Cybersecurity has long since moved beyond being an IT concern. In today\u2019s AI-powered world, it\u2019s a matter of national infrastructure, public safety, and geopolitical resilience. That reality was made sharply clear in my conversation with Chen Girat, the former Chief Information Security Officer of the Israel Electric Corporation. Chen\u2019s career has taken him from the Prime Minister\u2019s Office to one of Israel\u2019s most critical infrastructure organizations, and throughout that journey he\u2019s witnessed cybersecurity evolve from a tactical afterthought to a core pillar of national defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What struck me immediately in our conversation was how high the stakes have become. \u201cIf you don\u2019t do your job right, it\u2019s not the company that suffers\u2014it\u2019s the country,\u201d Chen told me. This isn\u2019t just about securing data or maintaining uptime. It\u2019s about ensuring that power plants stay online, that communication networks don\u2019t go dark, and that millions of people can live their lives uninterrupted. For critical infrastructure CISOs, failure isn\u2019t an operational issue\u2014it\u2019s a strategic liability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n