How Israeli high tech gets sold to countries that have no diplomatic relations with Israel
Greetings from home - I returned to Israel this evening after an 18-day business trip.
This evening I was told about a company in Israel that is white labeling (which means removing all signs of who the real manufacturer is) for sale to a hostile (i.e. Muslim) country. This is not uncommon. On the very first initial public offering on which I worked when I made aliya, one of the items we had to get permission not to disclose was the fact that the company was about to make a large sale in Malaysia. How does it happen? Jonathan Ferziger and Peter Waldman
explain.
Trade and collaboration in technology and intelligence are
flourishing between Israel and a host of Arab states, even if the people
and companies involved rarely talk about it publicly. When a London
think tank recently disinvited Bar from speaking on a panel, explaining
that a senior Saudi official was also coming and it wasn’t possible to
have them appear together, Bar told the organizers that he and the Saudi
gentleman had in fact been planning to have lunch together at a
Moroccan restaurant nearby before walking over to the event together.
“They were out-Saudi-ing the Saudis,” he says.
Peace hasn’t come
to the Middle East. This isn’t beating swords into plowshares but a
logical coalescence of interests based on shared fears: of an Iranian
bomb, jihadi terror, popular insurgency, and an American retreat from
the region. IntuView has Israeli export licenses and the full support of
its government to help any country facing threats from Iran and
militant Islamic groups. “If it’s a country which is not hostile to
Israel that we can help, we’ll do it,” Bar says. Only Syria, Lebanon,
Iran, and Iraq are off-limits.
Interesting. Three of those four countries are also on the list of countries whose nationals are currently barred (or not barred depending upon whom you ask)
from entering the United States under Donald Trump's executive order.
The Saudis and other oil-rich Arab states are only too happy to pay for
the help. “The Arab boycott?” Bar says. “It doesn’t exist.”
Hey - don't tell the Democrats that. They think the Arab boycott exists and will continue to exist until we have 'peace' with the 'Palestinians.' Reality says otherwise.
On the other hand, the Saudis like to hide reality:
Saudi officials declined to speak on the record about possible ties
to Israel. Questions e-mailed to the kingdom’s interior ministry and its
embassy in Washington for this article were unanswered. A source in
Riyadh, insisting on anonymity, e-mailed a statement denying any trade
links between Israel and Saudi Arabia:
“In regard to
defense systems technology, Saudi Arabia has never dealt with Israel in
this field or any other field. Moreover, common sense tells us that in
order for Saudi Arabia to get any weapon systems, they have to be bought
under trade agreements made with friendly countries that manufacture
those systems with official and approved export trade certificates from
their governments. It is also certain that Israel is not among the
countries that have commercial relations with the Kingdom.”
The
Arab embargo of Israel, nominally in force since the Jewish state’s
founding in 1948, necessitates that all business between Israel and most
Arab states remain strictly off the books, cloaked by intermediaries in
other countries. But the volume and range of Israeli activity in at
least six Gulf countries is getting hard to hide. One Israeli
entrepreneur set up companies in Europe and the U.S. that installed more
than $6 billion in security infrastructure for the United Arab
Emirates, using Israeli engineers. The same companies then pitched Saudi
Arabia to manage overcrowding in Mecca. Other Israeli businesses are
working in the Gulf, through front companies, on desalination,
infrastructure protection, cybersecurity, and intelligence gathering.
Read the whole thing. It's fascinating.
Labels: Arab boycott of Israel, Israeli high tech, our friends the Saudis
Israeli startups raise $1.4 billion in Q2, highlighted by $300 million Volkswagen investment in Gett
Israeli startups raised $1.4 billion in the second quarter of 2016, highlighted by a $300 million investment in Gett (a taxi app) by Volkswagen. But that's not the whole story. Most of the investments were much smaller, which means that early stage Israeli companies
can still raise money.
The average amount raised per company in the second quarter was $27.9
million, or $12.1 million if the Gett investment is subtracted,
$500,000 less than the average in the first quarter. This is more or
less the amount of capital an earlier stage company already making
initial revenue needs to keep going for 12-18 months. For the first half
of the year, the average amount raised per company was $14.1 million,
or $12.4 million excluding Gett.
13% of the companies raising
money since the beginning of the year were biomedical companies, meaning
companies developing drugs or medical equipment or a different medical
solution. This means that the majority of available capital for
investment is still going to technology companies, because their risk
profile is naturally lower. The biomedical companies account for only
10% of the amount raised since the beginning of the year.
Three
companies raised over $50 million in the second quarter, compared with
four companies in the first quarter - almost the same, but only two
compared with four if the Gett investment is excluded. This makes a
total of seven companies since the beginning of the year - only 4.2% of
all companies raising capital. This figure may indicate a slowdown in
the number of potential unicorns - a company value of over $1 billion,
which are often successful at raising this amount of money. Gett, which
raised $300 million, and Via, which raised $100 million, may be valued
in the hundreds of millions of dollars, but they are still far away from
$1 billion - at least as of now.
The companies that raised over
$50 million jointly accounted for 22% of the total raised in the second
quarter and 29% of the amount raised in the first half of the year - in
other words, 4% of the companies raised 29% of the total, showing that a
very small number of companies receive a substantial proportion of the
venture capital funds' investment budget.
