HLS 2012 by israeldefense

ISRAEL DEFENSE HLS

A Safer Tomorrow Special HLS Annual Review 2013

FROM THE E D I T O R I A L S TA F F

LETTER

ISRAEL HLS REVIEW Dear Readers, The term ‘HLS’ no longer refers to ‘classic’ police forces and activities. It has come to encompass state-of-the-art technologies and doctrines. The lines between national security and personal security - as well as between national security and the need to ensure the existence of viable and thriving commerce and economy under any kind of threat – have become blurred. As in any other field, Israel stands at the forefront of technology in the field of HLS as well. Nevertheless, this annual issue was not intended to praise the accomplishments of the State

of Israel in this field, but rather to represent several notable developments that took place within the context of HLS. The publishing of this annual issue coincides with the Second Annual International Homeland Security Conference produced by the Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute, in cooperation with IsraelDefense, and complements the ongoing coverage by the contents divisions of IsraelDefense over the course of the year. IsraelDefense was originally established to provide a showcase for innovation, for new concepts and even for ideological debates on various defense-

related issues. Our editorials are published in the printed issues of the magazine, in our websites and in other media. Occasionally, IsraelDefense publishes special periodic reviews of specific topics, just like the annual issue you are currently reading. This annual issue was published in English and is distributed at the HLS Conference of the Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute to thousands of additional readers in Israel and abroad. We hope you find this special review interesting and beneficial. IsraelDefense Editorial Board

Editor-in-Chief: Amir Rapaport Managing Editor: Ronit Magen Magazine Coordinator: Moral Ackler Graphics Department Manager: Assi Krispin Editor: Michael Kadichevski Translation: Rami Hann, Michael Kadichevski Sub-Editor: Jessica Snapper Staff Members and Contributors: Moriya Ben-Yosef,Efrat Cohen, Gil David, Arie Egozi, Ramzi Gabbai, Avigdor Klein, Lior Kogan, Yonatan Maroz, Michael Ouliel, Ami Rojkes-Dombe, David Tzur Graphics: Yael Rotem Photography: Meir Azulay, Ofer Zidon, Ziv Koren Publisher: Arrowmedia Israel Ltd. All Rights Reserved © Print: Hadfus Hahadash Ltd. CEO: Guy Keren E:guyk@israeldefense.co.il VP: Meital Ben-Dov E:meitalb@israeldefense.co.il Sales: Dekel Zered, E:dekel@israeldefense.co.il, Arik Morgenstern, E:arikm@israeldefense.co.il Projects: Avi Yariv E: aviy@israeldefense.co.il Customer Service: Eran Zilberman E: id1@israeldefense.co.il, Subscriptions: sub@israeldefense.co.il W: www.israeldefense.com E: info@israeldefense.co.il T: 972-74-7031211 IsraelDefense Office Address: 9 Hamovil Street, 2nd Floor, P.O Box: 7107 Zip Code: 44424, Kfar-Saba, Israel

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Special HLS Review 2013 c o n te n ts

“The Lines are becoming blurred”

Features 10 Between Defense and Intelligence President of the Security Group at NICE discusses the field’s future directions By Amir Rapaport

16 Eyes in the Air, on Land and Sea The unmanned systems aiding protecting the homeland. A special review By Arie Egozi

20 Riding the Waves of Information Windward Maritime Solutions CEO discusses the first system of its kind for providing a global, continuous naval situation picture

By Amir Rapaport

24 Fences are Back in Fashion Magal CEO discusses the world of borders and visible and invisible fences By IsraelDefense

28 Aviation Security How Ben-Gurion Airport is secured and the secrets of sky marshals By Amir Rapaport and Yonatan Meroz

42 Is Israel Prepared for an Unconventional Attack Brig. Gen. (Res.) Avigdor Klein discusses the possibility of Syrian chemical weapons reaching the hands of terror organizations By Ami Rojkes-Dombe

48 Storage and Information Daniel Yammer, from a titanium market tycoon to the “guru” of the world of Big Data By Amir Rapaport

52 Spanning the World Israeli companies are present at all of the world’s most important sites By Moriya Ben-Yosef

54 The Next Generation The latest intelligence systems in the HLS field By Michael Olior and Lior Kagan, Ripples

60 mega Event Protection How Israelis are securing the major global sporting events By Moriya Ben-Yosef

68 we’ll tell you who you are A special review of the biometric identification measures currently in the market By Efrat Cohen and Moriya Ben-Yosef

72 The French Connection Between the terror attack against the Jewish school in Toulouse and the Yamam's combat methods

“The next revolution will be in energy”

By Police Commander (Ret.) David Tzur

NOVEMBER 2012

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NOVEMBER 2012

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OCTOBER 2012

N E X T

I S

N O W

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GUARDING THE BORDERS

Photo: Ofer Zidon

The Caracal composite armored vehicle, known as the “Sand Cat”, has been used by the Israeli Border Patrol since 2010. The vehicle has been designed with the comfort of the Border Patrol soldiers in mind. It has a PA system and an intercom system. It even has a special place to plug in your iPhone. The “Sand Cat” has been profiled in an article in issue 10 of IsraelDefense

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HomelanD Security: Israel Helps Make the World Safer Israeli companies spearhead the latest advancements in HLS technology and procedures across the globe

By Ramzi Gabbay

e live in an age of terror. The expansion of the global village alongside modern technologies have given nearly any aggrieved individual or group the do-it-yourself power to harm societies across the world at little cost. External defense affairs have been joined by new internal security needs: states must now also protect people and property from ascendant threats executed domestically. From the crowded city to rural areas, from coastlines to borders, from the air above to the ground below, from mega events to cyberspace, homeland security (HLS) is full of critical responsibilities. Many countries are now dedicating increased resources to internal security and homeland defense, even when general budget cuts are

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imposed. In fact, HLS budgets are being increased because the risks to the home front are just too great. In Israel, security is not merely an occupation or a business. Due to Israel's special circumstances, it is unfortunately a way of life: numerous dangers have threatened Israeli citizens since the inception of the modern state. As these threats continue to proliferate, we must always look for better technologies and procedures to protect Israeli citizenry. Long before the terrorist attacks in New York, Madrid, London and Mumbai, it became an Israeli national mission to develop and implement the most advanced systems possible to enhance the security of our citizens. Israeli government agencies and the private industry work together closely to answer

the demands set by our security advisors handling both physical and cyber terror threats. We have rigorous security policies and procedures in place at our air and sea ports and at our border crossings, as well as sophisticated technologies to support them. These arrangements are also deployed at major public venues and events, protecting strategic infrastructure and helping secure civil aviation. They also extend to open space residential and commercial areas part of the unique Israeli â&#x20AC;&#x153;Safe Cityâ&#x20AC;? concept. Over 350 Israeli companies offer products, solutions and systems for the global homeland security market. Israeli systems aim to protect critical infrastructure, which includes power stations, fuel depots and water plants, in addition to public-gathering points, such as sports stadiums and

Photo: Shutterstock

"Long before the terrorist attacks in New York, Madrid, London and Mumbai, it became an Israeli national mission to develop and implement the most advanced systems possible to enhance the security of our citizens" transportation hubs. Key technologies include perimeter/border surveillance and protection solutions. In the cyber domain, Israeli providers offer telecommunication and network Security, financial processing and data security, communications surveillance, and many other digital security solutions. Specialized devices inspect vehicles and cargo, helping to secure air, water and land transport. Electronic jammers counter

remotely operated explosive devices, while ballistic and special armor protect personnel, vehicles and buildings from the impact of explosions. Riot control solutions, as well as non-lethal measures for personnel dispersion or submission, are also offered. Israel is also a leading supplier of protection against CBRNe (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and explosives) for civilians, first-responders, vehicles, shelters,

medical teams and mobile facilities. Many Israeli companies focus on the human element. They offer threat assessment, policy and procedure development, operational planning, and personnel training services, especially for emergency management and response. Israeli companies work closely with many of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest prime security integrators. They also undertake projects worldwide as prime contractors or partners. Israeli security services and technologies help secure major sports, entertainment, and mega-public events worldwide. Israeli security systems even protect major symbols of Western civilization, such as Buckingham Palace, the Vatican, and the Eiffel Tower, as well as large aviation hubs and seaports, including JFK (New York), Heathrow (London), and Changi (Singapore) airports. In addition, Israeli trainers support some of the finest police and counter-terror units around the globe. The Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute is a major gateway for government agencies and private homeland security companies to learn about Israeli companies. We are a non-profit organization supported by the government of Israel and the private sector that facilitates business ties, joint ventures, and strategic alliances between overseas and Israeli companies. Charged with promoting Israel's business community in foreign markets, we provide comprehensive, professional trade information, advice, contacts and promotional activities to Israeli companies, and complementary services to business people, commercial and government groups, and business delegations from abroad. We are committed to bringing them together with appropriate Israeli companies, ensuring that people throughout the world are better protected and less exposed to the risks before us. ď&#x201A;&#x17E; Ramzi Gabbay is the chairman of The Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute, and chairman of Israel HLS 2012, the 2ND International HLS Conference.

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Between Defense and Intelligence "We are beginning to notice a connection between 'Safe Cities' and the protection of important assets and intelligence capabilities," says Yaron Tchwella, President of the Security Group at Nice Systems, in a special interview with IsraelDefense

By Amir Rapaport

NOVEMBER 2012

Photo: Shutterstock

aron Tchwella refers to a major issue that preoccupies technological corporations and defense agencies worldwide: the blurring of the traditional lines between the 'classic' intelligence and defense worlds and what is now referred to as Homeland Security – HLS. Moreover, he says that systems developed for intelligence and defense needs are currently used for economic needs as well. Information obtained for security needs can save money and even serve as a revenue-enhancing source. For example, systems that record the number of people present at a certain train station in the context of the station's security needs can be useful for effectively planning the train timetable. "Organizations take a giant mental leap as to where they would like to be, how to link open sources and how to sell an open-source intelligence collection system to a business so that they may be able to know what's going on. This is the fusion of sector boundaries that become increasingly more blurred. A business wants business intelligence, and a lot of information is available on the Internet – but how do you reach it? The challenge today is, to a considerable extent, how to derive insights from the open-source information." The interview with Yaron Tchwella was conducted at the offices of NICE Systems in Raanana. Tchwella has been serving as the president of the company's Security Group for nearly two years. In the past, he also served as president of Comverse. NICE's Security Group, which he now heads, is regarded as a primary supplier of systems to the various intelligence agencies of Israel. A major share of these systems cannot be discussed openly, for information security considerations.

A Flood of Intelligence Information "The intelligence arena is undergoing some significant changes," says Tchwella. "The situation today is asymmetric: a small organization can operate against states on the cyber field. You do not need 4,000 tanks

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Yaron Tchwella

"The situation today is asymmetric... a handful of people can sit behind a laptop computer somewhere far away and operate against major organizations" on side A and 3,000 on side B – a handful of people can sit behind a laptop computer somewhere far away and operate against major organizations. Another phenomenon is globalization – borders do not exist anymore when you connect to the Internet world. "In the technological fields, you can see a true revolution. Today, people are accessible anywhere in the world. They regard their iPhone as a computer, not just a mobile phone. In fact, if the intelligence agencies could monitor the cellular phone traffic and SMS messages – it would have been good. However, a new application for sending messages, for communicating, and for sending Email or SMS messages, becomes available almost every day. Communication is being broken down into fragments. Namely, I can send an SMS message and then go over to WhatsApp Messenger and continue the conversation there. You must constantly

monitor all of these communications to draw information, and we are speaking of many, many channels. Today, communication is divided into small segments, split into many different methods and means of communication. "The greatest challenge stems from the fact that this communication is beginning to be encrypted – Skype and other services, for example. In the past, if you saw that something was encrypted, you would have thought that it was important. Today, nearly everything is encrypted, and then you have to know what is of any value and what you should not spend your time on. "Additionally, if you look at the amount of traffic a certain individual generates today – in the past, he would have generated 10 phone calls. Today, you are looking at something much more extensive. "We have very complex software systems capable of deriving insights from a massive amount of information, and we are beginning to look at phenomena of patterns that are starting to appear anomalous, and we believe it is a trend. "However, the amount of information is massive. We are trying to do a number of things. One is to track a target or a threat, but we want to identify whether there is a new target – an unknown one, out of patterns that are anomalous, and begin to analyze and understand what is happening in this world. "We invest heavily in the field of IP, in the field of monitoring, in the development and manufacture of algorithms for handling Big Data and for handling the Metadata – not necessarily the actual contents. We are developing two capabilities – one at the content level, and the other the ability to begin to understand insights regarding the amount and type of communication, out of a massive amount of Big Data – not necessarily its contents." Do you also include data fusion in it? "Yes, we engage in fusion from several sources. The company possesses the capabilities required to handle banks, for example - financial intelligence, to try and understand the fusion between communication systems and finance and physical security. One example is if the

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city has Safe City cameras – whether all of these things can be connected."

Intelligence & HLS Is this of interest to governments, too, or only to business organizations? "Information obtained from open sources is highly important to government agencies as well. Systems capable of producing insights from these sources are highly important. People think that a lot is happening in the Internet world, that things can be organized through the web, like a mayor who wants to know how popular he is – all through the Internet." So you collect the open source intelligence. What do you do with it? "If we sell an OSINT system to a certain client, we will 'custom tailor' the system for that client. We work with him on what he wants to look for. If we look at a neighborhood, for example, we will begin with the relevant searches so that the information obtained is refined. However, the system will still be learning its own capabilities initially. Thus, after a week of searches, for example, we would see how the information becomes much more refined and how the system becomes more focused on the information you are looking for." "Another thing you will be able to see is that we are involved in Safe City projects."

Security Systems NICE Systems is also very active in the field of advanced security systems. Very few people are aware that the common denominator between the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower, two of the world's most famous tourist attractions, is the fact that both are protected by an Israeli security system. Hundreds of surveillance cameras, installed in every corner of these sites, are linked to a central control system. The "brain" of the system can automatically identify suspicious developments and then start to track them. In retrospect, the system will draw the route of the suspicious object on the display screen. Video images will enable ongoing analysis of the situation at the site, every

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second and in every corner. The company behind the systems in Paris and New York is NICE Systems, which is regarded as one of the world's largest software and security firms, with 25,000 clients and 3,000 employees. In addition to those tourist attractions, the company's systems are also deployed at airports around the world and guard government installations such as the Indian Parliament building. The Security Group is one of the company's most important elements, and is also involved in numerous civil fields of activity. A few months ago, NICE unveiled its PSIM (Physical Security Information Management) risk management system. The system enables the user to track a large number of objects, such as vehicles, aircraft, ships or objects picked up by radar or various other sensors, in real time. The systems were designed to conform to the strictest standards in effect in the US, and are adapted to the needs of specific sites, such as national infrastructure installations, where security is critical, or a specific airport. The main challenge for any command and control system is to be able to identify a problematic incident before it develops, based on early indicators the computer can detect and identify. What will you be presenting at the Homeland Security Conference produced by the Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute?

"We intend to present Safe City products, OSINT products and crisis and incident management products. We have several new products that we will unveil at the exhibition. We have identified a phenomenon of increased investments in the Safe City field, leading to operations. Over all, people understand that technology is critical and you must know how to use it effectively. You need to know how to effectively utilize Big Data you can obtain through the technology. You need to find a needle in a haystack, but sometimes you do not even know what the needle looks like. Refining insights from the sea of information – this is the subject we decided to advance, how to draw insights in order to be influential." What about the classic world of intelligence? "We will present our analytical capabilities for video, data and audio. In the field of audio, we have very complex audio technologies – one for intelligence applications – identifying the speaker, the language, the gender, the age. We have technologies capable of identifying words, emotions, tone and emotion – for example, someone calling a service center and telling the service representative: 'I am leaving', etc. You are trying to refine how to reach the relevant information faster, out of the ocean of data. This is the analytical capability – the ability to filter the minimum information you need to reach something that is relevant, out

of that ocean of information, something that can have an impact on your business – very quickly. This is very interesting for classic intelligence gathering organizations." What about non-pattern texts? "You can apply this to fax transmissions, Email messages - any information that is textual. It has an accuracy rate and a false alarm rate. We are searching in everything that passes through us. We monitor the databases of corporations. We collect the information and try to draw insights from it. For example, how many incidents of theft happen at certain branches of a company, then add this up and say – we have 20% new employees here, so there is a correlation between the new employees and store inventory shortages. Our place is where normal people no longer have the ability to process the information. Even an organization wishing to improve its business operations must look at analytical systems – at data, to use these insights to improve the efficiency of the business. Our main goal is

to produce systems whose insights are not based on retrospective analysis, but rather on the ability to foresee that something is going to happen and to attempt to prevent it

"The main challenge for any command and control system is to be able to identify a problematic incident before it develops, based on early indicators the computer can detect and identify" before it happens." Can you deal with this challenge? "We can, but partly, not in all of the arenas.

We try to shift the knowledge center from a state of retrospective analysis to a state of forecasting." These trends are much more than just a by-product… "I said the lines are becoming blurred. When you invest in security, the investment has already been made. You have already installed the cameras – so let's see what can be done with them. The first leap is to people's safety and convenience. At this time, not many of the people we talk to fully understand this, but the dialog leads them to thinking about where they can go. Security is the 'bread and butter', the question is how to gain more value and produce more value for the clients." Has there been a breakthrough in the field of voice recognition, from the technology perspective? "I cannot elaborate, but we invest in algorithm technology – we participate in the Chief Scientist's programs, but we cannot discuss anything yet." 

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THE EYES OF THE HOMELAND The use of UAVs for Homeland Security (HLS) purposes becomes more intensive every year. The industries are hard at work developing new, purposedesigned UAVs. Arie Egozi in a special review of this evolving field

By Arie Egozi

AVs are, allegedly, the ideal platform for Homeland Security (HLS) missions. They can patrol along the border, inside the country, pick up suspicious movements and report to the ground forces alerted to deal with the threat. But nothing is that simple. The world is yet to accept a massive presence of UAVs in airspaces normally allocated to manned aircraft. The process has started in Israel, too, but it is expected to be a slow one.

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However, the feverish minds of the system developers never rest. They keep presenting numerous proposals based on UAVs of various sizes and models. For example, a few years ago, an Israeli manufacturer proposed to install a "UAV train" along the border, to provide complete control over the border line. The company had designed a system based on rails, similar to a railroad, installed along the border fence or the territory to be protected. Small railway cars travel along

these rails, with UAVs fitted with cameras and other surveillance systems tethered to the railway cars by special cables. The cables supply electrical power to the electrical motors of the UAVs. These motors rotate the propellers that push the UAVs forward. In such a way, the UAVs can remain airborne for days and even weeks on end. The railway cars travel along the simple track and the UAVs fly above them, with the cameras they carry scanning the area of interest. As soon as the cameras pick up

Heron UAV

a suspicious movement, the information is transmitted to a central control unit. In the event that an area located away from the fence needs to be scanned, an order is issued and one of the UAVs is detached from the cable tethering it to the railway car, and flies independently over the area in question in order, for example, to spot or track terrorists attempting to escape as they realized they had been spotted. According to its developers, this method solves the problem of maintaining a

permanent presence of UAVs along a specific sector. Today, UAV endurance is restricted by the service life of the battery that drives the vehicle's propeller. With the new method, electrical power is supplied through the cables from the railway cars, so power supply is almost unlimited. The concept never materialized as the manufacturer was unable to convince the potential users, but the idea indicates some of the trends of thought in the context of UAVs.

The Key Word â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Miniaturization The UAVs and the process of miniaturizing them pointed the developers in other directions as well. In the US, they are already developing real insects in which miniature electronic systems will be planted. The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) already develops insects that would execute military missions. The intention is to plant miniature electronic

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Security in the Sky The new ideas coming from this industry keep surprising everyone. The US is currently examining the possibility of placing UAVs over major airports in order to identify launches of man-portable air-defense missiles and disrupt the flight of such missiles toward their intended targets. "The threat is very real, constant and scary," says one aviation security expert.

