In their book Start-Up Nation, authors Dan Senor and Saul Singer also write extensively about the contributions made by individuals whose experience in an elite Israeli army unit known simply as “8200” led to a host of technological innovations that became key to the success of companies such as Paypal, for instance.
Unit 8200 is the largest unit in the Israel Defense Forces, comprising several thousand soldiers. It is comparable in its function to the United States’ National Security Agency and is a Ministry of Defense body just as the NSA is part of the United States Department of Defense. It is led by a Brigadier-General whose identity remains classified.
Similar to Britain’s GCHQ, Unit 8200 manages Israel’s army signals intelligence, sucking in and analysing vast amounts of electronic data, from wiretapped phone calls and emails to microwave and satellite broadcasts. On the new hi-tech battlefield, 8200 is now the largest unit in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
Notable 8200 alumni and their companies:
Gill Shwed & Shlomo Kramer — Check Point (1993)
Yossi Vardi –ICQ (1996)
Shabtai Adlersberg — AudioCodes (1993)
Joshua Levinberg, Amiram Levinberg, and Yoel Gat –Gilat (1987)
Jacob “Kobi” Alexander, Boaz Misholi, and Yechiam Yemini –Comverse (1982)
Source The Chutzpah of Intelligence
Israeli tech firms Nice, Comverse and Check Point were all created by 8200 alumni or based on technology originally developed by the unit. With the emergence of consumer apps based on crunching vast amounts of information known as “big data”, Israel is a decade ahead of the US and Europe – and all because of the military. Source
The Sayeret Matkal (General Staff Reconnaissance Unit) is a special forces unit of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). First and foremost a field intelligence-gathering unit , conducting deep reconnaissance behind enemy lines to obtain strategic intelligence, Sayeret Matkal is also tasked with counter-terrorism and hostage rescue beyond Israel’s borders.It is directly subordinate to the IDF’s Directorate of Military Intelligence.
The following firms owned by or founded by former Unit 8200 or Sayeret Matkal personnel function in India
Akamai Technologies ,(Election Commission Of India Private mobile Handsets)
NICE Systems, (High Tech recording of Indian Parliament )
Comverse Technology split into Comverse & Verint (Comverse India’s Largest BSS Vendor BSS dealer( billing) Verint given contract to intercerpt encrypted Cyber messages like emails texts etc )
Check Point (Has offices in India )
ECI Telecom ,(ECI’s top position in the Indian transmission market, with 25% share of the country’s metro optical network hardware market.)
AKAMAI TECH
Akamai Tech CEO Tom Leighton with Israeli President
Akamai had a few months before the general elections offered to help out the Indian Election Commission for free .The Election Commission accepted. On counting day Akamai saw five times increase in web traffic across all its media clients in India with the predominant traffic being on the websites of ECI and NDTV.
In India AKmai serves verticals such as Media & Entertainments (accounting for a third of our revenue), Commerce & Enterprise (IT/ITeS), and some government facing companies. Clients such as NDTV, HT Media, Times of India, Snapdeal, Jabong, Rediff, Sify, Nauri.com and the Government of India Election Commission are their Indian client
On Sept 2014 the Financial Times in its article Akamai Technologies in talks with Indian handset makers said that Akamai Technologies, which helps companies deliver internet content, is talking to Indian handset makers Karbonn, Spice and Videocon to bundle its compression software to help speed up connectivity on their devices. Remember Akamai was co founded by a former member of the Israeli intelligence Sarayet Matkal Akamai’s chief executive Tom Leighton told ET. “It is very important for us to have our software on those devices because that can make the internet faster, more reliable and more secure and more affordable.”
NICE SYSTEMS
Nice Systems was founded in 1986 as Neptune Intelligence Computer Engineering (NICE) by 7 Israeli ex-army colleagues. The CEO is Zeevi Bergman The company specializes in telephone voice recording, data security, and surveillance. As well as systems that analyse this recorded data. India has had a host of scandals involving phone taps on important Politicians
After Parliament was attacked by terrorists in 2001, in a $5 million deal, NICE was called upon to install thousands of cameras and sensors on site in the Lok Sabha building It was selected for its ability to provide a pre-integrated portfolio of security solutions The recordings are probably stored in some Mossad Secure server
COMVERSE TECHNOLOGIES
The company’s origins date to 1982 , when three Israelis, aspiring investment banker Jacob “Kobi” Alexander , engineer Boaz Misholi, and Alexander brother-in-law Yechiam Yemini, founded Efrat Future Technologies All three were products of Unit 8200 .By the mid-1990s, one of its most successful products allowed legal authorities and intelligence agencies to record and store data collected from intercepted communications
In 2006, Comverse was involved in an options backdating scandal. Alexander and two other top executives were charged in the US with multiple counts of conspiracy, fraud, money laundering and making false filings. During 2012 and 2013, Comverse Technology divested itself of all its holdings and ceased to exist; Its two main subsidiaries Comverse and Verint Systems became independant companies and successors of Comverse Technologies
Comverse is Indias largest BSS ( Business support system, components used by Telecom Service Providers)
In 2013 Indias Minister for Telecommunication Kapil Sibal announced that Verint Systems, would “soon” get a contract from the Indian government to devise interception tools for tracking encrypted communication services’ , including Gmail, Yahoo.mail, Research In Motion’s BlackBerry (RIM) services to Microsoft Skype amidst mounting cyber security concerns , a top official in the telecom department told ET.See Israel’s Verint to get government contract for interception tools
CHECK POINT SOFTWARE
Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. is an international provider of software for IT security founded in Israel in 1993 Check points founders Gill Shwed & Shlomo Kramer are both members of Unit 8200.By February 1996 the company was named worldwide firewall market leader by IDC, with a market share of 40 percent.In 1998 Check Point established a partnership with Nokia, which bundled Check Point’s Software with Nokia’s computer Network Security Appliances.These firewalls are regularily used in India
Given Israels incessant history of spying why is India allowing companies owned by ex Israeli intelligence officers to function in India
New World Order Broadcast Corp 