Next War 15000 Missiles to Hit ’’Israel’’, Hizbullah Looking for You on Facebook

In light of the discussion about cutting the "defense" budget , Senior "ISRAELI ARMY" officers warned yesterday (Tuesday) from gloomy expectations, especially for the North. They say that in the coming year, Hizbullah is not expected to initiate an offensive against "Israel", but it is estimated that a regional war will break out during which they'll launch at "Israel" about 15 thousand missiles - Hizbullah, Hamas and Iran.

In such a battle, officers say, hundreds of "Israelis" will be killed in three weeks. "We need another 9-13 extra batteries of Iron Dome, on top of the current three, to reduce by half the number of casualties in this war," said a senior officer. According to army estimates, 8-12 thousand rockets will fall in Haifa, 2,500 rockets will fall in al-Khadeera and 500-800 rockets will fall in "Tel - Aviv".

Moreover, the "ISRAELI ARMY" warned against the fall of the regime in Syria next year, after detecting many defectors among army officers. "The direction is pretty clear; this is the year of Bashar al-Assad ousting. The main sign of the anticipated fall is the desertion of thousands of soldiers from the Syrian army; tens of them are officers of rank colonel and majors.

He said it is unclear whether its chemical arsenal will reach Hizbullah or the opposition. "Golan border is getting more fragile, and the Syrian security shield is becoming less efficient and less stable."

Another evidence of instability, according to the senior officer, is the attack that occurred in Damascus two weeks ago. Unlike claims made that this was a fake attack done by al-Assad's regime, it is estimated in "ISRAELI ARMY" that it was executed by parties linked to the global jihad, which are trying to take over the government after al-Assad.

The Army needs up to 5 billion in 2012

In the framework of these scenarios, the "ISRAELI ARMY" claims that if the reduction was approved at the end of the month in the amount of three billion NIS from the defense budget, as recommended by the Trachtenberg Committee, "the Army's readiness will be worse than what it was during the eve of the Second Lebanon War ."

They said the army needed the addition of 5 billion shekels for 2012 alone, otherwise lots of training for air force and reserve forces will be canceled, and acquiring missile defense systems such the Arrow, the Iron Dome and the Magic Wand will be suspended.

The "ISRAELI ARMY" presented data, some of which were obtained from the Central Bureau of Statistics, which cited that the wage cost of the total budget is about 40%, which is lower than other organizations such as the police, where the labor cost is 80% of the total budget.

Senior officers also claimed that most of the young permanent members in the mandatory military service (53%) won't continue their service for more than five years, and that the majority of them (43%) received an income supplement. They say, "back-end server makes around 10 thousand shekels, and army generals, with all the courses and degrees earn an average of 45 thousand shekels, much less than a company's CEO."

According to the figures, the army says that possible cuts would hurt not only the strength of "Israel", but also its economy. "For example, construction and development of all parts of the Merkava tank employs 7000 families in more than 200 factories and companies across the country," army officials said.

Another element that could be decisive in a regional war is the cyber "defense", which may also be affected this year, given the intention to raise hundreds of soldiers that can deal with this problem.

Another sensitive issue will be halted, is the completion of the perimeter fence along the seam line in the West Bank, and the completion of its current route changes as required by the court. They army currently argues that it does not have the hundreds of millions of shekels for the task. "When the recommendations of Trachtenberg are exercised, then we sit with the government that will decide if it wants a smaller army," explained the Army.

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Hizbullah is looking for you on Facebook

Ilan Gattegno - "Israel" Hayom

A report compiled by Prof. Gabriel Vaiman at Haifa University says that Hackers' breaking into databases is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to terror on the Internet: international "terrorist" organizations have moved most of their activities to social media and there are already groups on Facebook calling for people to support Hizbullah, Hamas and other terrorist organizations.

"Some 90 percent of "terrorist" organizations' activities on the Internet are carried out through social media. These tools allow the organizations to be active in recruiting new friends not limited to specific geographical areas or to the passive abilities of regular websites," Vaiman said.

These organizations' move to social media is not limited just to Facebook and Twitter. They have opened up chat rooms, YouTube, Myspace and other sites.

"Terrorist" organizations also use Facebook as a source of intelligence and information: According to past Lebanese reports, Hizbullah has used Facebook to search for information on activities of the "Israeli" Army. At the same time, a number of countries, including the US, Canada and Britain, have instructed their soldiers to take personal information off of popular social networking sites for fear that al-Qaeda may be monitoring them.

"Many users do not take the trouble of checking whom they approve as friends or to whom they give access to personal information." "At the same time, "terrorists" themselves can create fake profiles and enter the sites of chosen groups," Vaiman said.