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Photo: Ami Rojkes-Dombe

and mechanical chips into the insects, to enable command of the insect in such missions as surveillance or spotting explosives. A radio signal will activate the planted chip, which would direct the insect to the point of interest. In order to identify explosives, a microscopic sensor will be planted in the insect and for surveillance missions – a miniature camera or a miniature microphone. "Today's electronics and optics can provide such sensors without any problem," says an expert in the field. The intention of the US scientists is to have the microscopic systems planted during the pupal stage of an insect such as a butterfly, so that the insect develops to its full size with the plant already in place. The DARPA scientists focus their efforts on butterflies, moths and dragonflies that transform from larva to pupa to an adult insect. There is still a controversy among scientists as to whether insects can actually be commanded and directed to carry out military missions, but the experiments continue. The renewed effort to employ insects for the purpose of performing military missions was conceived when some manufacturers began to develop miniature UAVs whose flight pattern mimics the flight of insects. These UAVs use moving wings, similar to the wings of a butterfly, operated by a small electrical motor. Consequently, the attempt to use real insects led to a renewed effort to develop insect-like UAVs. At IAI, for example, a major effort is underway to develop a "butterfly" UAV capable of entering a building and operating a camera therein.

The threat imposed by shoulder-launched missiles on passenger aircraft has become very acute owing to the massive amounts of such missile systems acquired by terrorist organizations. A few years ago, the US Department of Homeland Security unveiled a plan to develop a UAV that would circle at high altitude over major airports in the US. This specialized UAV will be fitted with sensors capable of identifying the launch of an antiaircraft missile toward a departing or landing aircraft. In the event of a launch, the UAV will activate measures that would disrupt the flight of the missile and cause it to explode in mid-air rather than inside one of the engines of the target aircraft. Intelligence agencies have stated that tens of thousands of anti-aircraft shoulderlaunched missiles are currently available to terrorist and criminal organizations around the world, and pose a constant threat to civil aviation. The threat imposed by shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles on civil aircraft is very tangible, but the steps taken around the world to deal with this threat have been no more than symbolic. While aircraft transporting heads of state and plain rich folk are equipped with anti-missile protection systems, passenger and cargo aircraft have not been provided with such protective systems.

Following the attempt to shoot down the Arkia aircraft in Mombasa in 2002, Israeli industries began developing a civil version of a self-defense system for aircraft. Official sources promised that such a system will soon be operational on board all Israeli passenger aircraft. Around the world, however, airlines will not rush to install this system on board their aircraft. For this reason, several other methods of protecting airports from the threat of anti-aircraft missiles launched at departing or landing aircraft are currently being examined.

Imagination & Reality Numerous proposals are tossed into the air regarding the use of UAVs for HLS missions. One thing is clear, though – these vehicles are ideal for some of the missions. They have long endurance, most of them are extremely quiet and the sensors they carry become increasingly smaller – not at the expense of the quality of the optical or radar image they provide. UAVs will undoubtedly play a major role in defending Israel's offshore gas assets in the Mediterranean Sea. For example, Heron UAVs by IAI already perform maritime patrol missions, and will, undoubtedly be reinforced by other UAVs that would improve the threat detection capability even further. 

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NOVEMBER 2012

FISHING FOR SUSPICIOUS VESSELS Windward Maritime Solutions of Israel has developed the world's first system that provides a constant global maritime situation picture. The system, Marint, can locate vessels suspected of smuggling arms, being involved in terrorist activity or illegal fishing and other economic infractions on the high seas. "Pursuant to the discovery of energy fields at sea, the maritime theater has become stormy," says Ami Daniel, company CEO

By Amir Rapaport

he blip blinking on the huge plasma screen at the offices of Windward Maritime Solutions in Tel-Aviv indicated a suspicious vessel, which had stopped emitting signals and subsequently renewed its transmissions at a distance of a few dozen miles from its last known location. What did this vessel have to hide during the time it was invisible? Was it involved in arms smuggling or has it experienced just a trivial malfunction? Every day, the system developed by Windward indicates dozens of 'suspicious' vessels such as the one described above. A single mouse click on the icon of any vessel

NOVEMBER 2012

Photography: Meir Azulay

on the screen can display the complete history of the vessel, and can often provide the explanation for its irregular sailing characteristics. In some cases, a more thorough investigation will be required in order to identify the vessels that take advantage of the endless expanses of the sea to partake in terrorist activity or in prohibited commercial activity, such as the smuggling of goods or illegal fishing in the economic waters of a country that forbids this activity.

Stormy Seas Windward Maritime Solutions, which monitors each and every vessel on the

high seas, was established in Israel about three years ago. Its goal was to provide a continuous global maritime situation picture, based on the fusing of data supplied by satellites (images and communication signals), by coastal radars and from the transmissions/emissions of the vessels themselves. The timing was no coincidence: on the one hand, the major technological developments and cost decreases of recent years made it possible to obtain satellite images of the situation on the high seas at any given moment and at a reasonable cost. On the other hand â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the sea has become the arena for global conflicts. The discovery of offshore energy fields

Photo: ???????

Ami Daniel and Matan Peled

launched a series of struggles for control over the boundaries of economic waters and territorial waters around the globe. This was not the only reason why countries and military organizations, as well as various UN organizations, have been showing a growing interest in processes taking place hundreds and thousands of kilometers offshore â&#x20AC;&#x201C; an area that up to this point had been almost free for all. In fact, Windward Maritime Solutions is currently the only organization that monitors whatever goes on at sea on a global scale. The information received from the various sensors is processed by software elements capable of identifying any vessel that has

deviated from the shipping routes that match its declared cargo, or has advanced contrary to the pattern that is typical of vessels of the category to which it belongs. Another example of a blinking blip on the display screen: a vessel that has inexplicably changed its flag and call sign, thereby practically changing its identity, probably in order to deceive or mislead the authorities at its next port of call, in Western Africa. "Much has transpired around the world in recent years in the context of maritime conflicts," says Ami Daniel, CEO of Windward (Daniel is a former Israeli Navy officer, as is Matan Peleg, Daniel's co-founder). "13% of the world's undiscovered oil, as well as 30%

of the gas, are in the arctic areas. Numerous disputes are currently underway as to who holds the rights for these fields. "Many drilling operations are taking place in the China Sea, and naturally, they are also the subject of disputes. Over there, Vietnam claims that China is stealing their islands and drilling rights. There are also disputes between China and Japan, and, of course, there is the dispute between Israel and Lebanon over the boundaries of the economic waters in the area where massive gas deposits were discovered off the Israeli shore. Massive energy fields were discovered off the US shore as well, and they must be protected as well.

NOVEMBER 2012

Information Explosion Using satellites to monitor the situation on the high seas is radically different from the use of payloads installed on board manned or unmanned aircraft to monitor the situation

NOVEMBER 2012

Photo: Windward

"The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is an international treaty signed some thirty years ago by most of the world's nations. The Convention is intended to regulate the issue of economic waters and the economic rights to the sea. "The major change of recent years is that now it is possible to drill far away offshore. Shore-based radars and surveillance systems can only see as far as the horizon – roughly 30-50 kilometers, depending how high you are. When the drilling rigs were close to shore, it was excellent, because you could see everything. However, 'Tamar' and 'Leviathan', the new Israeli gas fields, for example, are located 60 miles offshore, which is beyond the detection range of coastal surveillance. Suddenly, your economic interests are located far offshore. Twenty years ago, it wasn't so bad if you could not see into the sea, as the worst case scenario would have been smuggling activity. Today, when the drilling fields and fisheries are far offshore, you must know what's happening there all the time. "Take the issue of illegal fishing, for example. The damage it causes annually around the world is estimated at $50 billion, according to data provided by the World Bank. There is a definite economic interest in monitoring the giant ships engaged in illegal fishing, which depletes the fisheries of certain countries. "As far as the defense issue is concerned, the last 20 years were 'land' decades. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were land wars. The Israeli-Egyptian border, the US-Mexico border - they involve a tremendous land effort. Countries invested huge amounts of money in perfecting their land borders, but there is no vacuum – you block one side and the opponent immediately finds a loophole on the other side. The law of connected vessels is relevant in this context, too, and the sea is becoming an increasingly more substantial defense challenge."

in ports or in coastal areas. "In the past, satellites were secret military assets. Today they are much more commercial," says Ami Daniel. "Satellites are technologically complex – sometimes they see something for a second, and then only another satellite would capture the same area – only half an hour later. You have to monitor thousands of vessels on a regular basis in order to find just a few suspicious ones. "When you monitor a two thousand square mile area cell, for example, you have an information explosion. Another problem is your ability to use the information to understand what's going on. In each place at sea, fishing is different and the vessels are different - everything is different. When you monitor one place, you have to judge it as if you are looking at it from up close, rather than from a distance. You need a technology capable of performing a contextual analysis – where everything is normal relative to what you see there. Marint, our system, enables you to monitor the entire world – all the time. It is connected to satellites that monitor the entire world. In principle, everything at sea can be seen. In practice, the vessels that transmit their locations are those that weigh more than 300 tons. We can pick up and locate anyone who transmits all the time – I am referring to mandatory safety transmissions, and the transmissions are picked up by the satellite as well. This helps you define the normal patterns, and in a few years from now they will also pick up all vessels over 100 tons, which would be obliged to transmit the safety transmissions. "Those transmissions are like the passport of each vessel, but their codes can be

altered very easily. It is very convenient, but sometimes it can serve many hostile elements. Since the Americans call anyone who does not transmit over the radio – then everyone transmits. When you do not transmit – you become a suspect. Everyone must transmit to look 'normal'. The issue of illegal fishing produced a wave of fake transmissions. The interest in disappearing or reporting something false accelerated the technological development and availability of 'stolen identity cards' for the high seas. It takes all kinds of shapes – such as altering the transmission code. In fact, you can transmit something but it would be difficult to verify your identity, so we monitor the entire world and build a pattern." Are you saying that there is no such thing as a single global authority that monitors the situation in all of the world's oceans? "No such global authority exists. There are two or three satellite owners who sell data for certain regions. They are among our suppliers. We operate in a world of big data. We intend to use numerous servers and process a massive amount of data." So you do not have independent information sources but you have algorithms? "Yes. We take numerous databases scattered around the country and use the data for our validation. You claim to be A – and we confirm it. We confirm the identity of the vessel. A lot of information is involved. The ability to say whether or not it is really you is no trivial matter. The big data comes from the place where I cross-check the entire history and begin to ascertain the identity. "We have people in our employ who specialize in the web and OSINT (Open Source Intelligence). For example, take

all of the listening and communication channels and seek information from open sources. If a vessel had been stopped in the past, for example, these guys can take the information from its past, initiate a trace and look for similar patterns by the company that owns the vessel or by other similar companies. Take the Iranian vessels, for example. The US complained about Tanzania, which allowed Iran to use its flag in order to overcome the sanctions. Our people try to look for the next nationality under which Iran would register its vessels, after Tanzania was not allowed to prolong their association with Iran. We are talking about investigations into organizations, corporations and social networks, and we seek information about the vessels themselves. "Our system has the ability to look for patterns. One of the most powerful features of the system is its ability to draw a graphic description of gas drilling areas. Many corporations are reluctant to state where exactly they operate, for business reasons.

Countries around the world show a great deal of interest in their neighbors – where are the drilling areas? Where are the drilling operations of the competition? The system can find this information according to the vessels arriving in the area. The system can float up the areas about which you want information."

Global Clients In 2012, Windward Maritime Solutions advanced from the start-up phase to being a viable business entity with regular clients, including defense organizations, international organizations and business clients interested in obtaining a continuous maritime status picture. The company expects to bid for a tender by the US federal coastal protection agency very soon. "Our information is of interest to anyone who cares about the sanctions imposed on a certain country, for example. It is of interest to anyone monitoring the global traffic of oil.

It is of interest to those who want to know about smuggling and about things that happen right under their noses, like police departments, coast guard services, etc. Our information can also be of interest to environmental protection organizations. For example, a few months ago we spotted a drill rig off the shore of Nigeria. We dispatched radar satellites to the area and discovered an oil spill around the rig – 1.7 million gallons of spilled oil. The oil company 'Shell' said they had a minor leak and claimed that the rest of the spill came from somewhere else. This oil drifted to shore and encircled a fishermen's village. In the following stage, we could see that the spill had come not only from the rig but also from the vessel next to it. It was offloading oil at sea, so as not to pay customs charges for it when it came to shore. "In principle, we are service providers," says Daniel. "The clients get access to information we had processed especially for them. We sell access to an analytical system." 

Taking the Risk for You

Operational UGVs for HLS: Observe, Detect, Respond

An IAI & Elbit Systems Company e-mail: marketing@g-nius.co.il • www.g-nius.co.il

NOVEMBER 2012

Security Fences are In Eitan Livne, CEO of Israeli security company Magal, speaks about a world with borders and fences visible and invisible By Amir Rapaport

NOVEMBER 2012

Fashion Again

West Bank Barrier (Photo: AP)

bout twenty years ago, in the years following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the general impression was that fences and walls have gone out of fashion; that the world has become a global village with fewer and fewer partitions. This is definitely not the situation today, however. “There is currently a significant demand around the world for security and perimeter fences – in the form of visible fences, and gradually in the form of invisible fences as well,” says Eitan Livne, CEO of the Israeli Magal Campany, which has been dealing in security fences for more than 35 years. Originally founded by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Magal is a public company registered with NASDAQ. According to the company’s stock exchange reports, their 2011 sales amounted to $89 million. The interview with Livne was conducted at Magal’s offices in Yehud. Hagai Katz, the company’s marketing VP, took part in the interview with Livne. Many Israelis know Katz as one of the eight daring IAF F-16 pilots who participated in the air strike against the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq in June 1981. Magal’s projects encompass the globe. In 2011, for example, the Company won a massive contract, worth more than $30 million, for securing the African Nations Cup football championship. At present it carries out, among other things, a major security project at the port of Mombasa, Kenya. In Israel, many of the fences along the borders and around security installations were erected by Magal, including the fence that separates between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. “Magal was born into and has been involved in the field of HLS even before they called it HLS,” says Livne. “Security for installations, borders and the individual, his property and environment, are at the core of our DNA,” he says. “Magal has developed into an international corporation. It deployed globally through processes involving the acquisition of other companies. Over the years, some of the other companies failed to evolve while others have evolved, and continue to be a part of the Company’s portfolio. One of our most successful acquisitions was the Canadian company Senstar, established 35 years ago. Magal acquired Senstar about 15 years

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ago, and along with it we received several additional companies from around the world – Germany, the UK, the US and Mexico. Magal Israel initiated or acquired activities in other countries – Spain, Colombia and Romania. We have offices in China, joint projects in India and a sales office in Singapore. In some cases, we are the sensor suppliers. We are the largest in the world in the field of sensors: we offer the most extensive range of border protection technologies – sensors installed on existing fences or under the ground and, naturally, fences where the sensor is a part of the fence.” Gone are the days when a perimeter alert was based primarily on the disruption of an electrical circuit? “It is much more advanced today. We have sensors with microwave technology for securing short ranges, namely securing a site within the range of 150-200 meters, using two antennae communicating with one another. For strategic sites, we use more than one technology in order to secure the perimeter. “We are the organization with the most extensive geographic deployment. The next one down the line, according to the list in a survey conducted in 2011, has only 50% of our capacity in the field of sensors. In this field, we are the manufacturer, the supplier and we also carry out the work with the integrators at the site. Our teams support the site, regardless of where it is located. We provide global coverage. There is no territory, anywhere in the world, in which our equipment has not been installed, and I am talking about dozens of kilometers around the world, particularly at nuclear power stations. We lead the field of prisons worldwide. We are very active in the field of airports and airbases, including the US Air Force, which buys our sensors to protect their airbases. “Sensor sales are heavily influenced by the state of the world economy. When the construction of an airport is delayed for economic reasons, sensor sales will obviously be delayed as well. We are the biggest supplier of sensors for perimeter security in the US. Our sales there are on the scale of $10 million per year. Our competitors in the US are private companies, and most of them focus on one or two technologies. As far as the technologies in which our competitors deal, they have an advantage over us because they have be-

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come focused. We, quite naturally, expand our portfolio. We have technologies for which we have exclusive rights, as we possess the patent, as in the case of the technologies involving cables buried in the ground. The Magal Group, through Senstar, develops a solution based on cables buried in the ground that emit radiation and create an envelope. Anything passing through that envelope will generate an alert. Over the years, we managed to differentiate between human targets and cats or other animals, and provide an accurate indication, down to a resolution of one or two meters, of the intruder’s location.” What other technologies have evolved in this field? “We have recently launched a new product designated Long Range Fiber, which we employ by burying it in the ground. This provides an invisible alert. This technology is suitable for large sites with longer perimeters and the larger the site – the better the cost-effective-

banks. It is very successful in South America. Additionally, it has an apparently novel application that is not associated with the security aspect, but rather with the environmental aspect. “A US research organization, seeking a solution that would ensure that ongoing infrastructure work will not damage existing infrastructure systems, chose our solution, but challenged us by demanding that the system detect tools using a very weak signal and identify them within a specific distance. We hope it will evolve into a serial product for these applications in the USA. It is an additional niche, but it is based on existing signal processing capabilities.” Contrary to the West Bank Barrier along the ‘Green Line’, the fence currently being erected along the Egyptian border is ‘dumb’. How would you explain this fact? “I don’t know how to explain it. I still hope they revise their decision and install sensors

“We provide global coverage. There is no territory in the world where our equipment has not been installed - I am talking of dozens of kilometers around the world, particularly at nuclear power stations” ness ratio. The product can be installed on the fence itself as well as underground. It is based on fiber optics. The beam that passes through it generates a reflected echo when it encounters an obstruction – very similar to radar. This technology can identify very weak signals, as the problem here is that the echo reflected off the obstruction inside the fiber is so weak that you need the ability to analyze it and derive the correct information from it. This has to do with processing technology. The product responds to vibrations that interrupt the beam. “Additionally, we have developed a buried seismic system designated Pipe Guard. It is installed to protect oil or gas pipelines. The intention here is to install such a sensor at intervals of a few kilometers. The sensor is normally ‘dormant’, and when it is interrupted it wakes up and transmits a signal through an antenna, as it has identified an interruption. The sensor is self-sufficient. It is intended to prevent attempts to damage the pipeline by excavation. This sensor meets other requirements – like protecting underground vaults in

on the fence, or more precisely on the wall that looks like a fence. We do not work on the project but have proposed, at our own initiative, a solution for installing sensors on the fence as it is. This fence is very robust and high. If anyone tried to lean a ladder against it and climb over it, it would not move. On the other hand, the fence is not just a barrier. It includes thorny concertina wires. These wires have razor sharp-blades at intervals of nearly one centimeter, and if anyone tried to climb it, it would be fatal for him. On the other hand, it is very easy to cut if you do it intelligently.” Do you consider the West Bank Barrier with the Palestinian Authority a success story? “It definitely performs the task that was expected of it.” Can the same be accomplished along the US-Mexico border or elsewhere in the world? “We should be modest and say that securing a border of thousands of kilometers, in areas where the terrain consists of jungle and water bodies, is not necessarily similar. Every area has a specific solution that best suits it.” 

