Ill be honest with you, he says. Inside the laboratory the cell phone exploded. But what does 8200 actually do? Private Israeli companies have sold surveillance technology to Malaysia, Botswana, Azerbaijan, Angola, Honduras, Peru, Nigeria, Ecuador, Mexico, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Trinidad and Tobago, Colombia, Uganda, and the United Arab Emirates. So I gave it a shot., At 16, he left his family and his country and enrolled in a boarding school in Jerusalem. I dont want her ever to get approached in that way.. And it shows how far it goes. Parents and uniformed army personnel milled around a windowless room packed with tables holding laptops, phones or other gadgets. The unit's reward and promotion program, while helping motivate all the unit's soldiers, particularly boosts the self-worth of female soldiers. They showed their testimony to the military censor before going public. Most realise that in gaining entry to Magshimim they are stepping on to the fast track. Though forbidden from discussing it, many 8200 veterans are happy to drop the units number freely in the corporate world as an elite calling card. Plus, 8200 has its own accelerator, 8200 for Startups by EISP, and an official alumni association. I was one of them. Mack, then, does all his work based on information acquired from activists and open sources. Post-8200 success comes at a cost: conscription to the unit requires five years of IDF service for many members. Traditionally, when filling entry-level security positions, organizations look for candidates with either IT or computer science backgrounds. Delivered daily or weekly right to your email inbox. Moshe Yaalon, Israels hardline defence minister, said the refuseniks would be treated like criminals. Furthermore, we carefully vet and verify that the end users of our solutions are registered with Cellebrite to ensure their compliance with our guidelines.. Eventually, he learned that some fellow 8200 graduates were thinking in the same way. Apart from 8200, the IDF also has other technological and spying units with their own cadres of alumni in business: a large air force intelligence unit, C4I, its telecommunications, computer and information technology unit, and smaller intelligence units so secret that Israelis will not utter their names. Within modern-day Israel, where there is no strong left-wing opposition remaining, this classs political leanings are classified as liberal. This story has been updated. While the case was pending, Amnesty Israel employees attended a technology conference, Mind The Tech. He learned Cellebrite was selling to the Venezeulan government by reading the internal magazine of an elite Venezeulean investigation unit. Although unconfirmed, Unit 8200 is widely speculated to be jointly responsible with the NSA for the famous Stuxnet computer malware that crippled one-fifth of Irans nuclear centrifuges in the 2000s.2 But the units impact goes far beyond state-level cyberwarfare: alumni of Unit 8200 have founded hundreds of cybersecurity companies, including Check Point, CyberArk, and the controversial NSO Group, as well as successful consumer tech startups like Viber and Waze. First came basic training, which he found appealing in a funny kind of way. Said Signal of Cellebrite, in a dismissive statement, They dont do live surveillance of any kind.. Analyzes how mandelbaum searches for unbelievable talents and people others like operating with and shows others different qualities he values. They just need someone to give them the opportunity. [13][14][15] In response, 200 other reservists signed a counter-protest letter. Israel, as Netanyahu never tires of saying, lives in a bad neighbourhood in the Middle East, surrounded by several countries it classifies as enemy states. Or threatening the families of people with health problems. Please. This can then be matched with other intelligence. During that initial rigorous intelligence course, Ouzan would constantly stare at a poster on the wall. Yes, this is a strange business, they seem to be suggesting, but what a lovely place to work. The unit, which is comparable the United States' National Security Agency or the UK's GCHQ, is the . Despite Elon Musks promises of water efficiency, critics fear the EV makers plans pose an environmental threat. The experience sparked my interest in both military intelligence and my current career as a security researcher. to be the creation of Unit 8200. "[5], Unit 8200 was established in 1952 using primitive surplus American military equipment. It is fair to describe shmone matayim as one of Israels most powerful business brands. Privacy International, a human rights watchdog group, recently reported that two multinational companies with Israeli roots, Verint and Nice Systems, were supplying surveillance technology to repressive Central Asian countries, allowing unchecked access to citizens telephone calls and internet activity on a mass, indiscriminate scale. Unit 8200, the cyber warfare organisation in the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), has a new commander. As a result of the youth of the soldiers in the unit, and the shortness of their service