Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Karadi has been approved as the new chief of the National Cyber Directorate, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday.
Karadi is replacing Gaby Portnoy, who has served in the post since February 2022.
The brigadier-general has spent 31 years in the IDF, most recently as the top official of the Communications Command. Most of his experience has been in communications, which has significant implications for cyberdefense.
During the years 2011-2013, Karadi was the battalion commander of the Eitanim vehicles, with a focus on ensuring that communications infrastructure was set up in the critical spots where it needed to be across the country.
From 2013-2015 he was the communications chief for Division 162 of the Southern Command, including during the 2014 Gaza conflict, for which he was credited for carrying out the first digital war.
2016-2018 saw him take command of the Electronic Spectrum and Cyber Defense Center.
In 2018, he was the chief electronics officer for the Southern Command.
As of 2020, he was the top communications and cyber commander for the Central Command, including for wider similar responsibilities throughout the military.
From 2011-2013, Karadi was the battalion commander of the Eitan vehicles with a focus on ensuring that communications infrastructure was set up in critical spots.
Between 2013 and 2015, he was the communications chief for Division 162 of the Southern Command, including during the 2014 Gaza conflict, for which he was credited with carrying out the first digital war.
The years 2016-2018 saw him take command of the Electronic Spectrum and Cyber Defense Center, and in 2018, he was Southern Command’s chief electronics officer.
As of 2020, he was Central Command’s top communications and cyber commander, which included wider responsibilities throughout the military.
Portnoy was previously the CEO of ENvizion Medical and a former brigadier-general in intelligence, who served in units 8200 and 9900 but was appointed by former prime minister Naftali Bennett.
Although Portnoy was credited with a strong cyberdefense for Israel, including zero successful cyber infrastructure attacks on Israel throughout the current war (despite increased attempts by Iran and Hezbollah), he never had as close a relationship with Netanyahu as some prior cyber chiefs did since he was appointed by Bennett.
Cyber background
Neither Karadi nor Portnoy had as extensive a cyber background as predecessors Yigal Unna and Buky Carmeli, but Karadi is viewed as a top-notch candidate with a more than sufficient background in cybersecurity and excellent experience in management.
Unna and Carmeli have been credited with keeping Israel relatively free of mega cyber hacks, compared to the US and some other Western countries, though the rate of successful major hacks on Israel increased during the coronavirus era when large new parts of the economy moved into the digital sphere.
In addition, the cyber capabilities of Israeli adversaries have progressed significantly.