NOVEMBER 2012

Security Secrets at Ben Gurion International Airport

“Our basic assumption is that we’re facing a sophisticated enemy. There are no longer ‘simple events’ at an airport”, Brigadier General (Res.) Shmuel Zakai, chief of security at Ben-Gurion International Airport (BGIA) – one of the most secure airports in the world – tells IsraelDefense in a special interview. Zakai offers a peak into the airport’s security concept and modus operandi By Amir Rapaport

Photography: Meir Azulay

ost Israelis think that the few questions they’re asked in their car at the entrance to Ben Gurion International Airport (BGIA) - such as “where are you coming from?”- are intended to detect suspicious accents. The fact that after answering the questions, nearly all of travelers are immediately allowed in only reinforces the intuition that this was a spot check. However, the main reason for the short delay is actually to allow a device to read the license plate number and convey in a second and a half whether the driver of the car is a suspect who has to be detained or whether the car is “OK” and permitted entry. The device, an LPR (License Plate Recognizer), is only one of dozens of security gadgets used at BGIA near Tel Aviv, considered one of the most secure airports, if not the most secure airport in the world. In an exclusive interview with IsraelDefense, Brigadier General (Res.) Shmuel Zakai, director of the BGIA Security Division, sheds light on the airports’ security methods. Zakai, 48 years old, father of two from his first marriage, was born in Israel, and is one of the better known officers who came up through the ranks in the Golani Infantry Brigade. After

NOVEMBER 2012

serving as Golani brigade commander, he was given command of the Division, which was responsible for the Israel-Gaza border and Gaza Strip (prior to Israel’s disengagement in 2005). He left the army while still in this role, following a clash with the head of Southern Command and the chief of staff, Lieutenant General Moshe (Bogie) Ya’alon. Today, Zakai’s office is located right above the flight terminal. The movement below is flowing and the terminals are brightly lit and elegant; nothing indicates the vast network of security arrangements. An endless battle of wits is being waged between Israel’s security bodies and parties bent on sabotaging air travel to and from Israel. People in the airport who appear to be ordinary passengers may be security personnel. Almost every hour, an exercise is in progress checking the alertness of the security personnel in the various checkin stations. “Our security concept is based on three principles,” Zakai says. “The first - the deliberate security concept - must be clear, relevant, and grounded in up-to-date intelligence and events in the world of aviation. The second principle is the human factor – the employees must be professionally trained and highly motivated. The third principle is the use of

advanced technology.”

“Strategic Consequences” Let’s start with the overall concept. In Israel, there’s one main international airport. To what extent is security at BGIA different from security in similar airports around the world? “Our concept is predicated on a security doctrine that combines the human factor with technological advantages. Basically, the concept stipulates that to obtain effective security, you have to be active in your security, and not operate like other police forces in the world that first respond to events and then analyze them. We constantly initiate events. Our security layout generates frictions intentionally. “Our concept stems from national priorities: an attack on Israeli aviation would have strategic consequences. Ben Gurion International Airport is subordinate to the Israel Airports Authority (IAA), which operates under the auspices of the Ministry of Transportation. We receive professional instructions from two bodies: the Shabak and Israel Police. “Unlike the standard modus operandi in the world, in Israel the police are not responsible for security at BGIA. From passenger

Shmuel Zakai

check-in to aircraft takeoff, including the whole gamut of functions at the airport facility and surrounding area, the responsibility is solely that of the Security Division. In the US, for example, the body responsible for security checks is the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), while responsibility for physical security varies from airport to airport. This is how it works everywhere in the world, responsibility fluctuates from place to place. “We (the Security Division), on the other hand, were given full (and heavy) responsibility from the state, by law. The first and foremost task is to prevent an attack on a flight taking off from BGIA. In addition, we’re responsible for preventing a terrorist attack in the airport area, be it a car bomb, shooting incident, stabbing, or any other kind of sabotage; it’s our job to prevent smuggling of weapons into Israel from the air. To deal with this daunting task, the Shabak instructs us on all aspects of passenger and luggage security checks and the physical security of the passenger terminals and critical flight areas. The police advise us on the airport’s public area and perimeter fences. “We’re responsible for the security of all departures on Israeli and foreign airlines. On the other hand, El-Al’s security division is re-

sponsible for Israeli flights arriving from foreign airports. Foreign airlines flying into Israel are responsible for their aircrafts’ security procedures. “Based on its size, BGIA is considered an intermediate airport in international terms: 11.5 million travelers a year and three runways. The Security Division with its 2400 workers is the largest of the IAA’s four branches.” What are the Security Division’s units that actually perform “security”? “The division has two operational branches”, Zakai explains. “One branch, the armed and physical security branch, is responsible for preventing physical attacks in the airport area; the other, the passenger security branch, is responsible for preventing an attack on planes taking off from BGIA. “Daily security is maintained by security shifts”, Zakai continues. “The duty security manager is a graduate of the Shabak’s security officer course, and is responsible for all security matters 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. He’s in charge of the operational shift, and has absolute authority, the final say. If he feels the airways have to be closed, then it’s his call. He’s assisted by two deputies. One of them is the head of the security checking shift and responsible for preventing an attack on the

airplanes; the other, the head of the physical security shift, is responsible for field security. “At any given moment no fewer than four security units operate in BGIA”, Zakai acknowledges. “Two of them are armed and two are unarmed. “Those in the first unit, the armed security guards, undergo a three and half month Shabak security course. On completion they come to us for a month’s ‘internship’ in the field. All security guards in this unit are employed by IAA, but they’re also part of the state’s security reservoir. They have contracts with Shabak as well as a work agreement with us. When the Shabak recruits them for assignments in Israel or abroad, it pays their salary. All security guards in this unit must have completed command courses in IDF combat units (at the squad leader level at least). “The peripheral defense unit is responsible for the airport’s perimeter security and is trained at the IAA academy in Caesarea. All of the security guards are in this unit are also former IDF combat troops, but not necessarily commanders. “The unarmed units operate alongside these units. One, the scouter and researcher unit, is made up of security guards that we’ve trained to identify suspicious objects. Members of

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this unit patrol the airport looking for suspicious vehicles, and are trained to identify ‘unusual’ human behavior, terrorist operational patterns, and secret signals being passed between people.” Then the personnel that we see in the terminal are not simply checking for a suspicious accent? “Absolutely not. In fact, the last thing they’re looking for is an accent. The incriminating signs are many and diverse. Besides the units I’ve just mentioned, there’s the access control unit, whose people are also unarmed. Personnel in this unit work in the corridors between the restricted areas and the critical areas, where the departures and arrivals are situated, and between the public areas and the airport’s critical areas. “There are three command centers in each shift. The most important is the Security Command and Control Center, which can integrate all of the airport’s technological and sensory systems to provide an accurate picture of what’s happening in every corner in real-time. “The Gate Control Room allows us computerized control of all the openings of passenger gates, and there’s even a room that offers centralized control over every entryway to the critical areas. “I’d like to note that, contrary to what most people think, in addition to checking the passengers and their luggage, we’re also responsible for everything that goes onto the plane, such as the catering services and items purchased in the duty free shops after the passenger has gone through the security check. “We’ve recently set up a large logistics center in the airport where we check everything that might go on the plane. However, the checking process of the items that you buy in duty free shops begins in the factories, right on the production line. One entire Security Division unit deals with everything that goes on the plane (excluding passengers and luggage)”.

The Human Factor You stated that one of the basic principles in your concept is quality manpower. Can you elaborate? “The profile of our workers is different from the standard adopted by the rest of the world. First of all, they’re younger and they’ve all been through military service. We’re oriented

NOVEMBER 2012

 Ben Gurion International Airport (BGIA)

toward people of very special quality, and we believe that good security is a combination of several factors, the main one being the human factor. In attacks, it’s always the human who stops the perpetrators. Even with stateof-the-art technology, the finest work procedures and quality intelligence, in the end it’s the human being who faces the terrorist and has to neutralize him. “Many of our workers are students between the ages of 24 and 30. During their first year, they’re obligated not to study at the university, but from the second year on, the main consideration in making out the weekly roster is their studies and exam schedule. We award scholarships to students, and continuously monitor, via computer, the professional level of our personnel from the training period to daily operations. “Our proficiency standards are very strict. If an employee fails to run 3000 meters in a given time, hit a target during pistol practice, pin an opponent on a mattress as required, or identify an explosive charge in an x-ray image – he/she will not be put on the shift. Our people have to maintain a high level of physical fitness. They receive free membership from us in a workout gym, gym apparel, and trainers, and we expect them to keep in top physical condition. “When facing aviation threats we can’t take comfort in the fact that out of eleven million passengers only a few score are killed each year (God forbid!). Strength is measured by the weak link. You can’t gamble that the terrorist won’t encounter an employee who’s just completed the training course a few days earlier and isn’t skilled enough. Therefore, every security guard must be one hundred percent up to the mark.” Are you implying that their salary is higher than what is generally paid in other

Photograpy: Epa

airports? “We can’t retain quality people at low wages. That’s obvious. However, more than that, in order to maintain a high level of operational proficiency, we conduct no less that 5000 exercises every year. ‘Normal looking’ passengers arrive at the airport. They appear to be ‘the real thing’ holding their flight tickets and passport, but also with concealed weapons. The challenge facing the security shift is to prevent them from getting on the plane. The exercises have to be as realistic as possible. Our working assumption is that we’re dealing with a sophisticated enemy. Once in flight, there are no simple events”. What about different types of x-ray machines and “sniffers” that are designed to spot potential terrorists, weapons, and hazardous materials? Given the repeated failures of security systems in airports around the world, how can you be sure that the “ultimate sniffers” will uncover every threat in time? “We learn from every event that occurs abroad. We’re always asking ourselves whether ‘it’ could happen here, and if so – what can be done to prevent it, what gaps need to be closed. We’re constantly trying to outguess the terrorists, to imagine the ‘creative’ scenarios that they’re dreaming up. However, keep this in mind: passenger checks at BGIA do not rely on only one type of technological devise. Where some devices have shortcomings, we try to compensate with other means. As far as I know, we have the best security system in the world for detecting and identifying, but the trick is to integrate the different technologies.”  * This interview was held while Shmuel Zakai was Chief of Security at BGIA. He is currently the Director General of the Israel Airports Authority.

NOVEMBER 2012

The next time you board a plane, try identifying the sky marshal. Is he sitting next to you? Perhaps he is in the front row? Chances are, you wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be able to. This is the essence of sky marshaling: blending, assessing a potential threat, and intervening when necessary to thwart an attack. An exclusive on in-flight tactics and the workings of air security

By Yonatan Maroz

NOVEMBER 2012

photo: Dreamstime

Frequent Flyers

ost of the sky marshals we hoped to interview for this article refused. We can understand why: their paramount desire not to blow their cover. They prefer to stay in the shadows, going into action only when the need arises. This is the essence of their work. As it turns out, Israel has developed its own unique brand of in-flight security. Though we may think security ends with the lengthy check-in lines in the terminal, it doesn’t. Instead, it continues on the plane.

Skyjackings

Photo: Dreamstime

The idea of putting armed crew members on passenger planes came about in the 1960s when terrorist organizations began targeting Israeli aircraft. Passenger planes are attractive alternatives to operations inside Israel as they are soft targets, are easy to attack, and leave a powerful psychological effect. In July 1968, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) hijacked an El-Al aircraft on its way from Rome to Tel Aviv and forced it to land in Algeria. Following negotiations, Israel agreed to release twenty-four security prisoners in exchange for the plane and its occupants. To prevent further skyjackings, many members of the Shabak were recruited to safeguard the planes. As this proved an intolerable drain on their manpower and disrupted routine operations, a national authority was established for air security. The authority began recruiting discharged soldiers who served in combat units. One of them was Mordechai (Marduch) Rachamim, a veteran of Sayeret Matkal (the IDF's elite commando unit). "We received an invitation from the Shabak immediately upon discharge," Rachamim recalls. "The Shabak found Dave Beckerman, a veteran of elite units in the US military who immigrated to Israel. Dave was an expert pistol shot (a skill that didn’t exist in the IDF) and also highly trained in hand-to-hand fighting. He was tasked with running us through a two-week course, and creating pis-

tol marksmen and fighters capable of neutralizing skyjackers in hand-to-hand combat."

Batons Against Kalashnikovs In the initial stage, the weapons provided were unsuitable for the job. "At first we weren’t allowed pistols," says Rachamim. "They were afraid. They didn’t want to violate international laws and regulations, and didn’t know what a bullet hole in the fuselage might do to the plane. As a result, we were given tear gas, a small plastic baton, and a kerchief filled with sand stuffed in our pocket to throw in the eyes of an armed terrorist. Only after the Athens incident, in which terrorists opened fire on El-Al passengers in the terminal, did the authorities relent and arm us with pistols." Mordechai Rachamim's greatest hour as an air marshal came in 1969 when an El-Al airplane came under attack at the Zurich-Kloten Airport in Switzerland. Four terrorists opened fire while the aircraft was on the tarmac. "I dashed into the cockpit and saw bullets flying everywhere and the pilot lying wounded on the floor. There had been no warning of an attack. All our training was geared towards in-flight skyjacking situations. There I was, inside the grounded aircraft with a Beretta .22, and outside they're throwing grenades and shooting at the plane with two Kalashnikovs. What was I supposed to do?" Rachamim jumped off the plane from the tail end and shouted at the terrorists to lay down their weapons. One obeyed, but another didn’t, so Rachamim shot him dead. Rachamim overcame a third terrorist with his bare hands and began to strangle him. Suddenly, he felt a pistol barrel in his back. It was a Swiss police officer ordering him to let go of the terrorist, or else he’d shoot. Rachamim let go.

It Will Happen Today These battle stories nurture today's sky marshals. The human material

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has not changed much, and sky marshals are still recruited veterans from combat and special force units. "In the plane, you have to go from routine mode to emergency mode in a fraction of a second," explains Yoni Shoham, former assistant director of the Shabak's Protective Security Department, and today, one of the owners and the general manager of a security, protection, and weapons consulting firm. "Your brain has to be constantly wide awake, yet relaxed at the same time. The moment you switch to emergency mode, you act differently. This requires a very high degree of self-discipline. A sky marshal has to remember

that in the moment of truth, he's going to be in an immediate life-threatening situation, and will have to act in this state." For obvious reasons, not much can be said about sky marshal training. It is sufficient to say that the Shabak is responsible for their instruction and proficiency level, and they no longer rely on a two-week course. Training takes many months and simulates extremely realistic scenarios that sky marshals are likely to encounter. Cadets become highly skilled in hand-to-hand combat and weapons tactics. "A sky marshal must be able to neutralize a terrorist without recourse to a weapon, which

Will a Computer Replace Sky Marshals? Given today’s economic constraints, air marshals are a hot topic in the debate over cost reduction between the state and airline companies. “Sky marshals come at a high price,” explains Athena’s Omer Laviv. “Each marshal occupies a passenger seat, and since most of the companies want him close to the cockpit, his seat is in the expensive upper-class. Maintaining an airborne security force is not cheap. They must be outstanding marksmen. Their training is a responsibility that the airline companies are not inclined to assume. Naturally, they prefer the state to pay the bill. El-Al, for example, finances sky marshals on its jets not by choice, but rather by the decision of the state regulator.” Athena is one of thirty-one European companies lead by the giant French communications conglomerate Sagem that is part of a €40 million international security project. “The project goal is to develop a system known as Zero Tolerance for Hijacking. This is the airlines’ answer to 9/11—a system so foolproof that such an event will never happen again,” says Laviv. The project’s most recent product is a concept called SAFEE (Security of

NOVEMBER 2012

Aircraft in the Future European Environment), which is part of a European master plan for securing airports. “The idea is to install sensory systems on the aircraft that continuously transmit data and other parameters to an IA-based computer on board,” explains Laviv. “For example, sensors that detect weapons, traces of explosives, and chemical substances. There would also be cameras in the cabin that search for what I call ‘incriminating signs’ in behavior and appearance that can attest to someone under pressure and psyching up for an attack. The data is transmitted to the cockpit and an officer in charge of security who can then take a number of steps to clarify the reason for the behavior and determine whether the suspicion is a false alarm or one requiring intervention.” The system has another invaluable feature: if it senses the plane divert from the original flight path, and the new path endangers the aircraft, it assumes onedirectional control of the aircraft and converts it into an independent, autonomous flying unit controlled solely by a computer without human interference. “If the system concludes that the risk has exceeded accepted levels – that the

pilot is no longer in control of the aircraft –it takes full command of the plane, the guidance systems, and the engines,” explains Laviv. “Even if you try to shut off the engines and force the plane to dive in an act of suicide, you won’t be able to do so. “After the system takes over it maps out a new flight path that avoids flying over strategic facilities in any country. It then chooses a landing site according to security criteria: far from a city and where an effective response force is available to deal with terrorist situations.” Laviv believes that if the system becomes operable, it will end the need for sky marshals. “The system envisions one of the crew members functioning as the security officer without requiring him to be a trained operative. The system also frees one of the seats by dispensing with the need for a sky marshal. It also helps in another way: it’s an active system that doesn’t wait for something to happen; it initiates security procedures on the aircraft. This is an advantage over a human security guard whose cover is compromised if he responds before something actually happens. And finally, unlike air marshals, the system never gets tired.”

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"One of the basic tools of the trade is the ability to blend in with the surroundings and wait patiently and vigilantly. When a sky marshal springs into action, he does it in order to turn a potential terrorist attack into a news item about a foiled attempt”  The Sabena rescue operation

means, he must be in top physical condition at all times," adds Shoham. Training takes place in a base in the middle of the country where the Shabak facility includes a mock passenger plane with long aisles and passenger seats. A typical workday begins when the sky marshal is collected from his home. At the airport, he receives his assignment, studies it carefully, and prepares himself accordingly. He memorizes the details of the aircraft he will be spending the next several hours on. In a real emergency, this knowledge can save lives. "One of the crew's advantages over the terrorists is its intimate knowledge of the aircraft," explains Omer Laviv, CEO of Athena, Security Implementations Ltd. "The sky marshal's familiarity with the plane increases his chances of success in any confrontation. An airplane carries many items that might be used in an emergency situation: axes for breaking windows, containers with boiling water, and wagons to block passageways." Armed with this knowledge, the sky marshal steps into the plane's cabin and remains vigilant throughout the entire flight, whether for two hours or eleven. In the end, he files a field report. Between assignments, he maintains

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Photo: Ron Paul, IDF Spokesperson

a strict training schedule. "Much of the year is spent at school," reveals Shoham. "These aren’t two-hour classes; they're long, grueling days, intended to wear out the sky marshal and then force him into action. Remember, if you're traveling from Tel Aviv to New York, there's no way of telling when a terrorist will try to seize the plane. It could happen just before landing after you’ve’ been awake for ten hours, and then you and the crew have to respond instantly." One of the basic tools of the trade is the ability to blend in with the surroundings and wait patiently and vigilantly. When a sky marshal springs into action, he does it in order to turn a potentially devastating terrorist attack into a news item about a foiled skyjacking attempt. It is difficult to recognize signs that give away a sky marshal's identity—he could be anyone. "The key word is 'blending in,’" says Shoham. "You can't be conspicuous. Sky marshals know that if someone points them out, they'll be the first to be targeted, and this we don’t want. My security team on the plane should be made up of as wide a variety of people as possible: in dress, manners, and background, so that whoever comes up against them has no idea of who they are dealing with." Tactically speaking, an aircraft is a

unique battleground. "You can't take an infantryman, even the best of them, and put him in an airplane environment without training. It's an entirely different type of operational area," says Shoham. "An aircraft cabin is a crowded tube and each time you find yourself seated somewhere else. The fuselage holds 100 to 400 innocent people who you want to keep out of harm's way. The sky marshal has to use his weapon first, his hands second, and always his head. Countless scenarios could materialize. "The aircraft is pressurized, which means that during a skirmish, you have to act with utmost prudence. You also have to take into account the team members, the number of terrorists, and how they are armed. If they're waving a hand grenade, then you take certain steps, if it's handguns, you use different measures." When all is said and done, the greatest difficulty in the job is that despite the enormous effort invested in security, the vast majority of flights fortunately end safely. "These crews work for years and nothing happens. They still have to be constantly prepared for the unexpected, and believe that today is the day. Mentally, this is very challenging." 

