Technology

Israeli Defense Forces Build Elite Hacker Team Amid Growing Cyber-Warfare Threat

IDF Enlists Computer Hackers to Serve in C4I Cyber Warfare UnitIn a move that comes amid major concerns over the ever-growing threat to Israel’s civilian and military networks by Iran, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) is assembling elite teams of computer hackers to spearhead the nation’s cyber-warfare efforts.

According to the Jerusalem Post, last month the army has recruited around 300 young computer prodigies to serve as soldiers in its Military Intelligence and C4I Directorate branches — both of which are charged with cyber-warfare. C4I stands for “Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and (military) Intelligence.”

The new division is run by a colonel and former commander of Matzov (the “Center for Encryption and Information Security”). Matzov writes the code that encrypt IDF, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and Mossad networks, as well as major electric, telephone and water infrastructure mainframes.

JPost adds:

Last month, The Jerusalem Post reported on an ambitious Iranian plan to invest $1 billion to develop technology and hire computer experts with the goal of boosting the Islamic Republic’s offensive and defensive cyber-warfare capabilities.

Israel is also concerned about terrorist cyber attacks, demonstrated by the release of thousands of Israeli credit card numbers by a Saudi hacker this past week.

“We are not where we would like to be when it comes to the cyber world and we are working to improve our capabilities,” the senior officer said.

One of the IDF’s main concerns is the possibility that an enemy will infiltrate and topple military networks during a war. JPost reports that the IDF have invested heavily in digitizing its ground forces, enabling them to share tactical information about the location of both friendly and hostile units.

IDF Enlists Computer Hackers to Serve in C4I Cyber Warfare Unit“For us, cyber defense means retaining the ability to continue operating and to be able to rely on the security and availability of our networks,” a senior officer from the C4I Directorate said.

And the threat is real, as a group dubbed the “Gaza Hacker Team” launched a cyber-attack on the Israel Fire and Rescue Services’ website Friday morning. It is the latest in a series of cyber-terror attacks against Israel.

According to JPost, the same group hacked into Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon’s website just last week. In Friday’s attack the hackers crossed out picture of Ayalon and superimposed footprints over his face.

The hackers threatened to commandeer additional Israeli websites and wrote “death to Israel” in Hebrew.

 

Comments (31)

  • Jennifer_D
    Posted on January 14, 2012 at 11:45pm

    The IDF kicks butt and takes names! If you look at all of the wonderful things they do you can’t help but be amazed. They are constantly on their toes training to keep Israel’s citizens safe and are always among the first if not the first to respond to disasters.

    Report Post » Jennifer_D  
  • RossPoldark
    Posted on January 14, 2012 at 8:51pm

    PLEASE READ THIS AND CALL THE DOD TO SUPPORT OUR USMARINES WHO ARE BEING ACCUSED OF A HEINOUS CRIME SIMPLY FOR URINATION ON DEAD BODIES. WITHING THIS LINK IN THE PHONE TO THE DOD, AND YOUTUBE VIDEOS TO REMIND SYMPATHIZERS TO ISLAM THE HEINOUS THINGS DONE TO AMERICAN SOLDIERS DEAD, AND ALIVE. I AM PISSED AND THE HYPOCRISY!!! PEOPLE OF THE WORLD UNITE AGAINST ISLAM. http://www.endtimestoday.com/2012/01/13/terror-linked-cair-wants-the-urine-gate-marines-punished-to-the-full-extent-of-the-law/….

    Report Post »  
  • SoulReaver
    Posted on January 14, 2012 at 3:04pm

    To understand Islam and I took 2 years so I know both the textbook version and reality.
    Textbook version in the 7th century Mohammed was a strong man but illiterate who sought after God. God sends Gabriel to teach Mohammed how to read and write and he wrote the Quran.

    Reality Catholic church was losing its grip on Europe but wanted to control Jerusalem because they can read Revelation. Pope saw the nomads of Arabia as perfect allies. He sends a beautiful catholic nun Khadija to find a strong charming man. She finds Mohammed and she and Mohammed’s uncle translate what the angel said to him.
    Consider the Parallels
    Catholic Mary and virgin birth very important Islam queen of heaven, also virgin birth
    Jesus important in Catholicism but decreasingly so. Mary soon to be co redemptress. in Islam greatest prophet after Mohammed
    Immaculate conception (Mary born without sin) in both Catholic and Islam but not in Bible
    Fatima Mo’s daughter our lady of Fatima Mary appearing to 3 kids in Portugal
    Hatred for Jews and conquest for Jerusalem common to both.
    Catholic church only recognized Christian church to Islam
    In Bible both are mentioned as enemies of believers and Israel… Rev 17 for Catholic church (city on 7 hills ROME) and Persia (Iran,and Iraq) and Babylon for Muslims. Also probably Russia and China listed but not definite Gog and Magog. Talks about 200 million man army against Israel not even possible when written.

    Report Post » SoulReaver  
  • SoulReaver
    Posted on January 14, 2012 at 2:36pm

    hate Israel a little sack.

