A few years ago the writer of the article (who is currently a private investigator but was previously a senior police investigator) wrote his opinion regarding one of the first hackers to be caught in Israel.
Analyzer in Israel – Investigator vs. Hacker
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Analyzer in Israel – Investigator vs. Hacker

Hebrew

I am currently a private investigator working in the framework of a private investigation agency. If I was a hacker like you, Ehud, not only would I stop breaking into sensitive computer systems, but I would go underground, repent for my sins, and prefer warming myself by neon lights in cellars to the spotlights of the media.

But I’m not a hacker. I was on the opposite side of your barricade. I was an investigator. I stood at the head of the first team dealing with computer violations at NUFI (the National Unit for Fraud Investigations).

My team set the groundwork for conducting investigations in the realm of computer violations. Based on these foundations, my professional colleagues Meir Zohar, Gari Litvin and Boaz Gutman founded the current system as the guiding investigative spearhead for the Israeli police in dealing with computer violations.

It began in June 1986 with “the boy from Tivon” who broke into the Yediot Achronot newspaper computer and changed the article of New York correspondent, Yaacov Eilon. The revised article cast suspicion on the boy’s teacher for smuggling drugs inside of electronic bugs.

My team members (Meir Zohar, Boaz Gutman, Shabtai Oz, Gila Bachar, and others) and I continued to investigate and expose other boys your age from towns such as Ramat Hasharon, Herzlia, and Carmiel, who had broken the access code to the public computer networks and were celebrating at the expense of the legal owners. 

In the meantime, we conducted several other investigations, surveillances, and took other actions that I cannot elaborate on. I completed my service on the team in 1993 with an investigation of an accountant at a human resources company who had created fictitious paychecks for himself that found their way into several bank accounts (that were created just in time), in order to uninhibitedly and greedily receive the money deposited into those accounts. 

In those days, we were working without resources, real knowledge, or awareness and exposure to computer violations. We were not experts. We worked hard to overcome the critical gap between the knowledge of those investigated and the knowledge of the investigators. Meir Zohar, who today heads a computer violation police division, was considered among us to be the leading expert.

Through dedicated teamwork, a lot of humility, motivation, and faith in the justice of our path, we exposed all the stunts pulled by young computer criminals - with whom you can be categorized as well, with an official stamp of the court of justice. 

Well, Ehud, why am I addressing all those teenage boys from good families whose motives we then explained as youthful rebelliousness, limitless curiosity, and the challenge of bringing down a significant system? 

I’ll explain why.

Those same teenage boys, from the moment they were caught in the act and realized that they had no choice but to confess and repent for their actions, disappeared from the public realm. We didn’t hear about them anymore. It’s possible that they continued to attack computer systems, but they were never associated with media and image consultants, weren’t approached by journalists, didn’t go on the “Yair Lapid” show, and most importantly - they never dared to mock or slander their investigators. 

It is very easy to manipulate the media into mocking and teasing someone who cannot answer you back. Just to remind you, those investigators whose professional level and ability you do not respect and even take lightly - those very same investigators are the ones who exposed you and as a result of their abilities you were convicted in a court of justice.

Believe me, I know all the investigators in the police division. I learned a lot from them, especially from Meir Zohar. Every one of them is extremely professional. They work under strained conditions and inhuman pressure. Each one of them would be snatched up and received extremely well in the private sector. But they prefer to continue dealing with the management of criminal investigations against the category of hackers that you belong with.

Ehud! That’s it, you were convicted - the court issued your sentence.

Put aside the police investigators who continue their dedicated and skilled work in dealing with additional criminals (criminals that continuously grow like mushrooms after every one of your interviews). You may be, for irresponsible minors, an unsavory kind of role model. It is a waste of their abilities and yours - take a new path, devoid of arrogance and ostentatiousness, and in short, behave modestly.

Yanir Levin Intelligence Advising - A Private Investigation Agency ensures you investigations and information services on a different level!