erel Margalit, a high-tech expert, tells cybertech conference in Tel Aviv theft of secrets coincided with Israeli acquisition in 2016 of German subs, warns details on other Israeli vessels may have been transferred to Iran.
A former member of the Knesset claimed Wednesday that computers belonging to the German Thyssenkrupp company were breached by a hacker who managed “to steal secrets and blueprints of the submarines that were developed in Germany for Israeli use.”
Erel Margalit, also a high-tech and social entrepreneur who served as an MK for the Labor Party between 2015 and 2017, presented the charges during a cybertech conference held in Tel Aviv where he warned that the world’s exposure to cyber attacks can drastically harm Israel’s security.
According to Margalit, a hacker broke into the Thyssenkrupp computers in 2016 when Israel was ordering its strategic submarines from Germany.
Erel Margalit
“So as much as Israel can protect itself and as much as any country can protect itself, when it’s dealing with other countries that has to deal with it, it needs to be sure that the protection works and that’s why we need a higher level of cooperation,” he told his audience at the conference.
Margalit, founder and chairman of JVP, also suggested that details about the corvettes purchased by Israel to protect its waters may have fallen into Iranian hands.
Erel Margalit (Photo: Yariv Katz)
“We know that the boats, the corvettes, that Israel’s buying to protect it’s waters, the four boats, are bought from a shipyard in Kiel that’s owned by a Lebanese family, one of which was the Lebanese defense minister which has intimate dealings with Iran,” Margalit continued.
“And so you’re asking yourself whether the new blueprint of Israel’s boats is in the hands of Iran.”
Drawing his stark conclusion, Margalit said that Israel, as a leading power in cyber security, also had to ensure not only that the virtual fortifications it has in place cannot be penetrated by hostile forces, but that they cannot be circumvented either.
“So what I’m trying to show you is that even Israel as the world leading, together with the United States, cyber country, sometimes the shoemaker can walk barefoot if they get him through their neighbors or through their allies,” he warned.