period, the unit relies on selecting recruits with the ability for rapid adaptation and speedy learning. It was clear that, for someone like me, there are routes in life, K. says. That first time, that first conversation, he remembers thinking, Im not sure its for the best. He thought maybe he could do more from the inside. There was excited chatter and a pungent smell of adolescent sweat. When I asked Tal what he wanted to do after military service, he answered somewhat overeagerly, as if I were interviewing him for a job: I would like to form my own company, or join an existing company with an important role.. Cellebrite is also selling briskly in the U.S. [11], In 2010, The New York Times cited "a former member of the United States intelligence community" alleging that this unit used a secret kill switch to deactivate Syrian air defenses during Operation Orchard. If you are interested in applying for employment, you must complete the online . Eitay Mack, an Israeli activist-attorney who investigates the countrys weapon and cybersurveillance sales and files legislation in an attempt to stop them. You get trained super hard. By piecing together a few social media posts, the talk show had figured out that NSO Group had recently flown hundreds of its employees out for a secret company retreat at a luxury resort in Thailand. In Israel, everyone cares about tech. Israel exported $11 billion in cybersecurity technology in 2021. [9], Ronen Bergman says in a 2009 book that a Hezbollah bomb, disguised as a cell phone, was picked up by agents, and taken for investigation to Unit 8200's headquarters in February 1999. Women in the workforce often feel excluded from discussions on topics about which they have extensive knowledge. By 2020, when 8200 and the IDFs other technology and intelligence units will have moved to Beer Sheva, the links that already exist between the military, the academy and business will be visible in the city, which Israeli officials want to develop as an alternative to Tel Aviv and its sky-high property prices. From morning to night. Hiring managers want script kiddies and computer gamers to fill those jobs. You create a knowledge base, Maimon said. In terms of technical expertise, Unit 8200 has been described by experts as on par with the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). Algorithms can also do what Maimon calls data compression for instance, establish that a target makes calls every day at 7.30am and 4pm. In fact, no charges were brought against them, although in January they received letters saying they were no longer reservists. His camera is so sharp that Im ashamed of my own; his input audio is so crisp, its as if he is whispering into my ear. One of JVP Cyber Labs early investments was CyActive, one of whose principals, Shlomi Boutnaru, spoke at the Magshimim graduation I attended. The company gained renown after it was suggested that they cracked the iPhone of the 2015 San Bernardino shooters for the FBI. But when it comes to criticism of 8200, K. is an anomaly among his peers. Mack has also found evidence that Cellebrite has sold its technology to Indonesia, where LGBTQI communities have suffered arrests, and to Belarus, where free-election activists have endured crackdowns. But IDF Unit 8200's slogan is: "The IDF needs a few good hackers." Actually not a few, more like hundreds if not thousands. Israel, at a national level, needs to be excellent in cyber, Yoav Tzruya, a partner in JVP Cyber Labs, one of the office parks first tenants, told me recently. Unit 8200 doesn't follow a conventional recruiting model. He holds hunger strikes in protests of sales. But the units impact goes far beyond state-level cyberwarfare: alumni of Unit 8200 have founded hundreds of cybersecurity companies, including Check Point, CyberArk, and the controversial NSO Group, as well as successful consumer tech startups like Viber and Waze. One of them said that during his training for 8200, he had been assigned to memorise different Arabic words for gay. In some ways, 8200 is Israel at its best and worst: a high-tech incubator that trains some of Israels smartest young people but effectively excludes minority Arabs 20 per cent of Israels population because so few do military service, which is compulsory for Jewish Israelis. Practice 3: Provide a seat at the table. [3] Former Unit 8200 soldiers have, after completing their military service, gone on to founding and occupying top positions in many international IT companies and in Silicon Valley. I knew nothing about it, but I could tell I was sitting across from some of the smartest people Ive ever met, he says. [19] Israelis who had hacked into Kasperskys own network alerted the United States to the broad Russian intrusion of US systems. Last year, an intelligence official suggested to national security reporter Ronen Bergman that the provenance of NSO Groups technology could be the state of Israel. Unit 8200 is the unit of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) responsible for signals intelligence. In 2018, Amnesty International discovered evidence that NSO Groups technology had been used in an attempt to monitor an Amnesty employee. I love