Stuxnet<\/a> in 2010, and following that, the Iranians understood that they must be more advanced in cyber technology, so they started investing heavily in cyber technology,\u201d Gonen said.<\/p>\n\u201cSo, I figured out that if I want to protect my country, what I need to do is to raise more people who will be capable of maintaining a logical edge,” Gonen continued. “And fast forward to nowadays, we do see that we still have the technological edge, and that\u2019s how it should be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stuxnet, a joint US-Israeli cyberweapon, targeted Iran\u2019s nuclear program by sabotaging systems at the Natanz enrichment site.<\/p>\n
The national need for a capable cyber force<\/h3>\n Gonen said he was once \u201cenvious\u201d of Tehran\u2019s NODAT program, which selects top students and provides them with elite education. He worried that they might surpass Israel. When that did not happen, he began to examine why the regime\u2019s investment had not produced the expected results.<\/p>\n
He said building a capable cyber force requires identifying the top 3% of a population, providing them with strong education, and ensuring they remain in the country. According to Gonen, Iran has failed at that final step.<\/p>\n
\u201cI read a few years ago something that caught my eye: The manager of NODAT, he said that, out of 86 of his finest students, who got medals in the physics olympiad, math olympiad, [and the] computer science olympiad, out of 86 students, 82 are living outside Iran, and out of the remaining four, two are in jail because they\u2019re anti-government,\u201d Gonen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, when I read that, I figured out that we still have hope, because despite the fact that Iran is raising huge amounts of smart people, if they\u2019re not staying in Iran and contributing to their efforts, then this effort is futile,\u201d said Gonen.<\/p>\n
While acknowledging that Iranian cyber actors can now operate globally, Gonen said the countries they move to often reflect ideological opposition to the regime.<\/p>\n
He cautioned that while Iran\u2019s brain drain has worked in Israel\u2019s favor, Israel could face a similar challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cCurrent reports show that a lot of people are now leaving Israel, and I\u2019m worried about that. I wanted people to be aware in order to maintain our competitive technological edge, we must keep all of the good people here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A study by the Israel Democracy Institute published in December found that roughly one in four Jewish residents of Israel and one in three Arab residents would consider leaving the country, either temporarily or permanently. The nonprofit ScienceAbroad also reported last year that thousands of physicians, medical students, and scientists have left Israel in recent years.<\/p>\n
Gonen said he opposes the current right-wing government and noted that friends have advised him to leave if he is unhappy with its policies, despite the work he has done to protect Israel\u2019s cybersecurity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not saying that anyone should think exactly like me, but what we should make sure is that no part of the population believes that sending abroad any part of the population will solve any problem in our country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Joanie Margulies and Judy Siegel-Itzkovich contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to Barak Gonen, Tehran lost the technological advantage it once held largely due to emigration, with the number of Iranian studentsRead More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/en\/jerusalem_post_articles_818\/3ea3107ebb0d7df7fc6ab667eecc70f5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57609"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}