Israel's Unit 8200: The Secretive Cyber Warfare Arm Behind Hezbollah Pager Attacks

What is Israel's Unit 8200? Secretive cyber warfare arm linked to Hezbollah pager attacks

Unit 8200's personnel are mostly young people in their late teens and early 20s, identified from highly competitive school programs, and many of whom have on to careers in cyber security and the high-tech sector. The entire world was left in shock on Thursday (Sep 17), when more than 1,000 Hezbollah militants were seriously injured after their pager sets exploded, all simultaneously. The pager's blast was then followed by blowing off several walkie-talkies the next day on September 18. In the series of mass mysterious blasts in Lebanon, at least 32 people were killed and around 3,250 suffered injuries. This is one of the biggest and probably the most shocking forms of attack using technology in the modern era of warfare. There is a lot of curiosity among commoners about the incident- how it was carried out, how pagers were "hacked," and how Israel was able to carry out such a deadly attack by sitting miles away. Although Israel has not commented on the Lebanon pager attack, the spotlight is shifted to Israel Defence Forces' (IDF) Unit 8200, which is a secretive cyber warfare unit. Also Read | Lebanon explosions: Japanese firm says devices used in recent blasts discontinued around 10 years ago As per several reports, Unit 8200 played a crucial role in the development stage of the intelligence operation, which was, according to sources, going on for over a year. The reports suggest that the unit was responsible for testing how to insert explosive material within the manufacturing process. The IDF has a dedicated Military Intelligence Directorate for carrying out clandestine operations using signals. This is one of the oldest directorates of IDF, established as soon as the state of Israel was founded in 1948. This particular directorate is made up of its three main arms- the 8200 Unit, the 9900 Unit and the 504 Unit. The biggest of which is the 8200 Unit, which is the Military Intelligence Directorate's main information-gathering unit, as per IDF's official website. Also Read | Kinetic cyberattacks: Exploding communication devices in Lebanon demonstrate new dimension of warfare "The unit operates in all zones and in wartime, they join combat field headquarters in order to enable a faster flow of information," the IDF website read. Its activities are usually highly secret and range from signals intelligence to data mining and technological attacks and strikes. Some of the alleged previous operations carried out by the IDF's Unit 8200 include the 2005-10 Stuxnet virus attack that disabled Iranian nuclear centrifuges, then a recent 2017 cyber attack on Lebanon's state telecoms company Ogero, and the thwarting of an ISIS attack on a civilian airliner travelling from Australia to the United Arab Emirates in 2018. Last year, its commanding officer told a conference in Tel Aviv that the unit had used artificial intelligence technology to help select Hamas targets. Also Read | Gaza war: Head of Israeli intelligence unit quits over October 7 failure The unit also spies on Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, including combat zones, and in wartime. Unit 8200's personnel are mostly young people in their late teens and early 20s, identified from highly competitive school programs, and many of whom have on to careers in cyber security and the high-tech sector. Former members say the unit's culture resembles that of a startup with small teams working on problems with an unusual degree of freedom that is designed to foster creativity. It is to be noted that the unit's reputation took a hit over the IDF and the unit's failure to forestall the October 7 attack on Israel, and the unit's commander announced this month he would be resigning.

What is Israel's secretive cyber warfare unit 8200?