the people of Israel. Like blackmailing gay Palestinians, he explains. Leaning on his rarefied background, he pushed his way into 8200. But in Unit 8200, subject matter experts discuss critical military matters with top commanders, regardless of gender or how junior they are. That network includes Eli Yosef, a settler and activist who first made his name in the 1970s, protesting in support of the Prisoners of Zion, a group of Russian Jews unable to leave the Soviet Union for Israel. This training is followed by on-the-job training. Having soldiers with different backgrounds leads to new approaches to problems. One intelligence source might have identified somebody talking in a car on a phone while another, using a camera on a plane, identifies the same car. Eli Yosef is still an active reserve IDF paratrooper. For example, a 19-year-old female soldier briefing a chief of general staff in the IDF is not uncommon. Photography by Tanya Habjouqa/NOOR for Rest of World, iPhone of the 2015 San Bernardino shooters, widely believed to be a contractor for the UAE government. He grew up in Frances Champagne region, obsessed with computers. Officially, an 8200 soldiers status is classified both during and after service. After finishing their training, new recruits are assigned a mentor who usually has served for about a year. Unit 8200 Retiree. One of the whistle-blowers, in a statement released along with the letter, described his moment of shock when watching The Lives of Others, the 2006 film about the Stasis pervasive spying in East Germany. He excelled in physics and maths in high school in northern Israel, and was drafted into 8200 in 2003, ranking as lieutenant by the time he left in 2009. More recently,Cellebrite had to walk back claims that it can hack the encrypted messaging app Signal. Now Im back in the industry. One 8200 graduate who previously worked at Cellebrite told Rest of World that she found her job through former army intelligence friends, a community that 8200 creates., Through a spokesperson, Cellebrite declined to comment on specific sales, saying only We do not sell to countries sanctioned by the U.S., EU, U.K., or Israeli governments. I explain the gist: a group of former 8200 soldiers contended that the units pervading surveillance of Palestinians has only exacerbated the conflict. Their brand is powerful. Im coming from the position that I love Israel, he says. You get trained super hard. These kinds of regimes are proud of gaining Israeli technology.. Israel, with its vibrant start-up company culture, is already one of the worlds choicest targets for venture capital money. will rise exponentially we need to seek solutions not just in Israel but in the world at large," explained an IDF recruitment officer"In the first go-round, we seek in the Jewish communities [abroad] young . That percentage is even lower for women of color, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. When it was published in 2014, the refusenik letter created a media storm, with much of the coverage coming in the international press. After his initial assessment, K. was offered a chance to enter Unit 8200, an elite intelligence unit in the IDF. Omer, 19, had designed a USB key that can suck information out of one computer and organise it on another: essentially, a hacking tool. Cellebrite offers services to reconstruct data deleted from devices. These standards shall be implemented on or before January 1, 2013, and the first certification of high-performance boards shall occur on or before July 1, 2013. If Israels well-honed hacking, spying and cyber skills, developed in the military, can be deployed in the private sector to darker effect, few are taking notice. [2], In 2010, the French newspaper Le Monde diplomatique wrote that Unit 8200 operates a large SIGINT base in the Negev, one of the largest listening bases in the world, capable of monitoring phone calls, emails, and other communications, throughout the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as tracking ships. Most people cant handle this job. However, the unit also scouts potential younger recruits through after-school computer classes. Its a big thing, to tear your connection to society. The impulse to not be an outsider is strong. "It's a very large organization with many sub-units, many sub-topics within each of those sub-units, and various and widely divergent functions. It is alleged[by whom?] This was a recent graduation ceremony for Magshimim (which roughly translates as fulfilment), the three-year after-school programme for 16 to 18-year-old students with exceptional computer coding and hacking skills. He is affable and smart, the kind of young man who makes Israelis proud. It's being mighty charitable to call dragooning computer criminals into military service "an act of bravura." After years of sending software and talent to the small but influential Gulf state, its no coincidence, says Mack, that the UAE and Israel reached a Trump-brokered normalization agreement in the summer of 2020. personalising content and ads, providing social media features and to Palestinians in both territories depend on permits to travel into Israel or Jerusalem, giving