NOVEMBER 2012

implementing information f u si o n The field of HLS is rapidly becoming one of Elbit Systems’ growth engines. Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Nir Mariash, who manages the field, discusses the company's future trends

By Arie Egozi

ow do you protect a civilian population from a hostile force that does not wear a uniform, drive in tanks nor operate helicopters and fighter aircraft? This is the issue that has been preoccupying many organizations in Israel and around the world. The discussion concerning this issue and the intelligence obtained from various groups have created needs that could not have been conceived in the past. Israel has also identified the vast business potential found in systems intended for HLS. Elbit Systems has decided to turn the issue into one of the company's growth engines. Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Nir Mariash of the Israeli Police is one of the managers of the field in the company. According to Mariash, the present-day definition of HLS is very broad. “It includes everything, starting from protecting the lives of civilians from terror activities, through securing mass events and up to handling events taking place within

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Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Nir Mariash

the country, necessitating the swift and broad intervention of emergency services.” Mariash emphasizes that the HLS field deals with the results of missile attacks, and not launch prevention. This is perhaps a good example which does differentiate HLS from ordinary military

activity. Elbit Systems decided on its massive entrance into the field primarily due to its technological “building blocks” due to its large-scale investments in developing military systems. A “shared language” between all the emergency organizations has not yet been created in Israel, for example. The police cannot converse with the firefighters; firefighters cannot converse with the police and with Magen David Adom and none can talk with the IDF Homefront Command. Can you create this shared language? Mariash says that Elbit has derivatives of military systems that can solve the problem with considerable ease. “Elbit established a unique simulator in Ramle with the Homefront Command, which simulates HLS events. The simulator is used for training defense and rescue forces, and it is visited by experts from other countries, as it allows for the simulation of a series of high-resolution events.”

Safe Cities and Secure Borders The concept "Safe City" has also become popular among many countries in recent years. This is not just about closed-circuit cameras but far more than that. Mariash says that Elbit Systems is entering this field as well. “Whoever wants a system that involves more than just cameras comes to us. We provide the equipment that creates the larger picture, just like in military intelligence.” Nearly all of the world’s large weapon industries have discovered the potential embodied in the HLS market. This market has a value estimated at approximately $180 billion, yet there are those who say

Photo: Elbit Systems

The system is stationed at the Homefront Command’s headquarters and includes training capabilities for all types of forces involved with mass terror attack situations. The simulator provides the possibility of simulating various emergency events in various terrains, from a village setting and up to a crowded urban expanse. The system simulates events and reactions transpiring simultaneously in a very reliable manner, Including the intervention of various rescue forces such as the police, urban forces, Magen David Adom, firefighters, and the military. It can be used to produce scenarios that there is a high probably that the forces will encounter in a real event, Such as communication difficulties, problems accessing sites and more. The scenarios were constructed based on the experience of the IDF's Homefront Command and other emergency organizations and based on Elbit Systems' knowledge in developing complex simulation systems that can provide a “real world” perception. The interest that the simulator is generating around the world is considerable, and delegations of emergency organizations from across the world arrive almost regularly in order to see the capabilities it offers.

that it is a low estimate. If this field were to also include the protection of underwater gas and oil fields for example such as those discovered in several countries, including Israel, the market’s value leaps up. “In Israel,” Mariash says, “the protection of the underwater gas fields will be entrusted to the IDF. In other companies, in contrast, it will be the responsibility of the police or private security companies, and they will be in need of measures." With regards to this field, Mariash mentions Elbit’s unmanned systems, including the UAVs that the company manufactures. He says that the company is aware of the need for replacing humans with technology as much as is possible. “A control room operator, who receives pictures from hundreds and sometimes even thousands of closed-circuit cameras, will not always be sufficiently alert to detect something suspicious on one of the screens." This is where he believes that technology should provide better solutions. "We are working today on analytical video, meaning video that will notice something suspicious, an unusual development, on its own. This does not yet exist at the necessary level, but we are working on it." Many countries have begun figuring

out in recent years that they must close their breached borders, primarily due to illegal immigration, which might also serve as a good platform for terrorism. Elbit Systems also provides equipment for closing borders. In Israel, the entire passport control system at Ben-Gurion Airport, and at all other entry points into the country was developed by Elbit Systems, including the biometric systems stationed at BenGurion Airport. Mariash explains that most countries are interested in getting a perfect system that will be open for accepting systems, should additional needs arise. "Some countries know exactly what they want, while others ask us to tell them what they need." The vast experience of Elbit’s personnel allows them to meet this demand. Furthermore, there is, of course, the creation of the “larger picture” - a term taken from the world of military intelligence. How do the defense forces handling a mass event obtain, in every second, the overall picture of the situation and of the forces operating in the field? “We have all the means for carrying out information fusion from all sorts of sources, and providing commanders in the field with what they need in order to function in the best manner.” 

NOVEMBER 2012

COMMON LANGUAGE One of the main causes of the massive casualties sustained by the first responders arriving on the scene at the WTC on 9/11 was poor communication. The people at TechMer of Israel drew the conclusions and developed a dedicated communication system for skyscrapers By Ami Rojkes-Dombe

“

The Name of the Game: Interoperability One of the latest solutions that draw global attention is a smart communication system installed in skyscrapers for the first responders, to be used in a crisis situation. The system has been installed in the One WTC building, built on the grounds of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. It is expected to revolutionize everything associated with communication

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TechMer’s communication system Photo: TechMer

We implemented the lessons drawn from the 9/11 disaster and installed a dedicated communication system in the new building erected at Ground Zero”, says Itzik Ben-Tolilah, CEO of TechMer, the system developer. “We develop communication systems for emergency teams designed specifically for police, paramedic and ambulance teams and other forces engaged in homeland security.” The MER group, to which TechMer belongs, was established 67 years ago as a metal workshop on the banks of the Yarkon River, producing antenna masts. Since then, it has evolved into an international communication solution group which currently offers, among other things, tactical solutions for military and civilian applications and for HLS. infrastructure systems that enable cooperative operations by the various elements operating in the context of the same situation (interoperability). “In a situation like a terrorist attack, a fire or an earthquake, when the first responders arrive at a skyscraper, they have a hard time communicating with one another, so they face a number of challenges. Firstly, many operatives, from different services, enter the building and you do not know what’s happening to them inside the building. You also

have a problem communicating with people operating away from you, which causes a problem of commanding the elements operating on the various floors. In such a situation, each team leader communicates with the members of his team on the same floor, but is unable to communicate with anyone on another floor, or with his superior, who remained in the lobby. “If you think of a scenario where different forces participate in an incident, and all of them enter the

same building, you will be facing another challenge – interlinking all of the different forces with one another. This is where the interoperability challenge begins. This is what TechMer enables.

socket. The basic law in emergency operations says that a technology that does not work in peacetime will not work in an emergency. In peacetime situations, the firemen conducts everything using his

“With a scenario where different forces participate, and all enter the same building, you will be facing the challenge of interlinking all of the forces with one another. This is where the interoperability challenge begins” When you do not have it – it is a serious problem. In the situation that developed at the WTC on 9/11, you can see in the recordings of the surveillance cameras many firemen going up, while many policemen are going down. Apparently, the police department had a helicopter in the air which informed the policemen that the building was collapsing and ordered them to clear the building, while the firemen had no such information and more than 150 of them lost their lives that day. The police did not have even one KIA as a result of the buildings collapsing. The failure was in the ability to communicate the information about the building collapsing between the police forces and the firemen.”

Communication Adapted to HLS Applications Ben-Tolilah reveals that the current situation in the US, in residential and commercial skyscrapers, is not good. The building communication networks that should serve the first responders in a crisis situation are based on a technology that is 100 years old. They consist of a telephone socket on each floor, connected to a central switch in the lobby, and when the first responder arrives, he should plug a telephone set into that socket – which should enable him to communicate with the lobby. “Think of a fire and the confusion all around – and he should look for the

portable radio, it is like a weapon. Now you tell him that during a fire, he should switch to a telephone with a socket in the wall. In reality – they hardly ever use it. “We deploy a smart system we call DAS (Distributed Antenna System) in the building, which enables each one of the forces to have continuous radio coverage, as if they are operating outdoors, each one with its own frequency and technology. The key word here is seamless – the fireman or policeman operates in an emergency in the same way as in peacetime, and his radio works everywhere.” The company’s system consists of two main elements: a communication infrastructure deployed along the entire building, and a central unit installed in the communication/control room of the building. The solution may be installed in existing buildings. The technology makes communication possible even in spaces with RF interference, through concrete walls, in tunnels, mines, etc. “Our technology enables each force to maintain an independent communication network and, in addition, communicate with other forces – even if they use other technologies. This is achieved by an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) layer which interlinks the various networks through an application of predefined procedures. In Israel, we completed a project for the Carmel Tunnels. For the first time, a 17-kilometer long tunnel, divided into four separate segments, is

completely covered by an emergency communication network. In the event of an accident, for example, when different emergency services enter the tunnel, each force can communicate with any other force inside and outside the tunnels without any one of the forces losing its independence. Additionally, we have a solution for pagers, cellular phones and commercial radio networks. “At the same time, we have adhoc solutions for situations where no communication infrastructure is available locally. This solution consists of portable suitcases interlinked via a smart mesh network, with each one communicating with the other, and jointly creating a complete network. They are deployed at predetermined distances, and each suitcase provides communication services to the forces on the ground according to the ranges of the various frequencies. Other forces, joining the activity at a later stage, may be incorporated as well.”

Israeli Development Another advantage of TechMer’s system is the ability to bridge between different radio communication technology standards. Ben-Tolilah explains that emergency services around the world normally use the Tetra or Tetrapol communication standards, while in Israel, it was decided that all of the forces use the P25 communication standard. Whereas in some cases the radio transceivers are analog, the system knows how to convert the entire communication to IP and transmit it to remote command and control centers. “Our infrastructure can be used to transmit data, voice and video. It is a wideband communication solution for emergency services and first responders based on Israeli knowledge. We offer a complete solution made up of three elements: a control center, a communication infrastructure for forces operating on the ground, and radio coverage for areas that have so far been regarded as problematic owing to interference,” says Ben-Tolilah. 

NOVEMBER 2012

BEHIND THE MASK The "Arab Spring" has increased the probability of chemical or biological weapons finding their way into the hands of terrorist organizations. Are we ready for an unconventional war?

By Ami Rojkes-Dombe

hen one speaks about the threat of an attack with chemical or biological warfare weapons, one should be aware of the protection and decontamination challenge. Additionally, a clear distinction should be made between threats with strategic aspects, which could neutralize complete districts in Israel, and pin-point attacks against strategic installations, intended to damage the functional continuity of the IDF and the critical infrastructure systems of the State of Israel. Brig. Gen. (Res.) Avigdor Klein, formerly the IDF Chief Armored Corps Officer (2001-2004), explains how to deal with the most horrible threat of all.

Chemical & Biological First Contrary to the opinion that prevails among some of the decision makers, Klein claims that the threat of chemical or biological warfare weapons will be relevant at the outset of the war, rather than toward the end of it. "If someone wants to employ such a weapon, they do not do it for

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Photo: AP

lack of other alternatives, as most people think. This is not the doomsday weapon. That is an outdated way of thinking that is no longer compatible with reality – and definitely not compatible with the character of our enemies. "If someone understands that we have a strategic advantage and wants to neutralize it, they will do it at the outset of the campaign. Evidently, Syria has no moral qualms about the use of force, even against its own citizens. This means that if we engage in a confrontation with Syria, they will not wait for the moment of 'no choice'. Instead, the will employ these weapons at the outset of the war. Our strength relies on the airbases of the Israeli Air Force. Damaging the functional continuity of the IAF is the dream of every Arab strategist. The same applies to the Israeli Navy’s shipyards. These are the areas they would like to neutralize at the beginning of the fighting."

A Terrorist Attack can be More Dangerous than a Missile Klein explains that the focus on attacks by missiles carrying chemical or biological warheads notwithstanding, the threat of terrorism – the ability to release industrial chemicals and pollute the environment is regarded as more dangerous than any

"If you take the Haifa area, for example, the threat will apply to the entire northern region, including metropolitan Haifa, the Krayot and even further east, if the wind is westerly. No chemical event generated by a missile can reach such proportions. This threat is more dangerous and easier to accomplish, and the event would have extreme consequences as there will be nothing to decontaminate. The best solution, in such a case, will be provided by Mother Nature. No technology can restore the situation within a short time." Klein points to another form of terrorist attack: contaminating the water supply sources. If this is done in a planned and methodical manner at multiple locations – it will also be more dangerous than a missile carrying a chemical warhead. "This threat can wipe out a whole municipality," explains Klein. "Dealing with the threat of water supply contamination involves continuous inspection and monitoring. I have the impression that this is not done often enough, and that the authorities rely on an intelligence alert instead. Possibly because this threat does not distinguish between population segments, the probability for it materializing is lower." Klein says that terrorism also threatens strategic installations which could neutralize the entire country, if damaged by chemical or biological contamination. If an attack should be staged against the national energy

text text text text texttext text text text text textext text text text text texttext text text text text text text textext text text text text texttext text text text text text texttext text text military threat. "In the event of a terrorist attack where the national ammonia storage facilities are damaged, we are talking about the death of hundreds of thousands within a very short time. If the attack takes us by surprise, without warning, we are talking about less than one hour of dispersal time, and anyone who fails to acquire protection by immediately wearing gas masks will be in mortal danger.

production facilities using a biological agent not using a missile or rocket, but by inflicting a permanent biological contamination – the entire country will be neutralized. "Some biological contaminants can never be decontaminated. You will never be able to use the facility again. Spores of such biological agents had found their way into the hands of terrorists in the past, and there were attempts to mail contaminated envelopes

as well other incidents. Certain islands around the world, where experiments were performed with the use of such biological weapons, remain desolate and uninhabited to this day. No one can get close to them."

The Target: Civilians "Contrary to the threat to strategic installations, intentional attacks against the civilian population, as an objective, are not highly probable. The threat primarily involves collateral damage as a result of the attacks against those strategic installations," says Klein. "If they wish to attack the Kirya compound, then obviously all the civilians around it will be hit. One should bear in mind that during a war, no decontamination activities will take place in areas that are not vital to the functional continuity of the state or the military, such as airbases, power stations or food manufacturing plants. The authorities will instruct the civilians to remain indoors and put on their gas masks." As opposed to terrorism, one of the most prominent disadvantages of ballistic missiles is the marginal effect of the damage inflicted on civilians as a result of inaccurate hits. According to Klein, dealing with this threat involves supplying gas masks and enforcing construction regulations prescribing the installation of ventilation systems in apartment buildings. "They distributed gas masks and think they solved the problem, but the need to be isolated from the chemical threat, be it permanent or volatile, is critical. A few milligrams of the agent touching the skin will kill a person." "The danger is not confined to breathing, but applies to contact as well. For this reason, the State of Israel had residential protected space units (MAMADs) installed everywhere. Unfortunately, the regulation compelling all construction contractors to build such units was enacted only about a year ago, so only a small percentage of houses and apartments in Israel have such units. The standard method for dealing with the threat is a gas mask and a protected space unit fitted with a decontamination system. Anyone who does not possess these resources will be in mortal danger in the event of an attack. The state takes the cost-benefit consideration into account. If a chemical missile landed

NOVEMBER 2012

"Today, just like during WWI, the assumption is that a chemical weapon is not a decisive weapon. It is a weapon capable of disrupting operations in a given sector, especially with regards to morale" on Zichron-Yakov, the damage would be confined to the area around the point where the missile landed, according to the wind regime, and only a small percentage of the population would be hit."

It is All a Matter of Priorities To emphasize the point that maintains that the issue in question involves states' costbenefit considerations, Klein borrows from an earthquake scenario. "An earthquake occurs in our region every 90 years. We are already within range and know that much should be done, but about 50% of all buildings throughout the country still do not comply with the relevant standards. In other words, at least one-half of the population is in mortal danger, and the state does not invest all of its resources in it. In the event of an ABC attack, cost-benefit considerations should be taken into account as well. Nothing would happen to the state if a few points were hit. Yet is it just? At the state level, you must prioritize. "The individual citizen should be aware of this. Some civilians will acquire protection privately. This is similar to the case of National Land Planning Program 38 (TMA38). The state does not finance this activity directly, but explains the dangers to the citizens, so that they may decide what to do. In addition to encouraging the investment in residential filtration systems, the state can

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also inoculate the population against known biological weapon threats. This can be done according to intelligence alerts."

Military Threats One of the questions in the context of a biological or chemical contamination event on the battlefield is how to cause the combat element to press on with the mission – both personnel and weaponry. "Today, just like during WWI, the assumption is that a chemical weapon is not a decisive weapon. It is a weapon capable of disrupting operations in a given sector, especially with regard to morale, and if it hinders the tactical effort in that sector it will be able to delay or block even operational moves. However, it would not change the course of the entire war," says Klein. "A distinction should be made between acquiring protection against such a threat, and making the equipment serviceable again after an event. In the case of soldiers, the rule of complete isolation from the threat applies to them, too – with regard to both breathing and clothing. A soldier can be isolated by an over-pressure chamber, like the one in tanks, in which case no masks will be required. The entire armored vehicle may be contaminated, but the soldiers inside it will continue to function normally. At some point, when the crew has to exit the vehicle, the exit path is decontaminated and then they can exit.

"Any soldier other than those operating inside a collective protection system like a tank must wear activated carbon protective clothing. One should bear in mind that this type of equipment is usable for a period of five to ten years, and if you need to supply such equipment to an entire army – it will be a huge expense for the national defense system. The State of Israel and the IDF invest considerable resources in this field – but the investment could be more substantial. "If you face a chemical threat, activated carbon protective clothing is not enough. Once the particles are airborne and you are wearing a mask, an activated carbon suit, gloves and overshoes, you will not be able to function for an extended period of time. Another problem concerns the make-up of the clothing. As everything is made up of layers, you have a structure similar to a shingled roof with the shirt over the trousers. If you raise one arm, you will create bellows that would pump air inside. If you raise both arms, air will enter your leg area. At the central point of the event there is a high concentration of particles, and if you do not have the benefit of a collective protection system like the one in a Merkava tank or APC – you will have a serious problem. We cannot look the soldier's mother in the eye and tell her that her son is protected if he is not operating inside a vehicle fitted with an integral filtration system. "Today there are two main technologies for filtering toxic gases in vehicles: the

14 February 2013

Israel PrePares The 1st international conference for emergency and CBRN situations Survivability and operational continuity in emergency Conference chairman | Brig. Gen. (Res.) Avigdor Klein

Additional details NOVEMBER 2012 soon... 45

older (Generation I) systems, which have an operational life of six hours from the moment they are activated, and the newer (Generation II) systems, which enable one to two years of continuous operation. Some of the vehicles of the multinational force operating in Afghanistan are fitted with the new vehicle filtration systems by Beth-El Industries of Israel. They face extreme dust and humidity conditions over there, and everything works fine. For unexplained reasons, the IDF decided not to purchase these advanced filtration systems, although they cost the same as the existing Generation I systems currently in use. "At the same time, we should all remember that war is an unpleasant business and there are always casualties. If the State of Israel is at war and a unit is hit â&#x20AC;&#x201C; it is a part of the scenario. Masks and protective clothing are not enough."

