The UK and Israel have had longstanding relations and joint efforts in terms of maintaining cybersecurity knowledge sharing. Although very recently, the two countries officially joined together in a new trade and defense deal, with emphasis in the cybersecurity realm. It seems that the deal came about as a result of motivations from both sides: the UK has experienced a surge of ransomware attacks while Israel seems to be interested in leading a global group of countries to form a collaborative effort on cybersecurity. However, given the recent events involving targeting the British as well as the Palestinians using Pegasus spyware, the deal has been faced with some resistance. A few experts and journalists have noted that the UK signed the deal in hopes of gaining more cyber knowledge in terms of offensive cyber attacks, with which Israel is more familiar. Richard Moore, the former MI6 chief of the UK, further explained that the country wishes to move toward understanding more of what is technologically feasible from the adversary side of things. While it appears that Israel could be able to provide that intelligence, this partnership has already been faced with some doubts and questions.
