Netanyahu urges Israel to become a global cyber-power

JERUSALEM, June 9 (UPI) -- Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Israel should become a global leading contender in cyberspace.

Netanyahu, speaking at Tel Aviv University's Yuval Neeman Workshop for Science, Technology and Security and the Institute for National Security Studies, said: "Although the field is not precise ... we must enter it ... and become a world cyberpower.

"This is possible. We're no longer crawling, we're walking, and soon, we will be running forward," The Jerusalem Post report Thursday.

The prime minister appeared at a conference on exploring the cyberwarfare arena from global, national and technological aspects.

Netanyahu added that rapid technological changes made Israel, like all technology-dependent countries, increasingly dependent on cybernetics in fields as diverse as transport, aviation, banking, medical care and defense.

He said: "The more computerized we get, the more vulnerable we become. There is therefore no choice but to deal with this in a more systematic and focused manner."