Decontamination of Weapon Systems Another challenge associated with chemical and biological warfare is the need to decontaminate weapon systems and make them serviceable again during the actual fighting. "In most situations, platforms that were contaminated cannot be 100% decontaminated, but the occupants can be extricated," explains Klein. "You place the vehicle itself in quarantine for six months up to a year and let nature take its course, and then there may be a chance that the vehicle would return to service. "If no contaminating particles had entered the vehicle, there are materials you would be able to use to decontaminate the vehicle faster. Using these liquid materials, you can reach a decontamination level of more than 90%. These are highly aggressive alkaline compounds. Once you have applied them to the vehicle, you will corrode its external layer and render the engine unserviceable. On the other hand, some materials used by NATO are inert compounds. They are equally effective, but less aggressive. I am not sure whether these compounds are available in Israel, as they are more expensive. "If you want to use decontamination materials to treat such platforms as aircraft

NOVEMBER 2012

"We should remember that war is an unpleasant business and there are always casualties. If Israel is at war and a unit is hit - it is a part of the scenario. Masks and protective clothing are not enough" or tanks during a war, you must keep materials on one hand for decontaminating aircraft and pilot gear. On the other hand, if an armored battalion is hit during a war, their vehicles may not be treated. You do not need such a capability for your entire fighting OrBat. All you need is the ability to treat critical elements." What about the possibility of decontaminating a complete area that had been hit? "There is no such thing," says Klein. "There is no concept of decontaminating spaces. You decontaminate in order to evacuate casualties and return platforms to a serviceable state. If a chemical missile lands on the civilian side, then within a radius of two kilometers from the point of impact, plus the wind funnel in effect at the time of impact, everyone should remain inside the residential protective units, and they will be ordered to remain there for three or four days, until the chemical agent has evaporated. "If you wish to evacuate as the biological or chemical agent is non-volatile, you should decontaminate the entrance area, delineate the evacuation area and enter it with a vehicle fitted with a collective

filtration system, to handle one house after the other. One of the most complex issues is what to do with an ambulance that entered a contaminated area. It has no materials for decontaminating its wheels when exiting the area and entering the clean area, so it becomes a contaminating element, and even an ambulance can become disposable as it cannot be decontaminated."

The Best Defense is a Good Offense Despite the difficulties associated with acquiring protection against and decontaminating chemical and biological warfare agents, Klein emphasizes that the State of Israel is not a naĂŻve country, and will not sit idly by when a war is imminent. "A part of the way to cope with chemical or biological warfare threats is not just through defensive measures, but also through a preemptive attack. Such an attack will not eliminate all the threats, but it is a part of the solution, and it is also cheaper than the protective measures." ď&#x201A;&#x17E;

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www.beind.com NOVEMBER 2012

“ The Next

Revolution will Involve Energy” Nation-E of Israel has just completed the development of an energy storage and management system, designed to ensure business and operational continuity. “In the field of energy, we will witness a process of system integration - just like the one taking place in the field of cellular telephones,” says Daniel Jammer, company owner By Amir Rapaport

Photography: Meir Azulay

ne of the main challenges in the field of disaster recovery and ensuring operational continuity in the event of an attack on the nation’s rear area is the need to provide a regular supply of energy sources for the most vital installations. Nation-E of Israel has just completed the development of an energy storage and management system, through an investment of tens of millions of US dollars, following a five-year development process. “The idea came up pursuant to my becoming familiar with the field of aviation during my years in the titanium industry,” says Nation-E owner and entrepreneur Daniel Jammer, who sold a giant familyowned German corporation specializing in that sophisticated metal in 2006. “In the last decade, I understood the need

NOVEMBER 2012

for energy management and for minimizing energy consumption. Subsequently, it turned out that significant applications involving these capabilities are required in defenserelated fields, such as the supply of energy sources to soldiers on the battlefield, as well as for Business Continuity Planning (BCP) in the civilian world, including financial institutions.” Among other things, Nation-E developed installations that store energy from different sources, such as solar energy or wind power – which could not be stored until now. The core of the system is a state-of-the-art software element, capable of incorporating different sources of energy and consumers into a single grid, ensuring that the energy is utilized in the most efficient manner and in a way that would ensure supply to vital installations.

“We created an energy line that can be protected against cyber attacks, for example,” says Jammer. “It is not merely a closed production line, but a kind of platform to which we may connect more and more instruments in order to establish an energy network of sorts. You can establish connections between different infrastructure systems.” Jammer draws a comparison between the development of the technology that makes energy storage and management possible, and the development of mobile telephones. “In recent years, a new buzzword has entered the industry – ‘smart’ – so everyone is talking about ‘smart phones’, ‘smart TV’ and so forth. If anyone had told you, about twenty years ago, that a mobile phone could be used for a lot more than just talking, you would not have believed it. If anyone had

Daniel Jammer

told you that you would be able to connect to WhatsApp, Facebook and so on, you would have said that this would have to be the work of 20 telephone sets, not just one. So, the important word here is integration. “This type of integration is happening right now in the field of energy, as well. No one had believed that energy could have more layers in addition to the ‘on’ and ‘off’ buttons. However, energy is just like the telecommunication industry – if you could find a way to integrate different energies, it would be excellent. “In my opinion, the most problematic bottleneck in the field of energy today concerns the ability to manage and supervise the distribution of energy and to know how much energy you have at any moment. You know how much energy you have at the start, but after thirty minutes you do not

know how much you have left. With our technology, you will be able to understand how to harness the amount of energy you have for your needs, regardless of the type of energy you use – nuclear, diesel or another. Take the electrical powered car for example, which can connect to the mains grid from any location and recharge (Nation-E did, indeed, develop an electrical car powered by software-managed batteries. The car was designed by Swatch of Switzerland). “Similarly, we would be able to produce energy reservoirs for soldiers, so that they can recharge their batteries from any location. This would be a sort of mobile power station, capable of connecting to the energy reservoirs through any possible communication device – satellite, standard radio transceiver and so forth. Anything you may need, we would be able to supply. This

will be a gateway for communicating energy, a link to the infrastructure systems that would enable you to know, at any time, where you are in terms of your energy reserves.” One of the new systems by Nation-E is in operation at the company’s offices in Hertzliya, for demonstration purposes. It consists of an electrical grid, which includes state-of-the-art, highly efficient batteries that would be able to manage an alternate, software-based electrical grid in the event of a main failure. So, in the event of a power shortage, only the systems specified in advance by the software would be activated. The company’s office system is just an example of what system integration should accomplish in the new energy network. A comprehensive interview with Daniel Jammer will be published in one of the coming issues of IsraelDefense Magazine. 

NOVEMBER 2012

Energy Resource Protection Leo Gleser takes great pleasure in working in South America, but his HLS company, ISDS, is expanding its enterprises around the world

NOVEMBER 2012

Leo Gleser (second from right) Photo: ISDS

ne of the International Security and Defense Systems (ISDS) group's latest projects is in Honduras producing electronic handcuffs for monitoring prisoners and criminals in home detention. However, this project is not the main activity of the company whose Israeli headquarters are located in the agricultural settlement of Nir Zvi. ISDS’s chief area of activity is providing security for deep sea drilling platforms, civilian nuclear reactors, vessels on international shipping lanes, and other HLS projects. "There are several stages when supplying oil and gas. First you have to search, drill, and extract," explains Leo Gleser, president and part owner of ISDS. "Then you have to tranfer the material to fuel storage tanks and sell it to the end client. We are involved in each stage. Eighty percent of today's oil and gas production is offshore. Mexico's energy deposits, for example, are situated in three main centers 90 miles from the coast." What can you tell us about the latest technological innovations in energy resource protection? "The technology is based primarily on command and control systems – not only in security and intelligence domains, but also in emergency situations. Some emergency situations are weather-related, such as 150-200 km/hour hurricane winds. You have to be on top of what's happening because the security system behaves very differently durring hurricane season. Is ISDS interested in protecting the drilling platforms for the gas deposits discovered off Israel's coast? "We would be very happy to, but we don’t regard Israel as a source of our activity. This is not to depreciate Israel's energy reserves, but we're more interested

in the global market. The security here in Israel will have to be very tight." In the field of nuclear reactors, ISDS has set up fences, monitors, and surveillance devices based on software-integrated systems in Mexico, Brazil, the US, and other countries. "The Mexican facility is considered the most secure in the world," says Gleser. "The earthquake that ravaged the nuclear reactor in Japan last year woke everyone to the new measures that have to be taken."

Fun in Brazil Leo Gleser is one of the leading figures in Israel's HLS industry. His pistol collection is truly impressive, and his Spanish accent gives away his Argentine origins. He makes no secret of the fact that he's especially fond of doing business (and spending time) in Latin American countries. Lately, he's been very active in Brazil, competing for security tenders for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Games and 2016 Olympic Games (ISDS is a partner in the Qylatron system that will simultaneously scan five handbags at the entranceway to

each of the World Cup stadiums). "In Brazil, we teamed up with a local company and incorporated various technologies, including some from Israel," says Gleser. "Brazil has started upgrading its border security and infrastructure protection; its transportation systems, subways, and communication networks will all be modernized. This is just part of the big project in Brazil. The Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup are only the start. You have to reach certain standards in order to host the games, but what really generates Brazil's economic growth are its energy assets of oil and gas. "Brazil's biggest project is electricity production through the exploitation of the Amazon's waters that border Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. We planned the entire security layout for this project. "I love being in South America. I think it's the most pleasant region in the world to do business. However, this doesn’t stop us from working in China, India, Kenya, and South Africa, and being involved in projects in Australia, Europe, and many other countries." 

ISRAELDEFENSE

Conferences and Exhibitions 2012-2013 November 8, 2012 | UVID - The International Conference for Unmanned Vehicles:

Air, Sea and Land

Avenue Event Center, Airport City

The conference will deal with strategy in the field of unmanned vehicles in air, sea and land. The conference will gather leading elements from Israel and the world which will present concepts, challenges, lessons, insights, marketing aspects and groundbreaking achievements in the field of unmanned vehicles, while referring to future development trends

Feb 14, 2013 | Israel Prepares - BCP Dan Panorama Hotel, Tel Aviv

Survivability and functional continuity in emergency and CBRN situations Conference Chairman | Brig. Gen. (Res.) Avigdor Klein

Mar.3-5, 2013 | C5I and Technological Innovation in Complex warfare Dan Panorama Hotel, Tel Aviv

The conference will deal with communication and computerization systems, radar systems, electronic warfare systems, information warfare, command and control centers. With the participation of the IDF C4I Corps Conference Chairman | Col. (Res.) Moshe Markovitch

Mar. 2013 | Energy and Defense Defending energy sources on land and at sea Conference Chairman | Prof. Uzi Arad

Mar. 2013 | Border Security Expo Phoenix, AZ, USA

Jun. 2013 | The International Cyber Conference

The Yuval Neâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;eman Workshop for Science, Technology and Security in Tel Aviv University, with the participation of IsraelDefense

Sep. 2013 | The Peak of Technology

Simulators, camouflage and deception, the future soldier, and civilian applications for military technologies

November 7, 2013 | UVID - The 2nd International Conference for Unmanned

Vehicles: Air, Sea and Land

Avenue Event Center, Airport City

Dec. 2013 | Intelligence Security

The conference will deal with intelligence security, which gathers in real-time and analyzes data created by users, applications and infrastructure which influence the situation of IT security and organizational risks

Additional details at the IsraelDefense website: http://www.IsraelDefense.com NOVEMBER 2012

Worldwide Security From the Terra Cotta warriors in China to royal palaces in Europe, Israeli security companies are reaching almost every place

By Moriya Ben-Yosef

in Shi Huang, first emperor of China, was obsessed with immortality. When he died of mercury poisoning at the age of 50, which he drank as it was considered to possess longevity properties, he was buried in a luxurious tomb, surrounded by thousands of “Terra Cotta” warriors, and is considered one of the world’s most important archaeological sites. However, even today, 38 years after the discovery of the site, much of it not yet excavated. The Chinese are waiting for the appropriate technology for digging at the center of the complex to reveal its secrets and possibly the many treasures it still holds. Therefore, China sought to install advanced systems in place to provide early warning and defense against grave robbers, vandals and the curious, and a digging detection system developed by the Israeli company Magal is presently being installed around several burial mounds in China, including the tomb of ShaHuang. The system, called TunnelGuard, is based on seismic sensors designed to detect vibrations in the ground and diggings, which alert once any attempt to penetrate the perimeter is recognized. “The initial systems are already being installed and are expected to be installed in several locations,” says Hagai Katz of Magal. Magal is but one of a group of Israeli companies that supply their products to many countries in the world for the purpose of protecting tourist sites, museums, parliament houses, royal palaces and more. In recent years, Israel has gradually established itself as a global leader in the field of HLS. This month, the “Second International Homeland Security Conference” took place (11-14 November 2012), which saw the participation of in dozens of Interior and Homeland Security ministers,

NOVEMBER 2012

 Karil’s protective garbage can

mayors, police chiefs, heads of intelligence organizations, and representatives of leading companies in HLS fields worldwide. The conference held by the Israeli Export Institute in cooperation with the Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Public Security, Homefront Protection Ministry, SIBAT, Ashdod port and the Tel - Aviv Convention Center, focuses on four current ‘hot’ topics in the field. These are cyber security, smart cities (city security), defense of crucial infrastructure and emergency management and preparedness. The conference also includes professional exhibitions in which approximately 60 Israeli companies present innovative solutions in the field of HLS. In addition, the conference is expected to be a good site for meetings between the heads of the foreign Israeli industry delegates and foreign representatives and for establishing Israel’s position as a leading global brand in homeland security, from a technological and

operational perspective.

Prime Ministers, Kings and the Mona Lisa In addition to its project in China, Magal is presently pursuing initial discussions with Thailand’s authorities for the purpose of installing a smart fence around the country’s parliament house. “When discussing parliamentary protection, it is impossible to place a barbed fence,” says Hagi Katz. “Unlike Israel and its defense stipulations, most of the places want to provide a sense of accessibility. To this end, we have developed a smart decorative fence that essentially looks like any other ordinary fence, and which provides alerts for incursion attempts. This system is used for protecting parliament houses, museums, VIP compounds, estates and more.” Defense systems developed by Magal are installed in various sites throughout the

world, including in Indonesia, Singapore, the Bahamas, Greece, Poland, Spain, Germany and England. Magal has installed its smart fence over several kilometers around the residence compounds of an important government person in Kenya, and supplied perimeter protection systems, including identification and video analytics systems, for an Indian client considered one of the world’s richest persons. In addition, all of the royal palaces in a European country are protected by virtual fences developed by the company. The fence includes a cable planted in the ground around the compound and generates an electromagnetic field (underground radar), which alerts to any attempt to breach the compound and provides the precise location of the individual breaching it. Another company involved in the security layouts of famous global sites is El Soreg. The company’s protective systems are suitable for various threats and scenarios, starting from broken glass or falls from heights, through protection against break-ins and burglaries and up to protecting human lives against terror activities and violence involving gunfire and explosions. El Soreg, along with KotlevHanita, a company that produces coatings for windows, are involved in the security layouts of prominent public sites and structures around the world. These include the Australian parliament house in Canberra, the European Commission building in Brussels, the naval museum in Singapore and one of the five largest banks in Canada. In Singapore’s naval museum, the company installed a protective coating system for windowpanes with a backup system with energy-absorbing steel cables, which prevent the flying and breaching of the glass inside the structure during a powerful exterior explosion. A similar protective system was installed in the Australian parliament, which also includes solar coating onboard 14,000 square meters of windows. The screen protection installed in this project combines blast protection capabilities with solar radiation filtration capabilities, intended to reduce air conditioning expenses. The company also provided various protective solutions to Jewish institutes in Australia, including Jewish schools and kindergartens. In addition, a protective coating system was installed onboard approximately 28,000 square meters of windows in the

European Commission building in Brussels, in cooperation with Kotlev-Hanita. This system protects harm to people as well as the reduction of damage to property due to the shattering of glass and shrapnel dispersion. A protective coating system was also installed onboard 8,000 square meters of windows in the BMO bank building project, located in the first skyscraper built in the underground city in Toronto, Canada. The system is intended to protect against blasts and explosions, preventing the shattering of the glass during burglary and vandalization attempts. Israel is also represented in one of the world’s most famous museums, after the Israeli company Sinal, which specializes in software and hardware solutions in the field of employee presence and entry control, won a contract for the Louvre Museum in Paris. The project, intended against break-ins and burglaries, was intended to increase the museum’s security through the use of biometric technologies such as fingerprints, magnetic cards and automatic facial recognition. The system will compartmentalize rooms in the museum, so that it will not be possible to pass from room to room without the appropriate authorization, and will keep track of approximately 700 museum employees and unauthorized entries into the various display spaces.

Smile to the Camera NICE, considered one of the world’s largest software and security companies in the world, is responsible for securing popular tourist locations such as the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower. Command and control systems developed by the company are deployed and connected to hundreds of cameras dispersed across these sites. The “brains” of those systems can automatically detect suspicious developments, track them and mark the movement of the suspicious object onboard computer screens. In addition to these, NICE is also responsible for securing the Indian parliament building and for the security layouts in several other institutes in India, and is also responsible for Safe City solutions. The company recently implemented a comprehensive security layout in the resort city of Sochi, Russia, which was chosen to host several prestigious sporting events, including the Formula 1 world

championship in 2014, and is a candidate for the FIFA 2018 World Cup. The layout, which is connected to security cameras positioned across the city, includes a system for managing and investigating security situations and for analysis of audio and video recordings. It also includes applications that provide comfortable access to data and photos to forces in the field, Another company is the Mer Group, which specializes in Safe City projects, and is responsible for networking cities and towns around the world with cameras, communication infrastructure, defense and security systems. The company was responsible for one of the world’s first Safe City projects, when it networked Jerusalem’s Old City with cameras towards the visit of Pope John Paul II in 2000. The company is responsible for the wide-scale Safe City project in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as well as for an extensive project in a central-African country. The Israeli company Vigilant Technology, a developer of video analysis systems for identifying unusual events real-time, similarly has many systems deployed over 30% of London metropolitan cities. These are joined by Karil, of the Mistral Group, which develops protective garbage cans, used as ordinary garbage cans and stationed in assorted public sites, including train stations and parks. In the event of a bomb being placed inside the garbage can, they neutralize a considerable portion of the explosive blast, protecting the populace. The company has them in Atlanta’s central bus station, in various areas in Washington DC and in the city’s metro stations, in the New York subway and in the city’s United Nations headquarters. They are also present in public transportation areas in Philadelphia, Boston and New Jersey, and in many other transportation lines across the US. The company’s garbage cans are also found in the Paris metro and at train lines in Australia, as well as in various areas across Israel, such as the Old City in Jerusalem. In addition, an advanced five-cell luggage scanning system developed by Qylur, an Israeli-owned company, is expected to be positioned soon at the Statue of Liberty in New York and in stadiums across the US. The system, which allows for the quick flow of security checking lines, has successfully passed a pilot held at the site of the Statue of Liberty. 

NOVEMBER 2012

Next Generation Intelligence Systems I

magine that you are running the analytics of an omnipotent national intelligence agency. Your data sources are numerous. They include registries and records (from the broad judicial, criminal, penitentiary, and medical reports to the more quotidian accounts of population, vehicles, company ownership, employment forms, taxes, postal services, border control, infrastructure as well as emergency service providers, and even itineraries of air and maritime traffic); Internet traffic interceptions (logins, IP addresses and geo-locations, web surfing, E-mails, and chat rooms); Telephony traffic interceptions (landline, mobile and satellite that includes call logs, SMS, and location tracking), Web content (social media sites, blogs, local news sites, consumer-to-consumer sales sites); Restricted online content (using cyber and social engineering techniques); Financial transactions (credit card usage, money transfers, deposits, and stocks),

NOVEMBER 2012

and visual Intelligence (security and traffic cameras, ANPRs, aerial and satellite images), not to mention HUMINT reports. The list is nearly endless. Some of the investigations that you run are target-oriented. For example, what has person ‘X’ done in the last 24 hours? Did members of organization ‘Y’ hold meetings with members of organization ‘Z’? Other investigations are event-centric: who is behind a series of robberies? Is someone planning a terror attack? Another category of investigations is behaviour-centric – the analysis of patterns, trends and anomalies: who is buying certain materials online? Which social hate group has increased its traffic in the last week? Besides conducting ongoing investigations, analysts are always looking at their specific domain or arena, asking themselves more abstract questions such as: are there any “important” events taking place? Is someone planning to

Assessing the use of OntologyBased Information Extraction (OBIE) to confront the increasing volume and high velocity of data streams in the intelligence world Michael Ouliel and Lior Kogan, Ripples

perform a new type of attack that has not been carried out before? In recent years, more and more transactions and report types have been computerized. The technologies for collecting and storing data pieces have proliferated in almost every aspect of our daily lives. For most intelligence agencies, collection is no longer the major problem. The challenge today is how to harness the mass amounts of data to gain meaningful insights in a timely and costeffective manner. In other words, can your omnipotent agency also be omniscient?

