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IDF says enlisting hackers
By Boaz Fyler
Ynet / Israel News
8 Feb 2011

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4025751,00.html

IDF Spokesman Avi Benayahu said Tuesday that the army is currently in the process of enlisting `new media fighters`.

Benayahu told a panel on the subject of `the digital medium as strategic weapon` that the army was searching for `little hackers who were born and raised online`.

`We screen them with special care and train them to serve the state,` the spokesman told the panel, which was part of the Herzliya Conference.

He added that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was personally supporting the venture and that he had supplied a budget of NIS 6 million ($1.63 million) for the enlistment of 120 soldiers.

Benayahu said the internet had had a significant effect on recent uprisings in Arab nations such as Tunisia and Egypt. `We cannot but be impressed at how Western technology harms regimes at the other end of the spectrum, such as Iran, or at how one cell phone camera can harm a regime more than any intelligence agency`s operations,` he said.

Egypt, however, `still does not understand the power that is being given to the public, while slowly being taken away from its leader`.

The spokesman said he also plans to establish blogs for other spokesmen and commanders as a PR tool. `We are at this front and proceeding slowly,` he said, and recommended that the government appoint a `new media minister`.

`The army is too involved with internal public relations. The army must not fill a space left by the state – it should be taking care of this.`

Aliza, a lone soldier from the US, explained about the new unit at the IDF Spokesperson`s Office. `We began to work with new media during Operation Cast Lead. Bloggers are very important and very influential,` she said.



`This is about the democratization of information, and about the fact that you cannot stuff information down people`s throats but you can make it more palatable.`

Aliza said the office`s YouTube channel is currently its most successful venture. `Photos catch the eye and constitute visual proof that is better than words,` she said, adding that IDF footage from the flotilla raid became the most-watched videos online and affected `media reports in the world as well as online debates`.

However, Aliza admitted, `we are still learning and we have a long way to go`.

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