Ex-Mossad Chief Recruits Over 30 Elite Israeli Hackers For Cybersecurity Firm

March 21, 2018 | A former head of the Mossad, Tamir Pardo, says he has recruited over 30 hackers from Israel’s security and intel services for his cybersecurity firm XM Cyber, founded two years ago and for which he serves as president. Pardo told Reuters that XM Cyber aims to secure networks by imitating how real hackers operate and simulating attacks to expose vulnerabilities. “I thought there are so many companies with great products but they are not focusing on the right question,” Pardo told Reuters. “The real question is are my crown jewels really protected.” Pardo said he staffed his teams with hackers from the Mossad, the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, and the army’s elite intelligence unit 8200. The former spy chief, who headed the Mossad from 2011 to 2016, said his clients include insurance companies, banks and critical infrastructure companies in Israel, the US and Europe. Last month, Pardo warned at the MUNI-EXPO urban innovation event at the Tel Aviv Convention Center that cyber threats amounted to “a nuclear weapon — a soft and silent nuclear weapon,” and that using such threats, one “can damage societies, destroy states, and win a war without firing a shot.”