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Although Israel has not commented on the intelligence operation that caused thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon to explode almost simultaneously, the attack has put a spotlight on Israel's secretive 8200 cyber warfare unit. Here are some facts about the Israel Defence Forces' specialist cyber warfare and intelligence unit, known in Israel by its numbers in Hebrew "shmone matayim," which is part of the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate. - Unit 8200 is the equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency or Britain's GCHQ, and is the largest single military unit in the Israel Defence Forces. It is descended from early codebreaking and intelligence units formed at the birth of the state of Israel in 1948. - Its activities are usually highly secret and range from signals intelligence to data mining and technological attacks and strikes. - Some of the operations it has allegedly been involved in include the 2005-10 Stuxnet virus attack that disabled Iranian nuclear centrifuges, a 2017 cyberattack on Lebanon's state telecoms company Ogero, and the thwarting of an ISIS attack on a civilian airliner travelling from Australia to the United Arab Emirates in 2018. - Last year, its commanding officer told a conference in Tel Aviv that the unit has used artificial intelligence technology to help select Hamas targets. - As well as spying on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, it operates in all areas, including combat zones, and in wartime is integrated closely with combat command headquarters. - Its personnel are selected from young people in their late teens and early 20s, some identified from highly competitive high school programmes, and many of whom have gone on to careers in Israel's booming high tech and cyber security sector. - Former members say the unit's culture resembles that of a startup with small teams working on problems with an unusual degree of freedom that is designed to foster creativity. - Along with the rest of the defence and security establishment, the unit's reputation took a hit over the military's failure to forestall the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the unit's commander announced this month he would be resigning. - In 2014, a group of 43 reservists published an open letter denouncing "unethical" surveillance by the unit of Palestinians not involved in violence. (Reporting by James Mackenzie; Editing by Sharon Singleton)

What is Israel's secretive cyber warfare unit 8200?

JERUSALEM, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Although Israel has not commented on the intelligence operation that caused thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon to explode almost simultaneously, the attack has put a spotlight on Israel's secretive 8200 cyber warfare unit. Here are some facts about the Israel Defence Forces' specialist cyber warfare and intelligence unit, known in Israel by its numbers in Hebrew "shmone matayim," which is part of the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate. Advertisement · Scroll to continue - Unit 8200 is the equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency or Britain's GCHQ, and is the largest single military unit in the Israel Defence Forces. It is descended from early codebreaking and intelligence units formed at the birth of the state of Israel in 1948. - Its activities are usually highly secret and range from signals intelligence to data mining and technological attacks and strikes. Advertisement · Scroll to continue - Some of the operations it has allegedly been involved in include the 2005-10 Stuxnet virus attack that disabled Iranian nuclear centrifuges, a 2017 cyberattack on Lebanon's state telecoms company Ogero, and the thwarting of an ISIS attack on a civilian airliner travelling from Australia to the United Arab Emirates in 2018. - Last year, its commanding officer told a conference in Tel Aviv that the unit has used artificial intelligence technology to help select Hamas targets. - As well as spying on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, it operates in all areas, including combat zones, and in wartime is integrated closely with combat command headquarters. - Its personnel are selected from young people in their late teens and early 20s, some identified from highly competitive high school programmes, and many of whom have gone on to careers in Israel's booming high tech and cyber security sector. - Former members say the unit's culture resembles that of a startup with small teams working on problems with an unusual degree of freedom that is designed to foster creativity. - Along with the rest of the defence and security establishment, the unit's reputation took a hit over the military's failure to forestall the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the unit's commander announced this month he would be resigning. - In 2014, a group of 43 reservists published an open letter denouncing "unethical" surveillance by the unit of Palestinians not involved in violence. Reporting by James Mackenzie; Editing by Sharon Singleton Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Hezbollah Pager Attacks Puts Spotlight on Israel's Cyber Warfare Unit 8200