Processing the Data Stream Data processing is the extraction of information from incoming data. There are many ways to represent information. To allow information from different sources to be displayed and usable, intelligence agencies often aim

Photo: Shutterstock

at building a representation model that is “agnostic” to the source. Meaning, the products of all disciplinary processing centers (LI, HUMINT, SIGINT, VISINT, WEBINT, and so on) should be mapped to the same representation model. Much of the information in the intelligence domain is concerned with the existence of entities, the properties of entities, and the relationships between them. In recent years, formal ontologies have been the model of choice for knowledge representation in many academic research projects, as well as in commercial projects and products more recently. Formal ontologies are vocabularies of terms, often covering a specific domain and shared by a community of users. They specify the definitions of terms by describing their relationships with other terms in the ontology. Such language forms, such as “OWL 2” are basically formal languages used to construct ontologies.

A sample ontology schema defines entity types, such as a person, an organization, a bank account, a meeting versus a terror attack, and relationship types between entities types. A person can own a bank account, be a member of an organization, or the parent of another person. Property types are related to entity types: a person has a first name, an organization has an establishment date, and so on. The OWL 2 language is actually much richer: one can define hierarchies between entity types (for example, every cat is a mammal), define entities by logic (such as classifying an “orphan” as a person whose parents are both dead), define relationships analogously (if ‘A’ is parent of ‘B’, and ‘B’ is parent of ‘C’, then ‘A’ is grandparent of ‘C’), define assertions (if person ‘A’ is the parent of person ‘B’, then person ‘B’ cannot be the parent of person ‘A’), and many more. Due to the large volume and high velocity of the data stream, it is nearly

impossible to extract information from all incoming data-pieces manually. Mapping or importing structured data, such as bank transactions into an ontology, can usually be automated quite easily: generating an entity of type transaction, setting values for the amount and date properties, and defining relationships with two bank account entities (transfer-from, transfer-to). Simple audio, images and video processing tasks – such as automatic number plate recognition – can now be automated. However, more complex tasks, such as satellite imagery analysis of alleged nuclear facilities, require a combination of specific tools and human analytic skills. The products of such processing tasks are usually textual reports, although ontological representation may be constructed by the analysts using supportive software tools. Textual data sources, such as emails, blog posts, as well as police, firefighter

NOVEMBER 2012

"Much of the information in the intelligence domain is concerned with the existence of entities, the properties of entities, and the relationships between them" and domain-specific intelligence reports, constitute a major portion of all available data. The automation of information extraction from textual sources into a source-agnostic information representation model (such as an ontological representation) is currently one of the most critical and most demanding challenges intelligence agencies face.

Extracting Information from Textual Data Sources Automated extraction of entities, properties and relationships that form a textual corpus presents a several difficulties. Many of the challenges in deciphering this stream of information is related to the intricacies of natural language. For starters, natural language can be ambiguous. Consider the sentences “Jacob, an orthodox rabbi, has married Rachel” (either Jacob got married with Rachel or Jacob was the celebrant) and “John sees a girl with a telescope”. Extraction requires knowledge about the world. “John sees a girl with a green dress” is not as ambiguous as “John sees a girl with a telescope”, since we know that a dress in not an observation device. Given the sentence – “My Jaguar eats a lot of fuel” – we expect the extraction process to identify the fact that the writer owns a

NOVEMBER 2012

Jaguar-manufactured car, whereas for the input – “My Jaguar eats a lot of meat” – we would expect it to recognize the fact that the writer owns an exotic animal. In addition, information tends to be context-dependent. If an E-mail composer that is known to be in Blossom, Texas writes “I’ll meet you in an hour near the church at Paris” – he meant Paris, Texas. When a waiter asks, “Are you are paying by card?” he means a credit card. It is also important to remember that natural language is not necessarily based on formal logic. Consider the following dialogue: Father (to child): “Who is coming?” Child: “A lady.” Father: “No! It is not a lady! It’s Mammy!” This doesn’t imply that the child’s mother is not a lady. Furthermore, the use of idioms, nicknames and informality must be taken into consideration: “Bro, the city of angels is cool, but nothing to write home about. In the big apple it’s a dog eat dog world – totally different league. The merchandize is in apple pie order so I won’t upset the apple cart. I’ll be home free.” The same applies for the use of references: “John has a card. Bob sees him and takes it.” Who is him? What is it? In certain cases, information may be implicit. An E-mail that begins with “Dear Mr. Kerr” contains different latent information about the relation between

the writer and the recipient from an E-mail that begins with “Hi Alex”. The chosen words, the writer’s mood, selective quotations from religious texts, and even what is not being said can reveal a lot. Rich ontologies contain detailed information about locations, occupations, products, substances, etc. – and about the relationships between those entities. For example, “Paris is a city in Texas”, “a telescope is an observation device”, “Jaguar is a car manufacturer”, and “a car consumes (drinks/eats) fuel”. Ontology-based Information Extraction (OBIE) is a form of information extraction that uses ontologies to drive the extraction process. Harnessing the knowledge and the rules embedded in the ontology, it is possible to solve many complex extraction problems.

Ontology-Based Information Representation: What Have We Gained? Using a single ontology to represent all available information – mapped from relational data sources, extracted from textual data sources, produced by disciplinary processing centers, as well as general knowledge about the world – can be a force multiplier for data-processing tasks, analysis tasks, and for the organization-wide intelligence workflow management. Consider the following: In regards to veracity, consistency and common terminology, the extraction process is much more accurate when information is extracted into a common representation. This allows for detection of inconsistencies, allowing everyone in the organization to communicate using the same terminology. When it comes to the application of automatic contextualization and enrichment, newly collected information can be automatically put into context. For example, if three intercepted E-mails from an anonymous E-mail account reveal that the writer owns a red car, that he sold his car yesterday, and that his daughter's first name is Anna, correlation with information from both the car-ownership and the

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population registry may be enough to automatically connect the E-mail account with its owner. The probability of deriving a deeper degree of associations amongst entities is proportional to the number of sources. The more the merrier, as the expression goes. On the most basic level, analysis is the production of insights based on the available information – this is a seemingly straightforward yet critical fact to keep in mind when assessing the power of analytic capabilities. Key insights are produced when relationships are recognized, and associations are made between entities and actions. Since all organizational knowledge is represented as a single graph, there is a paradigmatic shift in the way investigations are conducted. Queries can be posed and alerts can be defined using a simple graphical pattern. For example: any person that owns a blue car, his age is between 40 and 50, his cell-phone number ends with “156”, and he has a brother that communicated with five or more members of organization X. Such patterns define sub-graphs within the ontology. Analysts are also in the position to pose open-ended questions, such as “Where was person ‘X’ at time ‘T?’” The answer may come from border-crossing logs, credit card transactions, cellular phone tracking, or almost any other source. The analyst is not bothered with such details. Another type of question may be: “Is there any connection between person ‘X’ and person ‘Y’?” The answer may be: “Person ‘X’ sold his car to the brother of person ‘Y’” or “Person ‘X’ sent an email to person ‘Z’, who 5 minutes later sent an SMS to person ‘Y’”. The number of possible connection paths is immense, but analysts do not need to make thousands of hypotheses and check each individually.

Organization-Wide Workflow Management Besides using ontology to represent the domain knowledge, agencies may

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"The probability of deriving a deeper degree of associations amongst entities is proportional to the number of sources. The more the merrier, as the expression goes" utilize ontologies to automate their workflow management. One example of this is the ontological representation of collection sources (their coverage, veracity, capacity, risk level and cost): collection management today tends to be tactical. When analysts mark entities as collection targets, their requests can be contextualized, prioritized, converted into collection sources, and streamed automatically to all relevant collection centers. Another ontological representation of the intelligence recipients includes the many insights produced in an analysis center. Different insights may be relevant to different recipients: from policy makers to deployed units. Supplying timely information to forward deployed units and field agents can save lives. Currently, analysts manage the dissemination manually. This process requires expensive resources and may delay the distribution of critical information. Sometimes, crucial information may not reach its target, since analysts fail to correlate between the information and its relevant recipients. Ontological representation of the intelligence

recipients (i.e. their role, location, dynamic context, and so on) can drive the automation of the dissemination process. Last but not least, one must take into account the ontological representation of the analysts themselves. This includes their language proficiency, domain of expertise, seniority, working hours, and security clearance level – all factors that can be used to dynamically manage the analysts work queue. Intelligence agencies collect huge volumes of data at high velocity, with a variety of formats, variability of meanings across contexts and different degrees of veracity. Data processing is the extraction of information out of aggregate incoming data. Analysis is the production of insights based on the available information. Information representation utilizing formal ontologies, as well as ontologydriven processing, analysis and workflow management, is a paradigmatic shift in the way that agencies are able to utilize their existing resources in order to produce deeper, more comprehensive and more accurate insights in a timely manner. 

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THE MEGA-EVENT SECURITY CHALLENGE All eyes were turned to London's recent Summer Olympic Games. With an endless number of spectators, athletes, officials, and events, security at the games is always a challenge for the host country By Moriya Ben Yosef

t 4AM on September 5, 1972, eight terrorists from the Palestinian group Black September infiltrated the Olympic Village in Munich. After crossing the compound’s fence, they managed to take over a building where the Israeli delegation was residing. The event ended with the murder of eleven members from Israel’s Olympic team and the death of a German police officer. Forty years after this event, strict security preparations were underway for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London. Though Israeli companies did not make a large contribution to this event’s security preparations, many companies already made contacts in Brazil to prepare for the 2016 Olympic Games, the FIFA World Cup, and the South American Football Championship. Will Israeli companies win huge tenders to protect Brazil as they did in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, when Israeli companies worked with an estimated $200 million? “Because of our familiarity with the modus operandi of terrorist organizations, Israelis have

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Maracana Stadium, Rio de Janiero Photo: Dreamstime

an advantage in risk analysis," says Brigadier General (Res.) Mena Bacharach. Bacharach is owner of the defense consultancy company A.M. Shipur Ltd., and deputy head of defense industry management at the Israel Export Institute.

Stitching a Security Suit Securing mega-events is extremely complex and includes several concentric circles of security that require simultaneous protection. According to Bachrach, “the operational and technological solution is factored by the threat level and the risk. In an event with a magnitude like the London Games, you begin to build your security circles early on. The first circle – intelligence – is based on overt and covert sources. The second ring – the external-perimeter – includes electronic observation systems, sensors, hovercrafts, UAVs, radars with various ranges, and CCTVs. The internal perimeter consists of foot and mounted patrols, advanced entrance control systems, and biometric systems. Finally, there is the

protected object itself – the stadium and the Olympic Village – that need entrance control systems, closed-circuit cameras, and extensive manpower. All this activity is then backed up with preliminary and real-time intelligence.” Lotan Security is one of the leading Israeli companies in mega-event security. The company was in charge of establishing security for the African Cup football games in Gabon in 2011. “As an integrator, you need to construct the security concept for the entire event and activate a complete chain of companies that are each specialized in a different field," explains Asaf Talmon, joint CEO of Lotan Security. “You must ensure that the security layout fits the existing gaps of professional knowledge in that country, as well as the condition of the infrastructure and lines of communication. This plan needs to encompass the fields of transportation, lodging, airports, vital infrastructure, crowd concentrations, and the stadiums. You need a great deal of creativity and initiative. You can reach a high level of security if you know how to adjust the security plan to the constraints on the ground,” says Talmon.

GLS (Global Law Enforcement) collaborates with Police Commander (Ret.) Dudu Tzur and Major General (Res.) Israel Ziv. The company was involved in the security for the 2010 World Cup in South America, and Tzur worked on the security for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games and the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. “The Olympic Games and the World Cup have discernable security characteristics. The duration of the event is fixed, so it's important to create maximum security, but with an open atmosphere," says Tzur. Another company, Magal Security Systems, won a significant portion (approximately $37 million) of the security budget for the Africa Cup games in Gabon; the former head of Shabak, Yaakov Peri, is on its board of directors. According to Senior Marketing VP Hagai Katz, the company sent an entire shipment of products from Israel to Africa for the games. The shipment included the FORTIS system, an advanced command and control (C2) system named “Barricade II,” smart fences capable of pinpointing attempted incursions, and cameras capable of

automatic video analysis. The ISDS group helped secure the 2004 Athens Olympics, and took part in security projects in the framework of the 2007 PanAmerican Games in Rio de Janeiro, as well as the 2008 Beijing Olympics. "Every mega-event is characterized by hundreds and even thousands of volunteers that are quickly recruited and do not undergo rigorous screening. This does not include the critics, viewers, and spectators, for which it is nearly impossible to gather information on in advance," says Ron Shafran, vice president of ISDS Ltd. "We are involved in the process, beginning with the planning phase and up to its implementation. We try to create a friendly and open security environment, one which will not irk people, but still provide the necessary security." Shafran explains that in regards to the World Cup and Olympic Games that will be held in Brazil, ISDS is working with a leading Israeli company to produce an armored vehicle designed for security forces’ transportation.

Command and Control Systems Verint Systems Inc., which develops and produces command, control, and security systems, is one of the world's leaders in the field of data collection and analysis. The company is currently involved in two large international projects part of the Seventh EU Framework Program (FP7). Both projects will be developed in cooperation with the EU chief scientific adviser. The first project, TASS (Total Airport Security System), focuses on securing airports. Their second project, ESS (Emergency Support Management), will establish a C2 plan to manage an event after it takes place. The Mer Group, another one of the largest Israeli HLS companies, is responsible for a variety of Safe City Programs, including one in Buenos Aires that the Israeli and Argentine governments are working on. Among other projects, the company built a C2 center for the 2010 South Africa World Cup, and was responsible for one of the world’s first Safe City initiatives when it set up a network of cameras in Jerusalem’s Old City for the Pope’s 2000

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visit. The Mer Group also developed Secure-M, a C2 program for primary control rooms (one of the previous versions was used in the Athens Olympics). The CK2I platform developed by Athena, a Mer Group subsidiary, collects intelligence from numerous systems and analyzes the information. The Interoperability Framework, which includes both software and hardware, connects to various media applications such as communication devices and cellphones, and allows for a joint communications platform. The Mer Group also produces columns and towers that can have security cameras and additional intelligence measures installed. Ness Technologies specializes in intelligence and C2 systems. The company’s products are in IDF use, as well as in many defense and security entities around the world. The Ness Control system, a mission management system for special forces, can gather and transfer information from any camera, ranging from the scope of an armed sniper to a camera hanging off a hot-air balloon. According to the company's marketing division, “the entire deployment of the layout can be defined in advance, and new assault or defense arrays can be marked during the event, with information being passed online to all relevant forces. It aids in knowing which areas are more sensitive, and what are the paths of action and escape.” Furthermore, Ness developed the Awareness system, which helps to manage all rescue forces deployed in a given area by sending out messages about the status of casualties and mobilizing forces.

The Major Defense Industries Israel’s four largest defense industries – Rafael, Elbit Systems, IAI, and IMI – are also leaders in the HLS field. “Just like the rest of the world, we understand that needs are constantly shifting, and so do the budgets,” says Haim Ya’akovovich, VP and head of the intelligence and network warfare administration at Rafael. “The wisdom is to take the solutions we developed for the military and suit them to other purposes. Rafael's advanced systems, such as the ImiLite Command and Control System, communica-

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tion systems, electro-optic systems, and image processing can be relevant for facility and event security. Even the Protector and Stalker UAVs are suitable for civilian missions," he claims. According to Ya’akovovich, the company offers solutions in the field of HLS in cooperation with its subsidiaries, Controp and mPrest Systems, and in the framework of cooperation with Aeronautics. Rafael is making contacts with various elements in Brazil to help secure their upcoming sporting events. Rafael specializes in the field of imagery comparison, which can be used for security purposes. Similarly, Vigilant Technology has a Netstream Video Analytics system that performs video analysis to identify unusual events in real-time. "You can ensure, for example, that a control room receives an alert if someone leaves a package for more than 10 seconds, or if someone wanders around in a certain area," explains Ohad Kleinman, software development and product manager at Vigilant. "This is a system that maps an area and supports other security systems. It can overcome weather conditions, flying birds, and covers a variety of applications with almost no false alarms." According to Kleinman, the company’s systems are present in about 30% of London’s outlying cities. Another Israeli company, NICE Systems, specializes in the development and manufacture of video recording and alalysis systems, as well as various C2 systems. "We developed several systems known as 'NICEVision' that analyze video in real-time and search for unusual events. It also includes statistical analysis of people’s movements, which allows for more operational management and aids in securitylevel decision-making,” says Guy Yaniv, manager of the Surveillance Solution Department at NICE’s Security Group. "The correlation that exists between the different types of sensors can provide an

indication for a developing event. Furthermore, we introduce all sorts of possible scenarios in C2 in advance, so that they can assist in decision-making if necessary. It is possible for the event manager to have a checklist for the system, which can operate automatically. The system can make choices according to decisions already carried out. For instance, if you choose option A instead of option B, it can recommend option C,” explains Yaniv. NICE works extensively in the UK, especially in peripheral systems and those in the field of transportation infrastructure (for the upcoming Olympics). Even companies such as BriefCam and Ioimage are working on video security. These companies combine image processing and video summarization technologies that enable automatic motion detection and intelligence tracking of several objects at once. In large sports arenas, and in particular, the Olympics, personnel are quickly recruited and then undergo various security exams. One method to screen applicants is to analyze their emotional responses to questions. Nemesysco developed the LVA I-HR, a system based on technology that can identify problematic emotional responses via sound analysis, and then quickly examine and filter hundreds or even thousands of employees. The company, whose technology is used in approximately 87 countries, also provided their services to the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi, India. "By using a fast computer test that automatically asks questions, you can accurately examine many people in a short amount of time," says Assaf Bar-Ilan of Nemesysco. "The candidate answers the questions, and depending on the nuances of his voice, an output is received; when the system says someone is suspicious, that person can then be examined further."

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Identifying and Neutralizing Explosives Israeli companies are also looking into methods to locate, identify, and track explosives. Two former members of the Israeli Police, Yaacov Shoham and Baruch Glattstein, established IDenta, a company that produces manual field kits for identifying and characterizing unidentified substances. Used by security forces around the world, the kit contains chemical compounds that, when mixed together with an unknown substance, can identify the substance from the resulting chemical reaction. “Electronic devices are not completely reliable, so our kits assist in detecting if a substance is casual or explosive. We've developed a kit that can identify 14 of the most common explosives on the spot, as well as kits that detects Chlorate and TATP (chemicals used less often)," says Ya'akov Shoham. According to Shoham, Brazil is very interested in the kits to help detect drugs. Companies such as ITL (Israel Testing Laboratories) and LDS (Laser Detect Systems), a subsidiary of ITL Optronics, are also developing advanced systems for remote detection and explosives identification. Vidisco Ltd. is developing systems for xray examinations that are in use in more than 80 countries. The system sits in a suitcase or backpack, weighs between 20-40 kg, is completely portable, and can be assembled within minutes. “Our systems were used in most of the Olympics held in the past 20 years,” says Tamir Aluma, the company’s security division manager. “We have six types of X-ray examination systems that differ in picture quality and field permeability. The system, which scans any element defined as a threat, comes in three parts—a portable battery-operated X-ray source, a digital panel that creates the photo, and the operating system. Its portability, quality of examination in the field, and all-weather operability make the system unique.” Dr. Alysia Sagi-Dolev created Qylur Security Systems, a company that specializes in integrated scanning solutions. The company developed the Qylatron system for advanced technological luggage scanning. It is composed of five cells, can identify chemicals, radiation, and explosives, and scans more

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items than standard scanning machines (like the ones used in airports). The system is also less expensive and has a smaller chance of human error. With Qylatron, a passenger simply inserts his luggage into one of the cells and waits for the scan to finish; there is no need for human assistance, which can help direct valuable human resources to other tasks. STI (Security Technology Integration) developed a system for inspecting the underside of vehicles, enabling the detection of charges and smuggled items. The system also documents the entire inspection process to ensure that authorities can carry out an investigation. Brazil’s Federal Police have already used the system for a year. “The STI system enables flexibility and can perform inspections at various levels, depending on the operational definitions and the security circle in question. One type of vehicle that will undergo a thorough inspection at the Olympics are those used to transport athletes,” says CEO Yuval Ovadia. If a terrorist already planted an explosive charge, there are also special devices available that can reduce the damage of an explosion. Mistral Security Inc. developed the BCR (Blast Containment Receptacles) – a special garbage can that can be placed around sensitive locations. It neutralizes a blast radius beyond 1.5 m, minimizing an explosion’s impact on nearby persons. The company also developed secure containers to evacuate suspicious objects. In addition, Mistral is developing various measures that can quickly identify explosives and persons posing a security risk. Similarly, IDO Security developed MagShoe, a device for detecting metal items concealed in footwear. Tamar Explosives, which developed the XTest, is now developing software and special trainers for airport security units.