    Report Post » SoulReaver  
  • gemmeri
    Posted on January 14, 2012 at 2:13pm

    This is scary stuff that sounds like it’s right out of a video game or part of a sci-fi movie. So what happens if the power grids are disrupted or the back-up generators are put out of commission? What happens to the so-called planning networks if something unforeseen comes about? It has always been my experience with people that they don‘t plan for every contingency because one can’t foresee everything. While I am pro self-defense & I prefer to utilize technology rather then waste live human beings, I have to wonder at the underlying wisdom of using this technology in this particular way. It sounds too much like one man-one button scenario & we should know better that the fewer the decision makers, the more likely they do not consider everything involved. Hotheads do not good generals make. War is not supposed to be easy or neat & it is certainly not a game or simulation.

    Report Post »  
    • certified ethical hacker
      Posted on January 14, 2012 at 7:39pm

      I think the WTC woke many people up no doubt it is an ongoing fight to keep up with new technology and find stuff like maleware , rootkits, trojans etc we review things like this daily but this is not uncommon many nations have expert hacker teams that they recruit. such as China who holds contest to find the best then trains them their way

      Report Post »  
    • jasmer
      Posted on January 15, 2012 at 4:24am

      The threats constantly trumpeted about cyber-warfare be nothing but science fiction – not only are there far more established and safe systems than Microsoft’s garbage (varieties of Unix, such as that used by Apple), but the access of a ******* in Iran to a power system in New York be negligible.

      Reality is different – look up SCADA vulnerabilities.

      ‘You can’t fix stupid’. Not only does it turn out that utilities, defense contractors, and all sorts of other prominent or vulnerable organizations merrily connect critical infrastructure to Internet links, but they use unsafe systems like Windows, easily exploited vulnerabilities like a screen input fields that apply excess keystrokes directly to the system, and ways to access accounts that should never be available to outside scrutiny.

      Remember the East Coast blackout? I rarely see any mention of Microsoft… anymore. Looks like the corporate lawyers earned their blood money on that one.

      http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/84510/Blaster_worm_linked_to_severity_of_blackout

      Report Post »  
  • Ghandi was a Republican
    Posted on January 14, 2012 at 12:26pm

    Anyone who thinks God wants to see you sit idly by while Muslims vow to and attempt to blow up the Earth have some weird concocted ideas goin’ on. Islam is nit a religion. It is a political power structure rooted in subjugation, fear and death! Any Good Muslim can tell you that. They certainly could not deny that it has always been that way, no matter how sincere they may fell about their deity!
    Get a clue. If God wanted the Earth poisoned and destroyed he would do it himself. He gave us free will and would surely be disappointed to see us stand by and let it happen! Q: How do environmentalists feel about an Iranian Nuclear holocaust anyway? Where do they come down on this? Why does Obama hate the planet so?

    Report Post » Ghandi was a Republican  
    • SacKings2312
      Posted on January 14, 2012 at 1:11pm

      Any good muslim can tell you this? As if that makes any sense to what you just said. And if Islam is nothing but what you just said, then Judaism is nothing but the same, but even more so. The religion was created to make people hate their enemies, like the Canaanites. Like it or not, religion was made up for the powerful to control the weak. And you are nothing but a brain-washed weak fool!

      Report Post » SacKings2312  
  • pdw
    Posted on January 14, 2012 at 10:07am

    Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra I see you love to use hate drivel. You also try to quote a man that cannot talk without a teleprompter. A man that is so smart that he does not even know how many states there are in this country. A man that blames everyone but himself for all the problem in this world. I say it sounds like all the stupid hackers in the country need to try to go to work for Israel and leave the good people alone. The Arab hate mongers in the world who love murder have 1,000 to 1 land mass and cry for more? Why do you love murder? Why do you love Hate? “Yaaaahhhhh, like the Jews would be good at algorithms or math, or figuring out complicated patterns. Naw, I don’t believe it. It’s like saying Einstein or Oppenheim was Jewish.” Lets see the first time the Arab nations tried to kill all JEWS ended in a 3 day war. The second ended in 7 days, boy they just do not know anything do they? Seems they used their Scriptures to find answers for tactics to just survive. They did not start the war they wanted to just live in peace so they just defended their country. So as a defense they took land to protect them from more assaults. It sounds like their God does in fact love them. When you want to talk like a normal human-being it would be nice. Hate only blocks the thought process, love on the other hand opens the mind to receive knowledge and answers to many questions. The next time if you know how to use prayer, pray for understanding and how to love.

    Report Post »  
    • SacKings2312
      Posted on January 14, 2012 at 1:17pm

      You’re an idiot. Have you even looked into the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict? They’re country? What, 2,000 years ago, right??? Then they took over everyone else‘s homelands like the Gyspies and want to say it’s still their land after some traumatic event happens to their entire race.. Let‘s give the Gyps their homeland back while we’re at it. And Einstein was born a German-Jew, most like Khazarian due to being born in Germany, and never studied or related in any way to the Jewish religion.

      Report Post » SacKings2312  
  • Deckle
    Posted on January 14, 2012 at 8:45am

    Go Israel! God give them great wisdom!