A senior Lebanese security source and another source told Reuters that Israel's Mossad spy agency was responsible for a sophisticated operation to plant a small quantity of explosives inside 5,000 pagers ordered by Hezbollah The mass pager attack against Hezbollah in Lebanon has turned the spotlight on Israel's secretive Unit 8200, the Israel Defense Forces' intelligence unit, which a Western security source said was involved in planning the operation. Israeli officials have remained silent on the audacious intelligence operation that killed 12 people on Tuesday and wounded thousands of Hezbollah operatives. At least one person was killed on Wednesday when hand-held radios used by Hezbollah detonated. A senior Lebanese security source and another source told Reuters that Israel's Mossad spy agency was responsible for a sophisticated operation to plant a small quantity of explosives inside 5,000 pagers ordered by Hezbollah. One Western security source told Reuters that Unit 8200, a military unit that is not part of the spy agency, was involved in the development stage of the operation against Hezbollah which was over a year in the making. The source said Unit 8200 was involved in the technical side of testing how they could insert explosive material within the manufacturing process. The Israeli military declined to comment. The prime minister's office that has oversight of Mossad did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Yossi Kuperwasser, a former military intelligence official and now research director at the Israel Defense and Security Forum, said there was no confirmation that the military intelligence unit was involved in the attack. But he said 8200's members were some of the best and brightest personnel in the Israeli military, serving in a unit at the centre of Israel's defence capabilities. "The challenges they are facing are immense, very demanding, and we need the best people to get involved in that," he said. The unit - and its legion of young, hand-picked soldiers - develops and operates intelligence gathering tools and is often likened to the U.S. National Security Agency. In a rare public statement about the unit's activities, the IDF said in 2018 that it had helped to thwart an air attack by Islamic State on a Western country. At the time, it said the unit's operations ran from intelligence gathering and cyber defence to "technological attacks and strikes." While Israel has never confirmed its involvement, Unit 8200 was reported to have been involved in the Stuxnet attack that disabled Iranian nuclear centrifuges as well as a series of other high profile operations outside Israel. The unit is effectively Israel's early warning system, and like much of the rest of the defence and security establishment, shouldered some of the blame for failing to detect Hamas' Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel. Its commander last week said he was stepping down. In his resignation letter carried by Israeli media he said he hadn't fulfilled his mission. The unit is famous for a work culture that emphasizes out-of-the-box thinking to tackle issues previously not encountered or imagined. This helped some graduates build Israel's high-tech sector and some of its biggest companies. "Whether it's a problem with software weakness, math, encryption, a problem hacking into something ... you must be capable to do it on your own," said Avi Shua, a graduate of 8200, who went on to co-found Orca Security, a cloud security unicorn. The unit has a high turnover rate of young recruits replacing veterans, said Kobi Samboursky, another former 8200 member and Managing Partner at Glilot Capital Partners, an early stage fund investing in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. "The most significant thing here is the 'can-do' culture, where everything is possible," Samboursky said.

What is Israel's secretive cyber warfare unit 8200?

Unit 8200 is the equivalent of the US National Security Agency or Britain's GCHQ and is the largest single military unit in the Israel Defense Forces. Although Israel has not commented on the intelligence operation that caused thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon to explode almost simultaneously, the attack has put a spotlight on Israel's secretive 8200 cyber warfare unit. Here are some facts about the Israel Defense Forces' specialist cyber warfare and intelligence unit, known in Israel by its numbers in Hebrew "shmone matayim," which is part of the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate. Unit 8200 is the equivalent of the US National Security Agency or Britain's GCHQ and is the largest single military unit in the Israel Defense Forces. It is descended from early codebreaking and intelligence units formed at the birth of the state of Israel in 1948. Its activities are usually highly secret and range from signals intelligence to data mining and technological attacks and strikes. Some of the operations it has allegedly been involved in include the 2005-10 Stuxnet virus attack that disabled Iranian nuclear centrifuges, a 2017 cyberattack on Lebanon's state telecoms company Ogero, and the thwarting of an ISIS attack on a civilian airliner traveling from Australia to the United Arab Emirates in 2018. Last year, its commanding officer told a conference in Tel Aviv that the unit had used artificial intelligence technology to help select Hamas targets. Spying in the West Bank, Gaza As well as spying on Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, it operates in all areas, including combat zones, and in wartime, is integrated closely with combat command headquarters. Its personnel is selected from young people in their late teens and early 20s, some identified from highly competitive high school programs, and many of whom have gone on to careers in Israel's booming high-tech and cyber security sector. Former members say the unit's culture resembles that of a startup with small teams working on problems with an unusual degree of freedom that is designed to foster creativity. Along with the rest of the defense and security establishment, the unit's reputation took a hit over the military's failure to forestall the October 7 attack on Israel, and the unit's commander announced this month he would be resigning.