Israeli authorities, the protesters said, the ability to barter for information. As part of its recruiting program, Unit 8200 runs tests designed to identify individuals who can handle stressful events, are team players, can find innovative solution to various problems, and, most importantly, are coachable. Sep 14, 2022 9 Intelligence personnel of the Israel Defense Forces at work. And last month, the Israeli military announced it would be forming a new cyber command to combat new challenges in online warfare. Went to class on time? The security industry (and the greater technology community) needs to realize that technical skills alone do not make a person qualified. We made it appear like a keyboard so you can infiltrate any company in the world, he told me. The 8200 alumni association, with more than 15,000 members, hosts networking events and community outreach programmes, including a start-up accelerator open to Arabs and ultra-Orthodox Jews, most of whom do not serve in the army. Unfortunately, we are getting attacked again and again our banks, our critical infrastructure, our government. JVP, a Jerusalem-based venture capital firm with $1.1bn under management, is hosting and incubating promising companies at the park in Beer Sheva, about half of which are founded from entrepreneurs with backgrounds in the IDF or related agencies. Candiru goes after servers; its named after the Amazonian fish famed for parasitizing the human urethra., Many of these companies are marketed globally on the prestige of their former Israeli intelligence founders and employees. Its about going on missions. In pristine resolution, he looks, plaintively, to his side: And at this point, thats it youre no longer a kid.. More than half were boys but there were girls too, and 8200 is open to both. In reality, men outnumber women in computer science degree programs (although not everywhere). For years, the activist attorney fought the international export of traditional Israeli weapons. Even his former banker in New York City was 8200. Magshimim serves as a feeder system for potential recruits to Unit 8200, the Israeli military's legendary high-tech spy agency, considered by intelligence analysts to be one of the most. Although unconfirmed, Unit 8200 is widely speculated to be jointly responsible with the NSA for the famous Stuxnet computer malware that crippled one-fifth of Irans nuclear centrifuges in the 2000s. By the end of the decade, Unit 8200 and the IDFs other intelligence and technology units will have moved there, too. Identified only as Brigadier-General 'K', he replaced Brigadier-General 'S' at a change-of-command ceremony at the Unit 8200's home base at Gelilot, north of Tel Aviv. Inside Israels lucrative and secretive cybersurveillance industry. Unit 8200, or shmone matayim as its called in Hebrew, is the equivalent of Americas National Security Agency and the largest single military unit in the Israel Defence Forces. Officers in the unit are not allowed to discuss their service, even with relatives, and are limited as I discovered in what they can say after they leave it. (The standard conscription period is currently 24 months for women, around 32 months for men). (The censor approved publication, except for the use of the signees full names.). 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He believes in the Jewish peoples divine right to the land; he lives in one of the major West Bank settlements deemed illegal by international law. (As of a February coup, Myanmar is again under military control.) The specifics of Ouzans path are unique. Humans do this naturally, using their five senses and grasp of context, but computers have to be taught. In intelligence, you cant work only by rules, you need to be open-minded, said Rami Efrati, a former 8200 senior officer and serial entrepreneur who is on his third start-up, Firmitas Cyber Solutions. There are simply are too many security jobs to fill. The industrys collective sales are near $1 billion annually. The Israelis live in a different security environment from the rest of us, he said. The first step in Israels intelligence work, he told me, was to obtain raw information. He says that, even during the pandemic, its been growing like crazy.. [2] Afterschool programs for 1618 year olds, teaching computer coding and hacking skills, also serve as feeder programs for the unit. It has nothing intellectual about it, he says with a smile. He studied humanities in university. In an annual briefing, the Ministry reports only the total monetary amount of sales and the total number of countries sold to. The company is at the cutting edge of cyber defence, with predictive software designed to anticipate hacking threats that do not exist yet. [1] It is subordinate to Aman, the military intelligence directorate. But theres one thing I believe: people have to be safe. Post-8200 success comes at a cost: conscription to the unit requires five years of IDF service for many members. Russia, he said, still uses methods such as honey traps to ensnare targets. He rarely gives interviews but he invited me to his office. The latter's head, Lutz Glllner, is looking to turn it into a full-fledged