Eyes in the Skies Top I Vision produces and operates tactical observation systems onboard balloons for small and crowded areas. The company’s balloons, called “TAS” (Tactical Aerostat System), follow and manage multi-participant events. Regularly used by the Israeli Police, a payload is installed on the balloon in accordance with the type of event and the client’s needs. Balloon sizes range from 9-12 m, are filled with helium, and can reach a height of 150 m.

 Amstat System

Aeronautics, which specializes in UAV production, also produces observation balloons for securing events. The company’s Skystar-180 and Skystar-300 balloons were part of the security layout for the 2011 Winter Olympics in Canada. They are used by the Israeli Police in demonstrations, and by the IDF for securing Israel’s borders. Gliders and UAVs can also secure sports events. Many Israeli companies are involved in this field, including Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), BlueBird Aero Systems, Innocon, and UVision.

Smart Fences and Perimeter Security El-Far Electronic Systems’ advanced perimeter security systems are in use in more than 25 countries around the world (the smart fences protected the Olympic Village in Athens). "In recent years, we added several developments that provide all-encompassing 360° protection," says Sagi Laron, VP of sales and marketing. "Besides smart fences that are capable of detecting incursion attempts (which are extremely precise), there are also virtual fences. These subterranean systems go off if someone crosses over, digs in the area, or approaches the area. There are also ultra-sonar systems that go off if someone attempts to cross over the fence without touching it.” The company recently developed a glider that can be equipped with a camera and a loudspeaker system to provide intelligence and control from the air to ground forces. Another company, D-Fence Security Systems, specializes in the development and production of electronic fences for defense projects. Likewise, ESC Baz specializes in observation systems and produces various cameras that provide analog and digital video processing as well as vocal recording capabilities. Israeli companies are investing a great deal in their security solutions for the upcoming sport events in Brazil. Which ones will win a portion of the huge security budget? 

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Black Swans in the Cyber Domain By Dr. Gil David

n the 16th century, when people wanted to say that something was impossible, they used the term “black swan.” This expression describes an event that could not happen in reality. According to historical evidence, it was believed at the time that swans had only white feathers – ergo, a black swan could not exist. Then, in the seventeenth century, the world was stunned to learn that black swans had been found in remote Australia. The categorical assumption that black swans were impossible was abandoned. In 2007, the Lebanese-American philosopher Nassim Taleb presented his own black swan theory after several years of work. Taleb defines events as black swans that are generally random and unexpected. In other words, a black swan is a highimpact, low-frequency event whose influence on the future is extreme but whose likelihood of happening is low. In our time, a classic case of a black swan is the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon in the US. This event contains all the criteria that define a black swan. It was a unique event. Whoever watched it – no matter where – was shocked. Its repercussions are still felt today, especially in airport security. The level of protection has risen dramatically and governments are continually upgrading security measures. This trend has had a powerful impact on the handling of passengers and the need for enormous resources.

Worms and Swans One of the paramount cyber war events in recent years was the Stuxnet worm that infiltrated Iran’s nuclear facilities. Experts in cyber security agree that the Stuxnet worm attacked the centrifuges’ control systems and reshuffled their operating instructions, altering the centrifuges’ speed

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cycles, causing them to crack and then explode. Stuxnet can be defined as a black swan for a number of reasons. First, it contained the element of surprise. Nuclear facilities are tightly guarded against physical, virtual, and cyber threats. Their communication networks are isolated from the Internet and buried several meters underground. In addition, the facilities’ production network operates according to SCADA protocol (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), and until the Stuxnet penetration, almost no cases of attacks aimed specifically against this protocol were registered. Despite enhanced security measures and isolation from external networks, the worm made its way so sophisticatedly into the reactor’s software and wreaked so much havoc in the facility’s innermost core that everyone was caught by surprise. In effect, what appeared as an impossible mission for the Stuxnet designers was carried out brilliantly and with craft, leaving the Iranians awestruck. Second, from both a practical perspective and as a confidence destroyer, the effect of the worm on the Iranian nuclear program was immense. Some pundits claim that the attack pushed the nuclear project back by months, even years. Following the event, the Iranians decided to base their software on a code that they developed themselves, without recourse to any external codes that could harbor more worms. This required special preparations, such as training engineers and allocating costly resources. It also meant a setback for development plans. On the international level, Stuxnet had a powerful impact on cyber defense, forcing vast sums to be diverted to improving counter measures. In this way, it caused a reconfiguration of the security concept in states and governments and awakened the need for a significant change in preparing for future cyber threats.

Third, in recent years, there have been many indications of zero-day Trojan horses (exploiting computer application weak spots), backdoor attacks (circumventing normal authentication), and other malware designed for targeted attacks against organizations and facilities. Another technique that has been around for several years is malware incursion of networks via external infection (such as a disk-on-key) that bypasses the defense mechanisms that deny unauthorized access. Human agents have been used for carrying out an attack (for example, infecting a network with a worm) and social engineering has been employed for evading sophisticated security mechanisms. There were even some reports that attacks could be made against SCADA protocol-based systems. The West is determined to impede the Iranian nuclear project at almost any price. The Stuxnet worm was indeed a black swan. It was the first major one to be seen in the cyber world, and is a harbinger of things to come in cyberspace. The trick is to avoid this kind of attack on our own systems. One solution is to identify weak points in our systems and transform a black swan into a white one. This is the only way we can protect our most sensitive systems and prepare for the cyber war that looms on the horizon. 

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Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll Tell You Who You Are This isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t science fiction. Today, fingerprint identification, retinal scans, and voice recognition devices are increasingly common security measures. Israeli companies, with experience in the biometric identification of terrorists and criminals, are currently developing the next generation of devices - an IsraelDefense special report

By Efrat Cohen and Moriya Ben Yosef

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very blockbuster spy-thriller of the last few decades has required its fearless protagonist to pass through a battery of sophisticated gadgetry before securing access to topsecret locations. However, retinal and iris scans, palmprint and face recognition, and voice analysis devices are no longer relegates of science fiction. For many, these checks are a routine part of everyday life—especially here in Israel. Biometric identification will soon be found at all security checkpoints in the country, as a number of Israeli companies are developing and introducing a variety of innovative devices in this field. The growing use of biometric identification immediately calls to mind the January 19, 2010 assassination of the senior Hamas figure Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai. The international headline-making incident could have turned out entirely different had a biometric security check been used. Following the assassination (widely attributed to Israel’s Mossad), Interpol immediately published photographs of eleven suspects who had entered Dubai with counterfeit documents, and the “borrowed” identities of European citizens. Dubai’s chief of police also displayed photos that had been taken by sophisticated security cameras installed around the emirate. Would the assassination have occurred had passport control in the Dubai airport featured a biometric identification system?

In the Wake of 9/11 Like many aspects of the War on Terror, biometrics R&D gained renewed momentum after 9/11. The development of biometric systems—in lieu of documents like ID cards, passports, and other forms of easily replicable identification—kicked into high gear when it became clear that identity theft was fast becoming commonplace; not just among the usual suspects like organized crime syndicates, but also international terror groups. The danger was that while these groups were becoming more sophisticated, counterfeiting technologies were becoming cheaper and more accessible. It was only obvious after 9/11 that advanced security measures, which couldn’t be fooled by ink and paper, were necessary to ensure public

 Identytech Solutions’ “Wallmount” system

safety. Every individual possesses an entirely unique biometric profile and biometrics can check measurable behavioral and physiological characteristics, and then store the information for identity verification at a later date. Unlike magnetic cards, biometric characteristics are difficult to counterfeit, copy, share, lose, or guess. Biometric security devices are now the “hot” items in the world of commercial technology. Although most commercial systems are not entirely foolproof, with today’s inexpensive sensors and high-powered microprocessors, biometric technology is still spreading at a rapid pace.

Israel on the Frontline As a state under perpetual threat, Israel was one of the first countries to adopt biometric identification procedures. In recent years, the Israeli government established a special inter-ministerial committee, chaired by the Director of the Interior Ministry, and included members of the Ministries of the Interior, Internal Security, and Justice; the Prime Minister’s Office; the Israeli Police; and the Israel Airports Authority. Although it served in a largely regulatory role, the committee’s goal was to hasten the development, legislation, and standardization of biometric identification in Israel. It proposed that the biometric data on identification cards and passports should match the standards of the US and European Union; and should follow the technical guidelines of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO); the regulations of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO); and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). After a long period of parliamentary and pub-

lic debate, the Knesset passed the “Biometric Law” in December 2009. Over a year later (May 2011), the government approved the legislation giving the Interior Ministry authorization to issue “smart” ID cards to Israeli citizens. Every citizen who receives a new card is required to provide two fingerprint samples and a digital face photo, which will be stored in the government’s biometric database. In its initial stage, the smart ID card will allow every citizen to perform tasks such as filling in electronic forms vis-à-vis the government databases, and signing the forms with a digital signature. Israeli citizens will also receive an electronic passport, containing an imbedded biometric chip. It is no secret that passports of this kind are standard issue in other countries; in fact, Israel lags behind in this respect. The transition to smart IDs is expected to cost the state 36 million NIS ($10 million); and the government contract for issuing the biometric documents was awarded to the Hewlett-Packard Company (HP). The Israel Airports Authority is currently using biometric devices in a pilot program to test security procedures at the country’s airports. In January 2010, it installed a new biometric system (Unipass) to check outgoing passengers at the Ben-Gurion International Airport. The system was jointly developed by the Israel Airports Authority and BenderTech, and offers participating passengers an alternative to the standard security screenings. Unipass is based on a smart card that, when swiped, confirms the passengers’ fingerprints and digital facial images. It is designed to make security checks at Ben-Gurion Airport quicker and more efficient by replacing the screening agents’ barrage of seemingly innocuous questions. According to the Airports Authority, the overall cost of development and implementation of Unipass, over a five-year period, was $15 million. Another method of biometric identification familiar to many Israelis can be found in Terminal 3—where the Fast Track devices perform biometric identifications of all registered incoming and outgoing passengers. The system relies on palmprint identification and has been in use since July 1998. Each Fast Track station is connected to a passport control computer and allows quick passage for travelers. This system of

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biometric identification is based on the unique geometric lines and contours of the palm. Passengers go to the computerized checkpoint and place their palm on the device, which then compares the print with one stored in the database of registered travelers. When verification is complete, a gate opens and the passenger receives a printed exit certificate instead of a stamp in their passport. The goal of Fast Track is to enable passengers to perform all of the flight procedures (initial security checks, flight registration, passing border control, and boarding the aircraft) independently, quickly, and easily without the use of documents. Israel’s border crossings with its neighbors, Jordan and Egypt, will also see the inclusion and incorporation of biometric security devices into its existing processes. The Ministry of Transportation has begun replacing driving licenses with new biometric IDs, adapted to match European standard. Additionally, a state-of-the-art method for photographing drivers (when issuing the new licenses) will provide a means of absolute identification: even after many years, when the individual has aged and his or her appearance has completely changed.

Finger, Eye, Voice, and Vein Biometric ID works off the assumption that the statistical probability of finding two people with identical physical features is zero. The traditional method of biometric ID is fingerprinting. A major advantage is this method is the low cost of its small electronic sensors, however the margin of error is greater than their larger and more expensive counterparts. This is because small electronic sensors can scan only one area of the finger and they produce low-resolution images. According to Yaki Pipkevitch, deputy CEO of marketing at Synel Industries, a company that develops fingerprint ID systems, “the fingerprint is not absorbed as a photograph or imprint (standard police methods), but as coded algorithmic data.” “A fingerprint can be integrated into a personal identity label. Another method is the ‘smart card’ with a fingerprint implanted in it. In this case, information on the fingerprints doesn’t have to be kept in a central database

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but can be carried around by an operator.” Another Israeli company, IQS, has developed a program for identity management and entry control called IAM. The US-patented program identifies people by their fingerprints and is currently used by most security bodies in Israel, including the Mossad, Negev Nuclear Research Center, and defense industries, as well as civilian bodies. “The uniqueness of the algorithm we developed is that it is able to identify one person out of two million—in half a second—with a very high rate of accuracy,” states IQS CEO Baruch Shalev. “The system makes about a million identity-checks a day in some places and is designed for very large databases. Users only have access to information relevant to them. The program can be implemented wherever biometric ID is needed for security purposes. In the future, pending a decision, it will even manage electronic voting systems.” In addition, IQS developed the ‘WISE’ system for remote identification of users via the Internet. This program allows website owners to register and manage users’ biometric information. Alongside fingerprints, facial identification has grown increasingly popular for security checks. The system is based on a composite of an individual’s facial structure; created by combining scores of photographs taken from various different angles. The system scans the subject’s face and translates the dimensions into numerical data. Instant identification takes a thousandth of a second on a screen connected to two cameras. This method’s advantage is that it provides a clear picture of someone, for example, who tried but failed to enter a secured area. Under controlled conditions, facial ID systems are quite accurate, but the system has known weaknesses: if the original composite and the new photo are taken from different directions; the lighting conditions are changed; the subject’s facial expression is different; or if glasses or a beard are added. Perhaps future technology will overcome these vulnerabilities in facial ID. In the meantime, iris recognition is a very fast and reliable alternative to facial ID. since the iris’ complex pattern is absolutely unique and remains constant over the years, this is a highly accurate method of identification. The iris recognition process requires an individual

to look into a scanner for a few seconds so that the iris’ patterns can be absorbed and analyzed. Another form of ocular identification is retinal scanning, which charts the complex network of blood vessels in a person’s retina—a capillary network so complex it is impossible to duplicate. For a retinal scan, the pupil is dilated using an infrared light and a special system is used to chart and then convert the pattern into storable computer code. ID-U Biometrics, which specializes in homeland security, has developed an innovative technology called “ID-U” for user identification via eye movements. “Every person has their own identifiable eye movements,” says company CEO, Dr. Dafna Palty Wasserman. “While fingerprints are a relatively limited anatomical sample, eye movements contain information that is anatomical, physiological, and behavioral. As the subject looks at a moving object on a screen, a camera system photographs the eye and the subject’s movements, and then forms an identity profile. ID-U technology examines the eye, facial structure, muscles, and nervous system, and even provides an indication of the subject’s psychological state. “Hostile Intent Detection is the ‘hot’ item today in security and protection. The system enables us to spot a person under “stress” and check the source: a morning spat with the wife or a ticking bomb in his briefcase. The system also identifies a person who’s tired, drunk, or high on drugs.” According to Dr. Palty Wasserman, the technology is now in the last stages of development, and will soon be used in almost every field: from security systems at nuclear reactors to remote identification for bank account entry. The company is in contact with various organizations after it recently won a prize at the prestigious “Global Security Challenge” exhibition. Ex-Sight, a company that also specializes in program systems for accurate facial ID, is developing products for Elbit Systems, Magal, Palsan-Sasa, and the Brazilian security forces (police and army), to name just a few clients. These systems focus on physiognomical verification by matching the data to a permanent “face-bank” and also by “facesearch” without a permanent database.

 “Unipass” system at Ben-Gurion Airport

“All of our ID products are based on a constant face acquisition system (CFAS) that links up to all types of identification cameras or video sources, scans the faces, and compares them to a list of suspects,” explains Tomer Dadon, the CEO of Ex-Sight. “The advantage of our system compared to others on the market is that it doesn’t claim to have the best or fastest algorithm. Instead, we take a number of sophisticated algorithms and run them simultaneously, and in this way obtain a complete set of accurate results.” Another Ex-Sight system is making life a little easier for security professionals. “We developed the ‘XI’ for the Brazilian police. It’s essentially a Robocop-like eyepiece that fits on the policeman’s visor. As the police officer looks at a person, the system scans the person’s face and carries out a search of known suspects. The system is also used for security checks at stadiums. The police photograph faces and transfer them to a database in real time,” says Dadon. Professional literature considers the human voice an acceptable means of identification, claiming that a voice check is 98% accurate. However, practical experience cuts the figure down to about 82%, and at such level (eighteen mismatches per 100) it’s difficult to match one sample in a database containing millions of samples. The Israeli startup PerSay, recently acquired by American Nuance Communications, is involved in the R&D of voice ID. The company developed systems that can identify an individual according to their unique voice characteristics. It operates on phone net-

Photo: Israel Airports Authority

works and is not limited or influenced by languages, dialects, accents, natural vocal changes, environmental conditions, or background noise. PerSay’s technology monitors individuals under house arrest, and is currently used in countries such as the United States, Britain, and Spain. Persons on house detention receive random phone calls instructing them to repeat a particular sentence or series of words. The system recognizes whether it is the prisoner’s voice and can determine if the words are being spoken in real time. The PerSay system is also used in banks and other public service institutions as a way to prevent identity theft or other fraudulent activities. Can a person’s vein be a foolproof means of identification? IdentyTech Solutions is an expert in this field, and is developing vein identification technologies, a concept that originated in Japan. IndentyTech’s system creates a an individual profile with a special device that reads and scans for a unique “vein map.” The machine maps a person’s palm using infrared rays. In conjunction with the IDF and Israel Airports Authority, the company’s products have already been installed at a number of border crossings. In addition, Identytech Solutions sells its products to security forces and secret services in Asia, Europe, South America, and the US. “Today’s options in the field of biometric identification are very broad,” says Eyal Dafni, Identytech Solutions’ deputy CEO of development. “A single system can

accommodate the devices for biometric ID; have an intercom camera; can read a smart card or entry code and at the same time. This provides optimal entry control and answers security demands at the required clearance levels.” Another Israeli biometric ID company is Orad, which supplies solutions based on facial contours, iris, and fingerprint recognition. Orad has operations in Israel, as well as in Africa, Asia, and Central America. It recently installed a biometric identification system in two airports in Cyprus. Although the cutting edge in biometric ID is based on DNA samples, the method is not used in security checks because of its exorbitant cost and the length of time required to produce results. In what direction are Israeli biometric ID companies headed? First of all, improving the accuracy and speed of processing data. Israeli experts believe that the day is not far off when remote biometric ID (without computers) will be possible. The current trend in companies around the world is to develop systems that can shorten the identification processing time in crowded areas. The goal is to develop a machine that can read a person’s facial contours or fingerprints from a distance of a few meters. In addition to existing technologies, Israelis are looking at altogether new methods of identification based on, footprints, walking style, and even body odor. The realization of these visionary ID systems, however, remains a long way off. 