Factbox-What Is Israel's Secretive Cyber Warfare Unit 8200?

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Although Israel has not commented on the intelligence operation that caused thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon to explode almost simultaneously, the attack has put a spotlight on Israel's secretive 8200 cyber warfare unit. Here are some facts about the Israel Defence Forces' specialist cyber warfare and intelligence unit, known in Israel by its numbers in Hebrew "shmone matayim," which is part of the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate. - Unit 8200 is the equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency or Britain's GCHQ, and is the largest single military unit in the Israel Defence Forces. It is descended from early codebreaking and intelligence units formed at the birth of the state of Israel in 1948. - Its activities are usually highly secret and range from signals intelligence to data mining and technological attacks and strikes. - Some of the operations it has allegedly been involved in include the 2005-10 Stuxnet virus attack that disabled Iranian nuclear centrifuges, a 2017 cyberattack on Lebanon's state telecoms company Ogero, and the thwarting of an ISIS attack on a civilian airliner travelling from Australia to the United Arab Emirates in 2018. - Last year, its commanding officer told a conference in Tel Aviv that the unit has used artificial intelligence technology to help select Hamas targets. - As well as spying on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, it operates in all areas, including combat zones, and in wartime is integrated closely with combat command headquarters. - Its personnel are selected from young people in their late teens and early 20s, some identified from highly competitive high school programmes, and many of whom have gone on to careers in Israel's booming high tech and cyber security sector. - Former members say the unit's culture resembles that of a startup with small teams working on problems with an unusual degree of freedom that is designed to foster creativity. - Along with the rest of the defence and security establishment, the unit's reputation took a hit over the military's failure to forestall the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the unit's commander announced this month he would be resigning. - In 2014, a group of 43 reservists published an open letter denouncing "unethical" surveillance by the unit of Palestinians not involved in violence. (Reporting by James Mackenzie; Editing by Sharon Singleton)

Hezbollah Pager Attack Puts Spotlight on Israel's Cyber Warfare Unit 8200

By Jonathan Saul, Steven Scheer and Ari Rabinovitch LONDON/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The mass pager attack against Hezbollah in Lebanon has turned the spotlight on Israel's secretive Unit 8200, the Israel Defense Forces' intelligence unit, which a Western security source said was involved in planning the operation. Israeli officials have remained silent on the audacious intelligence operation that killed 12 people on Tuesday and wounded thousands of Hezbollah operatives. At least one person was killed on Wednesday when hand-held radios used by Hezbollah detonated. A senior Lebanese security source and another source told Reuters that Israel's Mossad spy agency was responsible for a sophisticated operation to plant a small quantity of explosives inside 5,000 pagers ordered by Hezbollah. One Western security source told Reuters that Unit 8200, a military unit that is not part of the spy agency, was involved in the development stage of the operation against Hezbollah which was over a year in the making. The source said Unit 8200 was involved in the technical side of testing how they could insert explosive material within the manufacturing process. The Israeli military declined to comment. The prime minister's office that has oversight of Mossad did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Yossi Kuperwasser, a former military intelligence official and now research director at the Israel Defense and Security Forum, said there was no confirmation that the military intelligence unit was involved in the attack. But he said 8200's members were some of the best and brightest personnel in the Israeli military, serving in a unit at the centre of Israel's defence capabilities. "The challenges they are facing are immense, very demanding, and we need the best people to get involved in that," he said. The unit - and its legion of young, hand-picked soldiers - develops and operates intelligence gathering tools and is often likened to the U.S. National Security Agency. In a rare public statement about the unit's activities, the IDF said in 2018 that it had helped to thwart an air attack by Islamic State on a Western country. At the time, it said the unit's operations ran from intelligence gathering and cyber defence to "technological attacks and strikes." While Israel has never confirmed its involvement, Unit 8200 was reported to have been involved in the Stuxnet attack that disabled Iranian nuclear centrifuges as well as a series of other high profile operations outside Israel. YOUNG RECRUITS The unit is effectively Israel's early warning system, and like much of the rest of the defence and security establishment, shouldered some of the blame for failing to detect Hamas' Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel. Its commander last week said he was stepping down. In his resignation letter carried by Israeli media he said he hadn't fulfilled his mission. The unit is famous for a work culture that emphasizes out-of-the-box thinking to tackle issues previously not encountered or imagined. This helped some graduates build Israel's high-tech sector and some of its biggest companies. "Whether it's a problem with software weakness, math, encryption, a problem hacking into something ... you must be capable to do it on your own," said Avi Shua, a graduate of 8200, who went on to co-found Orca Security, a cloud security unicorn. The unit has a high turnover rate of young recruits replacing veterans, said Kobi Samboursky, another former 8200 member and Managing Partner at Glilot Capital Partners, an early stage fund investing in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. "The most significant thing here is the 'can-do' culture, where everything is possible," Samboursky said. (Reporting by Steven Scheer and Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem, Jonathan Saul in London; Editing by Ros Russell)

