JERUSALEM, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- An annual survey has found "significant gaps" between Israeli manufacturing companies' cybersecurity preparedness and the government recommendations.
The survey tried to see if the cyber preparedness in the Israeli manufacturing sector fits with the practices recommended by the Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD), the Manufacturers Association of Israel, which co-launched the survey with INCD, said in a statement on Sunday.
Among the 126 surveyed companies, 59 percent had no up-to-date or sound cybersecurity program, making them significantly vulnerable to cyberattacks, and only 35 percent performed a breach test for the corporate networks connected to the internet, the INCD statement said.
In addition, although 99 percent of the surveyed companies kept some kind of backup, only a third performed remote backups and recovery practices this year.
The companies in question have some 38,000 employees and an annual turnover of 19.5 billion shekels (5.72 billion U.S. dollars) in total, according to the statement.
"The outcome indicates that there is no long-term investment by factories in a field that needs them to stay up-to-date at all times," INCD Director-General Gaby Portnoy was quoted by the statement as saying.
Manufacturing companies should work to prevent cyber incidents and subsequent economic losses, which is "part of their basic responsibility for customers and for comprehensive public protection," he noted. ■
