A foreign country is trying to use cyber abilities to interfere in Israel’s upcoming elections, Shin Bet director Nadav Argaman has warned.

Hadashot News initially reported on Tuesday night that Argaman had delivered the warning at a conference in Tel Aviv on Monday, but that the censor was blocking the content of his warning.

Zionist Union MK Revital Swid responded to the news by stating that she had been one of the early public officials warning of cyber interference in elections and was concerned that more still needed to be done.

Earlier Tuesday, State Comptroller Joseph Shapira issued a warning that he would be reviewing how well election authorities protect their systems and relevant political parties from hacking or social media manipulation.

Generally, there are two primary threats of cyber interference in an election. One is hacking the actual election infrastructure to alter the vote count, which is rare and difficult to do. The second, which has become more common and which Russia did in the US, is manipulative, sophisticated social media campaigns promoting fake news stories and themes designed to support a favored candidate.

In the US, Russia tried to support US President Donald Trump’s election, though there is no clear evidence that its influence was decisive in his election win.

cnxps.cmd.push(function () { cnxps({ playerId: '36af7c51-0caf-4741-9824-2c941fc6c17b' }).render('4c4d856e0e6f4e3d808bbc1715e132f6'); });

Last year, IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot warned the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of potential future cyberattack election threats.

In recent interviews with The Jerusalem Post, both ex-Israeli cyber chief Buky Carmeli, and former government agent and Chief Technology Officer Amit Meltzer said that even as Russia and China may be using cyber to collect intelligence in Israel, it is doubtful either would provoke a crisis.

In contrast, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has named Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas in the past as all trying to hack various aspects of the country.

The Central Elections Committee does not fall under the jurisdiction of the National Cybersecurity Authority.

Various Knesset committees have held meetings to discuss cyberattacks and attempts to spread false information in order to influence the elections, the most recent of which was six weeks ago.

Last year, Knesset Science and Technology Committee chairman Uri Maklev (UTJ) warned in one of them: “We think the [Central Elections Committee] cannot defend itself alone. As much as it will try, it cannot reach the level of the Cyber Authority. Something must be done.”

Meretz chairwoman Tamar Zandberg said in response to Argaman’s remarks that: “We demand security forces make sure [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is not stealing the election for his friend, Bibi the dictator.”