86% of the companies
raised up to $25 million in the second quarter, meaning that most of the
companies that raised capital were just starting out (initial revenue).
The proportion was the same for the first half of the year. These
companies raised 45% of the total in the second quarter (47% in the
first half), showing that there were many small companies and few large
companies (although it is important to keep in mind that the bigger a
company grows, the less it needs to raise capital, and the proportion of
small companies is therefore greater).
And a reminder - again - that representing early stage companies and people investing in them is something I do for a living, so if you're looking for investors or looking to invest, please drop me an email at IsraelMatzav@gmail.com.
Labels: biotech, Israeli high tech, personal stuff, venture capital
The Israelis did it
It's been one of those days. I started writing this post hours ago and never finished it....
As I am sure many of you have already heard, the FBI has managed to hack the cell phones of the San Bernadino terrorists 'all by itself' and has dropped the lawsuit it had filed against Apple, the manufacturer of the iPhone. But they didn't exactly do it all by themselves. They were helped by an Israeli startup called
Cellebrite.
The Israeli mobile forensics firm Cellebrite helped the FBI hack into the iPhone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook, NBC reports, citing industry sources.
The
firm has been rumored to be behind the FBI’s newfound ability to access
the device, thanks to a previous and unconfirmed report from an Israeli
newspaper.
Neither Cellebrite nor the Department of Justice has confirmed the reports.
The
FBI has routinely contracted Cellebrite over the last five years. The
company, which publicly boasts of its ability to hack into Apple
devices, has received over $2 million in purchase orders from the agency
since 2012.
The Justice Department on Monday withdrew
its case against Apple, telling a federal court it was able to unlock
the device without the tech giant's help.
Earlier story
here.
As usual, one of the things I do for a living is to try to match investors with Israeli high tech companies....
Labels: computer hackers, cyberwar, FBI, iPhone, Islamic terrorism, Israeli high tech
Israeli start up filling in for the FBI
The FBI has hired
Israeli startup Cellebrite to unlock the San Bernadino terrorists' iPhones that Apple refuses to unlock.
That's according to a story filed by Reuters this morning, based on a report in Wednesday's copy of Israeli daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.
If the software company succeeds then the FBI will no longer need the
help of Apple, the report claimed, citing unnamed industry sources.
According to its website,
Cellebrite offers "mobile forensics solutions" which "give access to
and unlock the intelligence of mobile data sources to extend
investigative capabilities, accelerate investigations, unify
investigative teams and produce solid evidence".
Apple and the U.S. government have been embroiled in a heated public
battle that started when a court ordered Apple to help the FBI unlock
the iPhone 5c of terrorist Syed Farook. Unlocking the iPhone would
require Apple to build a new version of iOS that bypasses iPhone
passcode restrictions and provides the FBI with a way to enter passcodes
electronically, something Apple has staunchly refused to do.
On Monday, the U.S. Justice Department convinced
the court overseeing its ongoing battle with Apple to postpone a
hearing scheduled to take place March 22. The DoJ said new leads had
been discovered that could provide it with a way to unlock the iPhone 5c
used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook without involving Apple.
Hmmm.
Labels: FBI, Islamic terrorism, Israeli high tech
China and Japan leading Asian charge toward Israeli high tech
Greetings from a British Airways lounge at London - Heathrow. I'm on my way home.
Israel's high tech has gotten so good and the communist economies have so completely collapsed (will Bernie lead the US in the same direction) that Israel is now the dominant tech power in Asia. Here's a report from Legal Insurrection on just how well-entrenched Israeli high tech has become in
China, Japan and other Asian tech powerhouses.
Countries like India, China and Japan; which in past have been
hesitant of openly engaging with Israel — to avoid offend oil-supplying
Arab countries — are changing their long-held adverse stance and
strengthening commercial and diplomatic ties with the Jewish
State. Leading technology news website TechCrunch reports:
China and Japan are forging deeper ties with Israel’s
burgeoning tech industry. While China has been active in the Israeli
market for some time, Japan, too, has launched a series of efforts to
court the Israeli tech scene.
The signs of warming ties between Israel and Japan can perhaps be
traced to 2014 when Rakuten, the largest e-commerce platform in Japan
acquired Israel-based messaging app provider Viber Media for $900
million.
On January 26, Sony announced its intention to acquire Israel-based
Altair Semiconductor for $212 million and during the same week, Honda —
eyeing Israel’s vehicle intelligence technologies, apps and software —
flew in a group of executives and engineers from Japan and North America
to attend the equity crowdfunding platform OurCrowd’s annual summit in
Jerusalem. (…)
Japan’s presence was also notable at Cybertech 2016 in Tel Aviv where
the country was looking to forge closer ties with Israeli cybersecurity
companies and technology ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
In early 1990s, the collapse of the Soviet Union led to the
dismantling of the biggest pressure group shaping government policy and
intellectual attitudes across Asia and Africa hostile towards Israel.