NOVEMBER 2012

The French Connection David Tzur, former head of Yamam, explains that special unit operations must be closely coordinated with all intelligence and support units on the ground. Commander (Ret.) David Tzur

he series of hate crimes committed earlier this year in Toulouse, France raised a number of difficult questions surrounding the effectiveness of preventive capabilities employed by security forces when operating amidst democratic (and even sanctimonious) world views. These views enable secessionist ethnic groups pursuing ideological, religious, or nationalist aspirations to abuse the freedoms provided by democratic systems, and translate their ideologies into violence. Examples of such violent acts can be seen in the horrible terrorist attack in Toulouse or the recent attack by the lone extremist in Oslo. There is an inherent tension between strictly maintaining the fundamental values of freedom and individual rights, and effectively defending the public. This tension stems from utilizing methods that encroach on these freedoms to collect intelligence vital to counter-insurgency. This has always been and remains a major challenge for security forces in democratic regimes. This question, which should be addressed and deliberated politically and constitutionally, must exist within the context of a democracy defending itself. One aspect of this defense includes the tactical response against terrorist attacks aimed at civilian populations. Within this context, I would like to highlight

NOVEMBER 2012

 French police officers in Toulouse

a narrower, tactical angle that gained attention during the last stage of the tragic incident in Toulouse and pertains to the barricaded terrorist stage and the final takeover by the French intervention force, RAID.

A Heavy Cost to Establish Negotiation Units RAID (Recherche Assistance Intervention

Photo: AP

Dissuasion) is the younger of the two intervention units in France. The other, more famous unit, is GIGN (Group d’Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale) – the intervention group of the French Gendarmerie. These units were established to provide a solution to the growing number of abductions and hostage situations in the Middle East and Europe. The culmination of these events was the disastrous attempt to rescue the

abducted Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympics. The colossal failure in the way this incident was managed, in the way the situation was perceived, the amateur manner in which the negotiations were conducted, and finally the failed rescue attempt, caused a major embarrassment to the Germans, and emphasized the need for a professional unit, trained and equipped specifically to handle such situations. To their credit, the Germans were quick in extracting the lessons and their response was swift and sharp. The necessary resources were allocated, and the German government established Federal Unit GSG-9, which soon evolved into a well-equipped and highly trained force that possessed the best training facilities available. The world learned of this unit after the impressive rescue operation it performed outside the boundaries of Germany in 1977, after PFLP terrorists hijacked a Lufthansa airliner, forced the crew to fly to Mogadishu, land, and then murdered the captain. The rescue operation by GSG-9 was a perfect success: all four terrorists were killed and none of the passengers or rescuers were injured. The operation, carried out in hostile territory, was reminiscent of the heroic rescue operation made by the IDF’s Sayeret Matkal unit in Entebbe in 1976. During the 1970s, additional units were established in Europe. This transpired after the realization that dealing with hostage situations is complex, highly sensitive, and creates a media profile that is larger than that of any other criminal or terrorist activity. Such incidents possess elements of a theatrical show that stimulates public curiosity. As these incidents normally evolve into a prolonged affair, they are difficult to manage and their circles of influence exceed those of pinpoint suicide and sabotage attacks, acts of self-sacrifice, and so forth.

Israel’s Own Intervention Forces The Israeli Yamam was established in the mold of the German intervention

unit and initially had a similar structure. Over the years, the two units maintained close working relations, trained together, exchanged lessons, and even shared weapon system developments. Like the German unit, the Israeli Yamam was established in the wake of a traumatic failure: the failed rescue attempt by Sayeret Matkal in Maalot in 1974, when 22 schoolchildren and an IDF soldier were killed in the attempted rescue. This incident, along with the Munich catastrophe of 1972, led the late Yitzhak Rabin, who was prime minister at the time, to realize that the national police should assume responsibility for handling such situations within Israel’s boundaries. At the same time, Rabin also decided to establish a dedicated unit, ready to be deployed around the clock, whose resources and energy would be devoted entirely to this cause. Much has been said about the competitiveness and rivalry between Sayeret Matkal and the Yamam, as the urban legends they produced can fill volumes. Healthy competition between operational units is a positive phenomenon, common the world over. In Israel, three cases became particularly prominent over the years: the Egged bus 300 hostage crisis of 1984, the “mothers’ bus” rescue of 1988, and the Nachshon Waxman affair of 1994. Hostage rescuing is a form of tacticaltechnical warfare that requires skill, training, and the allocation of resources to highly specific technologies. It is by no means an acquired or residual capability, as is the case with military units for whom it is not the primary assignment. Today, this controversy is less relevant, and I believe this recognition is more prevalent among decision-makers, as the Yamam has been widely accepted as Israel’s foremost first call intervention unit.

Handling Hostage Situations The primary characteristic of hostage situations, especially those involving a barricading element, is the overriding principle of attempting to resolve the

situation through negotiations. This was the case in Toulouse, where the directive was to make every effort to capture the terrorist alive. Part of the criticism surrounding this incident involved the length of time required by the French unit to resolve the situation and the extended duration of the combat operation. It must be noted that the time factor in such barricaded terrorist situations is important, but it is not the most important factor. Time becomes a factor when the threat imposed on the hostages or vicinity from within the objective is substantial. Given that no such immediate and present danger exists, as was the case in Toulouse, time is a secondary factor. The history of barricaded terrorist and hostage situations brings to mind cases of long weeks of negotiations with barricaded terrorists. One such case was the incident that ended tragically in the remote Texas town of Waco, where members of the Branch Davidian sect, headed by their charismatic leader David Koresh, came under siege in 1993. Everything indicated that the people in the compound were not held hostage, but psychologists suspected child abuse, manipulation, and brainwashing. Under pressure from the media and politicians (i.e. Janet Reno, the newly appointed attorney general), an assault was mounted after 50 days of negotiations. The outcome was catastrophic. As a result of the use of tear gas grenades, along with the Davidians’ collective suicide, the compound was burned down and 75 of the barricaded occupants were killed, including 20 children and the sect leader. At the conclusion of the debriefings and inquiries, the assault unit (the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team) identified a primary weakness in coordination and significant gaps between the ideologies and perceptions of the HRT (the intervention unit) and the negotiations unit. Subsequently, this lesson led Israel to relocate the living quarters of our own negotiation teams to the same compound where the members of the Yamam lived. Operational coordination in

NOVEMBER 2012

emergencies became easier because of the day-to-day interaction between the units. In addition, the inherent gaps between the mentalities of the units grew indistinct in view of the understanding that their goal was the same: save the hostages. This coordination proved effective in countless incidents in which the Yamam was called to handle barricaded terrorist situations. In most cases, the situations were resolved through negotiations, with no need for violent intervention. In cases where the negotiations reached a deadlock, the members of the negotiations team still succeeded in helping the unit. They provided a longer time interval for organizing and improved the operational timing for ending the situation without civilian casualties. The negotiations team consists of psychologists, interrogators, and human psych and behavioral sciences specialists with extensive field experience. Therefore, despite the notable differences between the negotiation and intervention units, close cooperation between these two elements is critical to the successful resolution of a situation.

Uniting Forces A prominent incident in which this cooperation was evident involved the barricading of the disciples of “Rabbi” Uzi Meshulam in Yehud, during Passover in 1994. The situation escalated as dozens of disciples armed with rifles, handguns, Molotov cocktails, and edged weapons joined the Rabbi’s compound. Among the occupants of the compound were children and women who were not regarded as hostages, but like the siege on the Branch Davidians in Waco, were voluntarily barricaded inside. After 52 days of lengthy and patient negotiations, the “Rabbi” and some of his armed disciples were arrested on their way to attend a meeting with Police Commissioner Maj. Gen. Assaf Hefetz. One of the Rabbi’s disciples was killed in the exchange of fire between the Yamam snipers and the disciples barricaded in the compound, who

NOVEMBER 2012

discharged fire indiscriminately at a police helicopter. After another 24 hours of negotiations, all of the occupants of the compound surrendered and laid down their arms. The conclusion of this affair was the result of patience,

schoolchildren and teachers were held hostage by 31 terrorists. In both cases, while the Russian special units (ALFA) intervened and killed all of the terrorists, they also killed many hostages. These difficulties are by no means the

“There is an inherent tension between strictly maintaining the fundamental values of freedom and individual rights, and effectively defending the public” coordination, and the exertion of pressure and force by Yamam, in coordination with the negotiating skills of the police negotiations team.

Total Operational Freedom? Today, throughout the Western world, units similar to Yamam are on duty, ready to be deployed. Their primary task is to rescue hostages. However, on a day-today basis, they function as the operational arm of the police and other security forces by utilizing high quality intelligence to thwart and counter criminal and terrorist activities. Much of the criticism aimed at RAID is in hindsight, as the restrictions under which the unit operated did not provide it with complete operational freedom. At the same time, it should be noted that the operators of RAID failed to accomplish their primary mission – to take the terrorist out of the house alive. Admittedly, once the barricaded terrorist is determined to commit suicide, or fight to his death, then the chances of success decrease. Complex incidents combining explosive charges and suicide bombers with elements of a barricaded terrorist or hostage situation present a tremendous challenge to all intervention units. This was the case at the Moscow Dubrovka Theater, where 800 spectators were held hostage by 42 terrorists, as well as at the school in Beslan, where more than 1,000

exclusive experience of the Russians in their war against the Chechens, as they are copied by other terrorists in joint training camps. Regrettably, the cooperation between terrorist organizations is more effective than the cooperation between states, owing to bureaucracy, politics and prestige-related obstructions. In order to meet the challenge of counter-terrorism, the cooperation between intelligence organizations should be constant and highly effective. To a lesser extent, cooperation should also be maintained between operational organizations, and not only in the case of a concrete threat or when a multinational event takes place.

Working Around Democracy Today, special units from around the world exchange information and even engage in joint training activities. Many of these units seek the assistance of the Yamam through training of their troops and the exchange of knowledge, combat methods, and weapon systems. The Yamam has always regarded this cooperation as an important element in its development, while retaining its uniqueness and originality. The Yamam’s motto of “Let’s hope nothing happens, but if it does – let it happen on my watch,” is not the product of a belligerent, trigger-happy mentality. Instead, it stemmed from Yamam’s sincere belief in the justness of their cause and in the true importance of the task of saving lives. 

NOVEMBER 2012

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MARCH 2012

Y E N R OU J Y M S A M A Y H WIT chat o h S i t a mas N a r Y e f h o p s a r r e Photog anied the fight arly a year. accomp est Bank for ne to select the in the Wefense asked hims he caught on IsraelD teresting picturet he chose most in â&#x20AC;&#x201D;these are wha camera lDef By Israe

ense

MARCH 2012

hosts. That's what Nati Shochat calls the fighters of the Israeli border patrol’s Mistaravim unit in the Judea and Samaria region (the name given to counter-terrorism units in which soldiers are specifically trained to disguise themselves as Arabs). A photographer and owner of the Jerusalem-based Flash 90 Agency, Shochat documented Yamas for nearly a year – photographing them in the hearts of villages, up in the mountains, and trampling down ravines. The fighters wore uniforms, but occasionally disguised themselves as local residents. At the end of his journey, Sho-

MARCH 2012

chat amassed thousands of action-filled photos, as well as pictures documenting the long, quiet moments in which the fighters waited for just the right time to catch their targets – wanted persons suspected of involvement in terror or severe crimes. The assignment we gave Shochat was not simple: choose his favorite photographs.

The Border Guard's Elite Unit “These fighters are spread out and are in seclusion in the field – it’s really dread-

ful. You're in the heart of hostile territory, everyone around you is suspicious, and any wrong move can lead to your exposure,” Shochat explains. “In the unit, every fighter knows his role and the mission that needs to be accomplished. Everything happens fearlessly and at an insane pace. People don't understand how much the fighters work towards locating wanted persons. They use every conceivable method, and some that aren’t even conceivable. This is both in the framework of the intelligence collection and the action itself. They can be anyone, and in most instances, few people even know they operated."

Subordinate to the IDF, Yamas is the Mistaravim unit of the Israeli Border Guard, established in the 1990s with the goal of decreasing the level of violence in the Palestinian Territories. Superintendent Eli Avram, who was killed in the line of duty in Jenin, founded the unit. The unit’s fighters are policemen in regular or permanent service. Yamas is similar to the special police unit for counter-terrorism, Yamam, but also provides operational support to Shabak. In some cases, the unit even operates within the boundaries of the Green Line. “This is a unit that specializes in fighting terror and some of the worst forms of

crime,” Shochat continues. “They’re the ones people turn to when dealing with missions that no one else can carry out. They reinvent themselves with every operation, and at the end of the day, they will reach the wanted person and bring him back – whether he wants it or not,” Shochat explains. Yamas recently won first place in a competition held between the Israeli Police’s elite units. The competition put several of these units to the test in the field of rescuing hostages. The training course for Yamas is extremely difficult. The fighters first go through Border Guard basic training,

which lasts about 16 weeks. Throughout this basic training, the soldiers learn subjects and skills that include shooting, internal security, counter-terrorism, field craft, sabotage, communications, and more. After passing the gibush and being accepted into the unit, the fighters undergo various trainings in the framework of a special course held at the Border Guard training base, which lasts nearly 13 weeks. During the course, emphasis is placed on physical and close contact. The fighters undergo training in Krav Maga, counter-terrorism, control and operation of large and small weapons, hand-tohand combat, and urban warfare. The

MARCH 2012

A Yamas trooper joking with a Palestinian youth in Kfar Awarta, while the rest of the force searches for terror suspects

MARCH 2012

Yamas police officers take part in a training exercise where they practice house-to-house combat in inhabited areas

training also includes camouflage, masquerading as Arabs, and additional elements of minor tactical warfare. “Few are worthy of being summoned to the unit and even fewer are eventually accepted as fighters,” Shochat explains. “The unit seeks people with incredible survivability, and a capability for improvisation. There are many good fighters, but in order to be accepted into the unit, a person needs to have tremendous capabilities and a broad range of qualities." “Among the Mistaravim, I discovered things that I didn’t imagine ever existed,” Shochat says. “I learned of two very contradictory things – even radical. On one hand, there’s the very violent side of their operations. When violence is needed, they know how to use it. It wouldn’t be a good thing to enter into a skirmish with them - if you attack, they will respond.” “On the other hand, these people have a considerable amount of humanity and warmth. The unit’s battle moral is nearly inconceivable. How can a unit be so tough but so humane? They taught me that we are the military with the finest battle morals in the world. In contrast to what goes on in other armies around the world, they do not use any unnecessary violence. They are super-human. This contrast amazes me." Shochat accompanied the unit as it dealt with the search for the murderers of the Fogel family in Itamar from March 2011. During the gruesome attack, two terrorists broke into a family home and murdered five people from the same family, including two small children and a baby. “The unit participated in the search for the Fogel family murderers based on the information they received. They searched the town of Kfar Awarta and gathered information. Both murderers were eventually caught, in part due to the information that Yamas was able to provide."

Souvenir Photos “One of the photos I love the most is of a fighter smoking the first cigarette of the morning in a village house,” Shochat says. “The fighters are prohibited from smok-

In the middle of the night, a Yamas trooper carries a ladder on the way back from an operation in Jaljulia

ing during operations, so the ability to light a cigarette and rest for a few minutes reflects on the unit's modus operandi. In another photo, you can see how a Palestinian from Kfar Awarta invited one of the fighters in for a morning cup of coffee. The two spoke for some time in Arabic. The fighters operated in a very humane manner, and the residents responded to that. The proprietor felt the urge to invite the fighters as guests - not as intruders, as often happens with the friction between the IDF and the local populace in the Palestinian Territories. This is the beautiful thing about the unit’s work." Shochat extends many praises to the unit’s commander, “Y,” and the values he instilled among the unit’s fighters. “Y” began as an ordinary fighter and progressed through the chain of command over the years. "The Yamas commander is the most decorated officer in the Israeli Police. He is a fascinating person and a fearless fighter who is not afraid to take any mission upon himself. There are some who call him ‘the terminator,’ whereas the fighters call him ‘dad.’" 

MARCH 2012

INTERVIEW

It’s Hard to Know What a Terrorist Is Thinking Haim Mer, founder and CEO of Mer Group, discusses how Israel’s largest HLS company grew, the future challenges it faces, and how it will provide security for mega sports events and the Safe City Program By Amir Rapaport

aim Mer is not particularly worried about recent reports that his company has been experiencing difficulties in setting up Safe City systems in Buenos Aires. Originally signed and agreed upon by the Israeli Ministry of Defense and the Argentine government, the Mer Group is responsible for the installation and maintenance of communication, video, and traffic control systems throughout the city (a minimum of 1,200 cameras), along with a municipal command and control center. The project is estimated to cost $42 million. “The Buenos Aires project is very complex and demanding,” explains Mer. “Hurdles aside, the project is making headway and even expanding. I’m certain that we’ll come out of this stronger and wiser.”

Sports and Cameras At sixty-three, Mer reached his position as one of the pillars of Israel’s HLS industry by chance. He began in infrastructure projects for construction – a business he inherited from his father, and parallel with this work, collaborated with former colleagues from the IDF Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 8200 (signal intelligence and code decryption) to develope software for managing video files. “We owe the breakthrough to the Israeli Police for installing cameras with our software throughout Jerusalem’s Old City. Also, a tragic murder in a kindergarten in northern England brought us a huge and immediate order for the systems,” recalls Mer. Another major leap was the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. “We arrived at the

NOVEMBER 2012

Olympics by chance,” admits Mer. “About two years before the Olympics, I attended a meeting with Siemens in Greece, offering them a certain product. However, it turned out they were interested in something entirely different – they wanted us to head a consortium that would provide security at the Olympic Games. They proposed integrating us into the group as the company that would be responsible for fences and advanced security systems. “A few hours before the tender closed, Siemens officials contacted me, and urged that I make one last effort to trim the price. I agreed, and so did the rest of the consortium partners. In the end, we got the tender for $225 million, winning by a margin of only $100 thousand. Our part in the project came to $25 million. “As the Olympic Games approached, the Greeks seemed to develop their own work pace that nearly drove me crazy, but we somehow managed to get the job done just before the games began (though we continued working at some sites even while the games were in progress). The project was a great success and I was certain that our path to security projects in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and soon-to-be-held London Olympics would be guaranteed. Unfortunately, I was wrong.” Although Mer Group failed to pull in security budgets at the Olympics after Greece, it maintains a steady growth rate of 10%20% a year. Today, the group is a holding firm, and a number of its subsidiaries, such as Athena, hold advanced technologies for aircraft security or free text searches for information on the Internet.

“I see Athena as a growth engine,” Mer acknowledges. “And there’s TechMer, whose products picked up last year, and other companies – perhaps too many different companies…” In addition to security and intelligence systems, the Mer Group also deals in ground force projects, such as meteorology systems that enhance artillery fire performance. Mer recently invested $7 million in a biotech start-up that will not see any earnings prior to 2014. In addition, the group started to cut the managerial age to 40–45. While the company’s 2011 turnover has not been finalized, according to estimates, it will stand at more than $200 million. “I expend a lot of effort to recruit young blood,” says Haim Mer. “Other managers, who are by the way younger than me, are more conservative. The time has come to change some things.” Let’s talk about HLS. Do you believe that Safe City systems based on artificial intelligence (AI) will be able to spot suspicious persons and events before they occur? “I can see a breakthrough in AI somewhere down the line, but there’s a basic problem that needs to be solved: human thinking is associative and we’re still far from understanding how it works. This gap has to be closed. Identifying criminal intent is not a simple task, even if the signs are obvious. The fact is that only the person perpetrating the attack knows what’s going on. “Most of today’s systems are unable to identify criminal intent, although they are working on it. Athena, for example, is involved in an EU project for early identification of aircraft highjackers. Actually, all the companies are more interested in informationmining systems than in AI. “Even if you identify an individual’s intention to perpetrate an attack, it doesn’t always help. Suppose we discover a terrorist who was preparing to blow up a tower, what are the security forces going to do, dispatch a helicopter and eliminate him? I doubt it.” “The question is: what is the nature of the threat and how much money are you willing to invest to neutralize it? It’s much easier to destroy things than it is to protect them. Without first class intelligence to thwart terrorists who are still in their own territory, is extremely difficult to stop them.” 

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