Computer monitoring cyber attacks. Photo: wiki commons.

As hackers step up the rate of their attacks against diverse sections of Israel’s online infrastructure, the country has doubled down to build up its cyber-defenses, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.

Many of Israel’s major institutions have redefined how the country will tackle the growing threat: Israel contended with some 2 million hacking incidents during last summer’s Operation Protective Edge.

Earlier this year, the Israel Defense Forces announced it was bringing together its anti-hacking units under a single command, and the government announced plans for another national authority to oversee its civilian networks, like the ones used in hospitals or banks. Israel’s national electric company even said it braves up to 20,000 potential hacking attacks every hour.

And Israel’s central bank has apparently became the first in the world to lay out the necessary steps each of its departments must take to weather the hacking onslaught.

Carmi Gillon, the former head of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency, said hacking attacks could be the second most dangerous existential threat facing Israel, after a nuclear attack.

Israeli cyber officials have called for allocating up to 8 percent of the Jewish state’s budget to its cyber programs.

Still, though threats forever loom, Israel does have its advantages: the country is connected to global networks by just two cables, and could easily “disconnect.”

Also, Israel has not suffered the kind of damaging hacking attack the U.S. has with the recent theft of data on about 22 million federal employees.