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Re:Undercover spy exposed in NYC was one of many by baybal2 on Monday February 11, 2019 @02:53AM (#19132716)
> NSO is a private company who is US owned and at odds with the Israeli government often.

But is stuffed full of ex-officers from Israel's military. Don't you find it odd? Why they seem to keep coming, while at the same time switching back and forth in between army and "civilian" career?

That's a rather dumb cover.

Re:Undercover spy exposed in NYC was one of many by avip on Monday February 11, 2019 @02:58AM (#19132741)
Is this a serious question? It's like asking why would Lockheed Martin be employing US veterans.
Re:Undercover spy exposed in NYC was one of many by inglor on Monday February 11, 2019 @03:57AM (#19132971)
> But is stuffed full of ex-officers from Israel's military. Don't you find it odd?

I also don't get why this is being downvoted... this is a legitimate question. And actually:

I do, and I think it's abuse that private companies have been stealing the army's IP to develop their own infrastructure and sell it for a profit.

While the army mass-producing good software engineers is a boon for the economy it has also spawned a bunch of companies that use army-related IP.

That's even _more_ for a reason for this not being an Israeli spy though. It doesn't make sense for the government to do this.

Re:Undercover spy exposed in NYC was one of many by DenisM on Monday February 11, 2019 @10:42AM (#19135185)
Computers and internet are privatized military technologies. Military technology transfer is the backbone of American industrial development.

Does it enrich the selected few? Yes it does. But enriches the country as a whole as well.

Re:Undercover spy exposed in NYC was one of many by jsmith99 on Monday February 11, 2019 @03:05AM (#19132764)
Israel has a draft. Most people are veterans.
Re:Undercover spy exposed in NYC was one of many by baybal2 on Monday February 11, 2019 @03:37AM (#19132888)
What I find odd is that their staffers may join the company, and leave for the military/intelligence agency again after less than a year, and like that few times over.

That's not how anybody's career can work. And nobody in his sane mind will accept severe demotion on rejoining the service, nor will choose a very different branch of service.

A diplomatic security corps officer, will not be making a good sailor. Those things are just screaming "a good pretext to station uniformed spy abroad" - these two for example, are pretty much the only two ways Israel can put a man in uniform into another country legally.

Re:Undercover spy exposed in NYC was one of many by pliny on Monday February 11, 2019 @07:21AM (#19133870)
>What I find odd is that their staffers may join the company, and leave for the military/intelligence agency again after less than a year

What is the source for this?

Re:Undercover spy exposed in NYC was one of many by tgragnato on Monday February 11, 2019 @08:36AM (#19134334)
>> What I find odd is that their staffers may join the company, and leave for the military/intelligence agency again after less than a year

> What is the source for this?

NSO Group Technologies founders are Unit 8200 alumni (Niv Carmi, Omri Lavie, Shalev Hulio). While the "revolving door" between NSO and 8200 is pretty well understood and undisputed in many security circles, I don't have any other public reference. But I'd like to point something: confusing 8200 veterans and common veterans is extremely naive. I don't think anything going on inside NSO is unknown to the government/intelligence (even if they're supposedly separate entities).

I gave a tip in the previous HN discussion (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19006477), and now a broader pattern has been publicly exposed. How many other "phishing expeditions" can you discover by going to look for websites that follow the same pattern (Namecheap, Wix, etc)?

Christiana Markou -> www.eneinvestments.com , Alaa Mahajna -> www.lyndonpartners.com , Masri Mazen -> www.apoiconsulting.com , John Scott-Railton -> www.cpw-consulting.com

Following the crumbs would give more reasons to think that distinguishing whether these are orchestrated by NSO or Israel is pointless.

Re:Undercover spy exposed in NYC was one of many by pliny on Monday February 11, 2019 @10:08AM (#19134931)
I know that 8200 veterans[0] are well represented in the Israeli startup/hi tech scene, I'm asking for a source for the other direction which I have never heard of: 8200 (or other intelligence units) veterans going back to the army for anything other than reservist duty.

[0] Of which there are tens of thousands, since 8200 is one of the biggest units in the IDF (maybe the biggest). And if you count veterans of 8200 spin-offs then you're at some 10s of % of Israelis working in software.

Re:Undercover spy exposed in NYC was one of many by gowld on Monday February 11, 2019 @11:09AM (#19135455)
Israel has mandatory universal military service with a few exceptions, not a "draft". A draft is "Selective" service, where some people get picked (as in the US Vietnam war or NBA/NFL college-grad hiring process).