Israel is preparing for an array of cyber threats in the event that Syria and its Iranian backers make good on days of threats to lash out against the Jewish state should the West act militarily against the Bashar al-Assad regime:

An Israeli army spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Media Line there are hundreds of attempted cyber attacks on Israel each day. He said that number is expected to increase if the US hits Syria in the next few days or weeks.

Pro-Syrian hacking groups have garnered renewed focus recently, including this week, for attacking Western websites:

The cyberattacks were among the more sophisticated in a recent series of assaults on high-profile Western media organizations, including The Washington Post and the Associated Press. The Syrian Electronic Army has used these intrusions to broadcast its support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, although the group has never been found to have any official ties to his regime.

Israel’s cyber efforts are taking place alongside more concrete efforts to prepare for attacks by Syria and its allies. Two batteries of Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system have been deployed in northern Israel, and there is now an ongoing, two-day security exercise being held on Israel’s northern Golan Heights.

Nearly five million gas masks have already been distributed to the Israeli population, against the backdrop of what is widely suspected to be the mass use of chemical weapons against Syrian civilians by the Syrian regime. Syria has one of the world’s largest chemical-weapons arsenals, containing roughly 1,000 tons of nerve agents.

[Photo: Israel Defense Forces / Flickr]