Another use of social media is to transmit "professional" knowledge - for instance, instructions for explosive devices. "Paradoxically, advanced communications technology from the West is precisely what "terrorists" are using in order to battle the West," Vaiman said.
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Prime Minister announces the establishment of anti-cyber terror task force

Anshel Pfeffer , Oded Yaron - Haaretz

Seven and a half months after Prime Minister announced the establishment of anti-cyber terror task force, it began operating in the very same week that details of thousands of "Israelis" were hacked and published. The task force has no budget, personnel, or jurisdiction. The preferred head of operations, the former commander of Unit 8200 of the Intelligence Corps, refused to accept the job when he realized he wouldn't have any resources to do the job.

Two nights ago it was discovered that three hackers, one Saudi, broke into "Israeli" Websites and stole personal details of thousands of "Israelis".

Among other things, they exposed many of credit card numbers online and some were used for shopping. Although hackers announced that they had details of 400 thousand people, but in practice it turned out that some of the names were fictitious and others were repeated dozens of times.

Banks in the country, including the Bank of "Israel", announced that only 14-15 thousand people were damaged. Yesterday thousands of people went to the banks and credit companies to determine if their cards were stolen.

Ironically, the attack took place just in time the anti-cyber task force began to operate formally. Benjamin Netanyahu announced the establishment of the task force at a press conference on May 18. The Prime Minister said he accepted the recommendations of Maj. Gen. (res. ) Isaac Ben-"Israel", to form defenses against "cyber attacks which can paralyze entire life systems on which the country runs.

Despite the great publicity given to the decision, it took the task force seven months to start operating, and according to security officials, the whole process still lacks content. In fact, and apart from operations head, no high-level personnel has been hired yet.

Brig. Gen. (res. ) Yair Cohen, former head of unit 8200, the "ISRAELI ARMY" central military intelligence unit, was the first choice for head of the task force. Cohen, currently a senior at Elbit , declared that he would not take the job after he wasn't assured he would receive appropriate funding.

The job was then offered to Dr. Eviatar Matanya, who worked for the Defense Ministry in the past decade, and was in charge of training officers in technological programs. Security officials claim Matanya does not have the administrative or operational experience needed for the post as he was appointed at the last minute.

Ben-"Israel" defended the way the force was created. "It takes time to implement decisions, seven-and-a-half months aren't too long," he said. He also came to the defense of Dr. Matanya, calling him "a guy with a head on his shoulders."

But a senior official in the security establishment, who closely follows cyber warfare developments, said that the task force is little more than a bluff of no jurisdiction, budget or personnel. "All the lofty talk led to nothing.""Two and a half people do not constitute a task force. This was supposed to be created as part of the Prime Minister's Office but no one really believes that the prime minister has the time to oversee such a force's actions, or that anybody, at this point in time, has a real interest that this force will succeed in its missions."

"There is indeed a need to create a force that will coordinate cyber defense, but there are other bodies which have no wish to help this task force, and no one really supported and pushed this project," the source added.

The "ISRAELI ARMY" trains hundreds of soldiers every year in various aspects of cyber warfare, but these focus exclusively on military intelligence, and not protecting civilian infrastructure.

The security of vital infrastructure networks such as the "Israel" Electric Authority and Water Authority is handled by the National Information Security Authority, a unit within the Shin Bet. Counter-Terrorism Bureau, which is subjected to the National Security Council, is responsible for determining the authorities and companies will who must manage their computer networks and their databases according to Shin Bet's guidelines.

Last two years, companies, including banks, cellular phone operators and internet operators were decided to be protected by the Shin Bet's NISA, but since it is a long process, these companies opposed the matter so the legislation concerning these companies security has been held up.

A source from the PM's office said yesterday that the task force is not supposed to deal with hacker attacks like that happened during the week. If that is the case, the only body that protects private citizens right now is the computer crimes investigation unit in the "Israel" Police that includes a few dozen of researchers working mainly in preventing pedophilia networks.

Hostile parties already have tried several times to infiltrate into government computer networks and security. The main concern is the possibility of targeting the infrastructure fatally; similar to the virus that paralyzed for months the activity of hundreds of centrifuges to Iran's uranium enrichment program - a virus whose development and spreading into the Iranian computers was attributed to "Israel".

So far, the security system assumes that no were essential computer networks are damaged in "Israel", but hackers managed to disable in some cases the web sites of government ministries during Operation Cast Lead three years ago. Dozens of Web sites of government ministries and security agencies have been paralyzed for over ten hours two months ago.

A government body that operates the site, stated that the incident was caused by a malfunction or a deliberate attack, but the source of the fault has not been found and officials still believe that the attack might be caused by a cyber attack.

Prime Minister's Office said in response, "Dr. Matanya began his work as head of the task force, as it is being created and structured. For security reasons we won't reveal the task force's budget."


Source: Hebrew Newspapers, Translated by moqawama.org