European counter-disinformation agency. He built websites for family friends from the synagogue. You dont ask, Why not? Once intelligence is gathered and organised into a database, an analyst needs to look for a common denominator. Many women who lack a technical background but possess keen problem-solving skills, great communication abilities and strong leadership qualities would be eager to pursue a security career. Disruptive behaviour and challenges to authority are encouraged, even if this means defying senior officers. [12], In 2014, 43 veterans of Unit 8200 signed a protest letter decrying what they called the electronic surveillance unit's abusive gathering of Palestinians' private information. AI moderation is no match for hate speech in Ethiopian languages. [3], The 18-year-olds selected for the unit are primarily chosen for their ability to teach themselves and to learn very quickly as the unit will only have access to their services for a short time before their military service period ends. [21][22], Former soldiers of Unit 8200 have gone on to found many IT companies, among them:[23][24][4][25][26], "ISNU" redirects here. Israel withdrew its military from much of the West Bank in the early 1990s and all of Gaza in 2005, but its forces can still enter Palestinian Authority-controlled areas for arrests or other security operations. It read hakol efshari everything is possible., For the first five minutes, I found it cheesy, Ouzan says. (Gilad would not allow me to print his surname or photograph his face.) He drinks a coffee out of a tiny clear glass cup. It shouldnt come over as if Im some kind of leftist. Yosef yearns to believe in Israels moral righteousness, in a justification for its pervasive militarization. Quickly, it became like a mantra. We are getting attacked again and again our banks, our critical infrastructure, our government. We teach them how to work out of the box., Nir Lempert, chairman of the Unit 8200 alumni association and CEO of MER Group, a mobile communications infrastructure company, said: I think the best premise I took with me from this unit was the ability to manage big activities in uncertain situations with a lot of question marks regarding the environment and the understanding that we must fulfil the mission.. They are an economically privileged, majority Ashkenazi social class that, in years past, has made up a large percentage of IDFs elite combat units. Recruits who pass these tests undergo extensive training that teaches them any technical information they need to know. Analysts can then apply data mining algorithms to this knowledge base determining, for example, from a base of several million conversations, which two are relevant. You start hunting down human rights activists, things can go much, much worse.. In few other countries does the military establishment mingle so closely with academia and business, to all three sectors profit. In Hong Kong, Cellebrite tech was allegedly used to crack phones confiscated from pro-democracy activists, including Joshua Wong, who is serving a year-long jail sentence for his involvement in the protests. One example: You dont go to the Border Police, in the occupied territories, where IDF soldiers physically control Palestinians movements. Israels export sales are either about shoring up relationships or about destabilizing its enemies or about anything else that can be seen as a net good for Israels place in the global order. Technical knowledge isn't a requirement. I am for Israel in everything, said Yosef. They're routinely praised for achievements and constantly reminded about how far they've advanced in a short period of time. But in recent years, Yosefs focus has been Israels arms sales. Selection and recruitment to the unit usually occurs at age 18 through the IDF screening process after high school. And everything is pragmatic. Current agencies. Screenshot from YouTube. Like other Israeli mathematics professors, he has worked for both the intelligence services and the private sector. How it opened up doors afterwards. In the tech industry, the brilliant young men and women who fight their way through the IDFs elite intelligence unit are as coveted as ever. Recruits who pass these tests undergo extensive training that teaches them any technical information they need to know. There's a set cadence for promotion and succession. Its rarely the case in the army, he says, that something happens that is so immoral that you go out of the room and say, I cannot participate. You dont really see it in its entirety. [3] These after-school computer classes, teaching 1618 year olds computer coding and hacking skills, sometimes act as feeder programs for the unit, with students receiving invitation letters from the IDF. There were massages, poolside parties, NDAs, and exclusive performances from the singer Netta (she won Eurovision Song Contest 2018) and the mentalist Lior Suchard (he performed at Kanye Wests 41st birthday). Over the past three years, pro-Palestinian hacktivists grouped under the #OpIsrael banner have targeted Israeli government websites and public institutions computer systems.
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