    Report Post »  
    • pennswoods
      Posted on January 14, 2012 at 9:13am

      The great civilizations of China, Egypt, Babylonia, Greece, Rome, the Mayan and Aztecs and not last but not least European Western Christian Civiliaztion didn’t have great “wisdom” and intelligence too?

      Report Post »  
  • what-we-care-about
    Posted on January 14, 2012 at 7:09am

    Hackers always think they are really cool, until what they did is done to them? Hmmmm, I wonder who said that silly phrase, “what comes around, goes around”. Hmmm, on the tip of my tongue…somebody important…

    Report Post »  
  • TemayElbor
    Posted on January 14, 2012 at 4:05am

    As an ALMIGHTY protector, I have faith in the “covenant-keeping God of Israel.”

    As the chant goes “Death to Israel”, it also follows “Death to the God Of Israel” for “covenant-wise”, they are ONE. That is why, I believe, Israel shall surely prevail.

    Who dares to go against the GOD OF ISRAEL?????

    Report Post »  
  • garbagecanlogic
    Posted on January 14, 2012 at 1:08am

    Now if the U.S. could just be smart enough to follow suit.

    The U.S. Out Of The U.N.
    The U.N. Out Of The U.S.

    Report Post »  
  • KangarooJack
    Posted on January 13, 2012 at 10:46pm

    Geez, they could have outsourced and paid Xian Xong a peso a day….

    Report Post » KangarooJack  
  • CulperGang
    Posted on January 13, 2012 at 10:31pm

    When Dr. Paul becomes POTUS and tells the StateDept. get out of Israels domestic affairs: Watch Israel decimate the ME just by sitting at a desk. God go before the IDF.

    Report Post » CulperGang  
  • 12uN3
    Posted on January 13, 2012 at 10:24pm

    Watch the movie “Pi”, its a great example of Hebrew mathematics and how it meshes with the Jewish religion.

    Report Post » 12uN3  
    • pennswoods
      Posted on January 14, 2012 at 9:31am

      I think you should take a look into the enormous contributions to math by the Babylonians, Egyptians, and especially the Greeks. After that discover the contributions to math made by past civilizations in India, the Arabs, Chinese and even the Mayans. I do not believe in any kind of “Jewish superiority” any more than I can regognize a Nazi Aryan “superiotiry” based on the enormous scientific and mathmatical contributions made by Western Christian Civilization. Israel today benefits from the collective knowledge of non Jewish past civilizations the same the rest of the modern world does.

      Report Post »  
    • SacKings2312
      Posted on January 14, 2012 at 1:20pm

      well said pennswoods!

      Report Post » SacKings2312  
  • ThePostman
    Posted on January 13, 2012 at 9:33pm

    Hang on a second – only Israel and the US are noted for hacking Iran’s nuclear arsenal, and now we hear claims that we must ‘respond’?

    Tell me, if you are a hacker and are disabling other people’s computing systems, are you not a criminal? Are you not trespassing?

    Then why, as “good world citizens”, are we supporting such behavior?

    Report Post »  
    • ThePostman
      Posted on January 13, 2012 at 9:36pm

      Lemme tell ya sumpin, folks. We can support the Israelites, but Jesus would not support violating other people’s lives for no good reason, and he certainly would not support magnetic bombs. The government of Israel is not the same thing as the people mentioned in the Bible. They are two different things, just like Obama is not the American people.

      Don’t be fooled by wolves.

      Report Post »  
    • theawsomeawsomeness
      Posted on April 16, 2012 at 12:07pm

      Jesus was Jewish, I think he would be for Israel at this point. BTW, the reason Israel did that to the nuclear arsenal is for a reason, they are thretening to develope a nuclear bomb and with one, israel will be wiped off the face of the earth. By attacking the arsenal, we were able to delay the bomb by 2 years Soooo, what your telling me, is that we should let the develop a nuclear bomb and destroy about 2x the number of jews killed in the Holocaust… HELL NO!

      Report Post »  
  • pamela kay
    Posted on January 13, 2012 at 9:12pm

    I say WAY TO GO ISRAEL!!!!!!! I hope they can accomplish everything necessary to protect their people and their country.

    Report Post » pamela kay  
  • Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
    Posted on January 13, 2012 at 8:55pm

    Yaaaahhhhh, like the Jews would be good at algorithms or math, or figuring out complicated patterns. Naw, I don’t believe it. It’s like saying Einstein or Oppenheim was Jewish.

    Obama said the Arabs invented math and all that. So they must be way smarter. They don’t even believe in toilet paper or letting their women read n stuff.

    I don’t believe this Blaze nonsense.

    Report Post » Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra  
  • thekuligs
    Posted on January 13, 2012 at 8:53pm

    They are a few years behind the times. Mr. Kulig has been a cyber defense specialist in the USAF for a while now.

    Report Post » thekuligs  
  • Dug2Dark
    Posted on January 13, 2012 at 8:42pm

    GO IDF
    Get more magnetic (bombs) with iran.

    Report Post » Dug2Dark  

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