Israel now ranks as one of the top three most targeted nations for cyber warfare globally according to national authorities. In recent years, hackers have successfully breached two petabytes of sensitive data, a volume equivalent to the entire contents of the National Library of Israel multiplied one hundred times.
The scale of digital theft has evolved at a staggering pace, moving far beyond the era when breaches were measured in mere megabytes or gigabytes. Before security experts could even adjust to threats operating at the terabyte level, hackers bypassed those benchmarks to reach the quadrillion-byte stage of data exfiltration. This massive leap in volume represents a fundamental shift in the capabilities of global attackers and the vulnerability of modern digital infrastructure.
To put this loss into perspective, the sheer amount of information stolen from Israeli citizens and institutions is difficult to visualize without comparing it to physical archives. Since the digital footprint of a massive national archive like the National Library is only twenty trillion bytes, the two petabytes stolen represent the loss of one hundred such libraries. This statistic is derived from a comprehensive analysis of various hacking activities and data points tracked by national security officials over several years.
Beyond the volume of data theft, there has been a significant surge in specific types of digital aggression, including a thirty-five percent rise in phishing attacks during 2025. These operations rely on social engineering to trick individuals into clicking malicious links or surrendering financial details, often serving as a gateway for hackers to infiltrate much larger organizational networks. These methods remain a primary tool for those looking to seize personal funds or compromise critical infrastructure.
Simultaneously, cyber influence operations have experienced a dramatic jump of one hundred and seventy percent. Unlike traditional hacking, these campaigns are not designed to steal money but to manipulate public opinion and achieve specific political or policy goals within a target country. These tactics mirror well-known historical precedents where foreign actors attempted to sway major national elections, highlighting a growing trend where the digital battlefield is used to reshape the social and political landscape.
Source: Cyber Chief Says Hackers Stole 2 Quadrillion Bytes From Israelis