Israel’s national security could one day be at risk if Jerusalem does not address the issue of emigration, Barak Gonen, a cybersecurity expert and lecturer at the Jerusalem College of Technology, warned The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.
An unchecked trend of emigration could undermine the country’s technological edge, Gonen said, pointing to a similar dynamic that eroded the Islamic regime’s cyber capabilities.
Gonen noted that despite programs such as NODET, which recruit some of Iran’s most academically gifted youth, and a population more than 10 times larger than Israel’s, the Islamic regime has struggled to compete with the Jewish state. He said Tehran lost the technological advantage it once held, despite significant investment, largely because of emigration.
In 2023, the director of Iran’s Migration Observatory warned that 67% of employees in the country’s high-tech industry were in various stages of the immigration process. The Financial Times reported that the number of Iranian students abroad reached record highs in 2024.
Gonen, who trained in the elite IDF Talpiot program and has a background in intelligence and spyware, told the Post that he has focused his career on ensuring Israel does not experience a similar brain drain.
“I was very concerned because, as you probably know, we did some major operations on the Iranians, such as Stuxnet in 2010, and following that, the Iranians understood that they must be more advanced in cyber technology, so they started investing heavily in cyber technology,” Gonen said.
“So, I figured out that if I want to protect my country, what I need to do is to raise more people who will be capable of maintaining a logical edge," Gonen continued. "And fast forward to nowadays, we do see that we still have the technological edge, and that’s how it should be.”
Stuxnet, a joint US-Israeli cyberweapon, targeted Iran’s nuclear program by sabotaging systems at the Natanz enrichment site.
The national need for a capable cyber force
Gonen said he was once “envious” of Tehran’s NODAT program, which selects top students and provides them with elite education. He worried that they might surpass Israel. When that did not happen, he began to examine why the regime’s investment had not produced the expected results.
He said building a capable cyber force requires identifying the top 3% of a population, providing them with strong education, and ensuring they remain in the country. According to Gonen, Iran has failed at that final step.
“I read a few years ago something that caught my eye: The manager of NODAT, he said that, out of 86 of his finest students, who got medals in the physics olympiad, math olympiad, [and the] computer science olympiad, out of 86 students, 82 are living outside Iran, and out of the remaining four, two are in jail because they’re anti-government,” Gonen said.
“So, when I read that, I figured out that we still have hope, because despite the fact that Iran is raising huge amounts of smart people, if they’re not staying in Iran and contributing to their efforts, then this effort is futile,” said Gonen.
While acknowledging that Iranian cyber actors can now operate globally, Gonen said the countries they move to often reflect ideological opposition to the regime.
He cautioned that while Iran’s brain drain has worked in Israel’s favor, Israel could face a similar challenge.
“Current reports show that a lot of people are now leaving Israel, and I’m worried about that. I wanted people to be aware in order to maintain our competitive technological edge, we must keep all of the good people here,” he said.
A study by the Israel Democracy Institute published in December found that roughly one in four Jewish residents of Israel and one in three Arab residents would consider leaving the country, either temporarily or permanently. The nonprofit ScienceAbroad also reported last year that thousands of physicians, medical students, and scientists have left Israel in recent years.
Gonen said he opposes the current right-wing government and noted that friends have advised him to leave if he is unhappy with its policies, despite the work he has done to protect Israel’s cybersecurity.
“I’m not saying that anyone should think exactly like me, but what we should make sure is that no part of the population believes that sending abroad any part of the population will solve any problem in our country,” he said.
Joanie Margulies and Judy Siegel-Itzkovich contributed to this report.