Hezbollah pager attack puts spotlight on Israel's cyber warfare Unit 8200

A senior Lebanese security source and another source told Reuters that Israel's Mossad spy agency was responsible for a sophisticated operation to plant a small quantity of explosives inside 5,000 pagers ordered by Hezbollah. One Western security source told Reuters that Unit 8200, a military unit that is not part of the spy agency, was involved in the development stage of the operation against Hezbollah which was over a year in the making. The source said Unit 8200 was involved in the technical side of testing how they could insert explosive material within the manufacturing process. The Israeli military declined to comment. The prime minister's office that has oversight of Mossad did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Yossi Kuperwasser, a former military intelligence official and now research director at the Israel Defense and Security Forum, said there was no confirmation that the military intelligence unit was involved in the attack. But he said 8200's members were some of the best and brightest personnel in the Israeli military, serving in a unit at the centre of Israel's defence capabilities. "The challenges they are facing are immense, very demanding, and we need the best people to get involved in that," he said. The unit - and its legion of young, hand-picked soldiers - develops and operates intelligence gathering tools and is often likened to the U.S. National Security Agency. In a rare public statement about the unit's activities, the IDF said in 2018 that it had helped to thwart an air attack by Islamic State on a Western country. At the time, it said the unit's operations ran from intelligence gathering and cyber defence to "technological attacks and strikes." While Israel has never confirmed its involvement, Unit 8200 was reported to have been involved in the Stuxnet attack that disabled Iranian nuclear centrifuges as well as a series of other high profile operations outside Israel. The unit is effectively Israel's early warning system, and like much of the rest of the defence and security establishment, shouldered some of the blame for failing to detect Hamas' Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel. Its commander last week said he was stepping down. In his resignation letter carried by Israeli media he said he hadn't fulfilled his mission. The unit is famous for a work culture that emphasizes out-of-the-box thinking to tackle issues previously not encountered or imagined. This helped some graduates build Israel's high-tech sector and some of its biggest companies. "Whether it's a problem with software weakness, math, encryption, a problem hacking into something ... you must be capable to do it on your own," said Avi Shua, a graduate of 8200, who went on to co-found Orca Security, a cloud security unicorn. The unit has a high turnover rate of young recruits replacing veterans, said Kobi Samboursky, another former 8200 member and Managing Partner at Glilot Capital Partners, an early stage fund investing in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. "The most significant thing here is the 'can-do' culture, where everything is possible," Samboursky said. (Reporting by Steven Scheer and Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem, Jonathan Saul in London; Editing by Ros Russell)