Today, Israel’s advancements in technology are swaying previously
adversarial countries to a greater partnership. Israel’s technological
edge in field of agriculture, water treatment, renewable energies, IT,
telecommunications and healthcare is of great interest to the developing
nations of Asia and Africa.
Israel’s annual trade with China has crossed over $10 billion, and
trade with India is pegged at just below $5 billion each year.
These numbers are significant, considering Israel’s bilateral trade with
China and India during early 1990s was just around $50 million and $200 million respectively. With focusing on technology-driven sectors and by negotiating bilateral trade agreements, Israel hopes to double its annual trade with both Asian giants, home to more than one-third of the world population.
While thugs of the anti-Israel boycott campaign might be busy
strong-arming some lone investment banker in Scandinavia to divest his
grandmother’s pension fund, Israel is forging trade and technology ties
with the emerging economies of Asia.
If you scroll down to the
video at the end, you will see Jon Medved, the founder of OurCrowd, an Israeli early-stage technology funding portal that recently opened up to non-Israeli companies. On Monday of last week, I attended OurCrowd's annual investor summit (in my professional capacity and not as a blogger), along with over 2,000 other people. It's amazing how much is going on in Israeli technology.
If you're interested in investing in Israeli high tech, I can help you. Please send an email to IsraelMatzav@gmail.com.
Labels: China, Israeli high tech, Japan
Google CEO invests in Israeli cybersecurity startup
Google CEO Eric Schmidt was in Israel this week, and invested $5 million in the A round (that's not bad money for an A round) of Israeli cybersecurity startup
Illusive Networks.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who was in Israel this week, publicly
praised the Israeli cybersecurity startup Illusive Networks, after a
venture capital firm he partners with invested $5 million in the
startup, Entrepreneur magazine reported Tuesday.
Illusive Networks raised $5 million in Series A funding
from cybersecurity think tank Team 8, which is a partner with Innovation
Endeavors, the VC firm founded by Google Chairman Eric Schmidt.
“Illusive Networks is a perfect example of the kind of ‘out of the
box’ thinking necessary to challenge the growing threat of targeted
attacks,” Schmidt said in a press release.
Team 8 is an Israel-based cybersecurity incubator and venture capital firm.
Illusive Networks’ method for catching hackers involves layers of
deceptions that entice a hacker to go deeper into a company’s network
until he gets caught.
To read about how the technology works, go
here.
And if you're an Israeli startup looking for funding or an investor (anywhere) looking to invest in Israeli companies, feel free to drop me an email. I might be able to help you out.
Labels: cyberwar, Google, Israeli high tech
Israel causes tsunami in Gaza
Heh.
Labels: Gaza, humor, Israeli high tech, Palestinian lies
It's come to this: US urges Lenovo users to remove Israeli software, claiming fear of cyberattack
The United States government has urged users of Lenovo computers to remove an Israeli-developed program called
Superfish, which it claims make the users vulnerable to hijacking.
The Department of Homeland Security said in an alert that the
program makes users vulnerable to a type of cyberattack known as SSL
spoofing, in which remote attackers can read encrypted web traffic,
redirect traffic from official websites to spoofs, and perform other
attacks.
"Systems that came with the software already
installed will continue to be vulnerable until corrective actions have
been taken," the agency said.
Adi Pinhas, chief executive of
Palo Alto, California-based Superfish, said in a statement that his
company's software helps users achieve more relevant search results
based on images of products viewed. He said the vulnerability was
"inadvertently" introduced by Israel-based Komodia, which built the
application described in the government notice.
Komodia CEO arak Weichselbaum declined comment on the vulnerability.
Komodia's website says it produces a "hijacker" that allows users to view data encrypted with SSL technology.
"The hijacker uses Komodia’s redirector platform to
allow you easy access to the data and the ability to modify, redirect,
block, and record the data without triggering the target browser’s
certification warning," according to the site.
Marc Rogers, a researcher with CloudFlare, said that means companies which deploy Komodia technology can snoop on web traffic.
"These guys can do everything from just collect a
little bit of marketing information, all the way to building a profile
on you and spying on your banking connections," he said. "It's a very
dangerous slope."
Rogers said that use of Komodia's technology in
other products makes them vulnerable to the same types of attacks as
Lenovo's Superfish.
You don't think this is another attack by the Obama administration on Israel now, do you?
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, cyberwar, Israeli high tech
Israeli high tech needs to take a more long-term view
Israelis are a very impatient people. They want everything yesterday. And that's
hurting our high tech industry.
While many entrepreneurs and investors have made lots of
money from Israel's start-ups over the past two decades,
increasingly firms acquired by foreign buyers are then either
shut down, with their intellectual property moving abroad, or
turned into R&D centres for the parent company.
Israel's high tech industry is a major growth engine and
investment magnet, attracting multinationals like Apple
, Intel and Google, who have been
eager to snap up local start-ups.
High-tech goods and services account for 12.5 percent of
Israel's gross domestic product (GDP) and half of its industrial
exports, government data shows. Israel leads the OECD when it
comes to R&D, spending 4.3 percent of GDP on it, nearly twice
the OECD average, according to Ernst & Young.
Companies often tap into the skills of workers trained in
the military or intelligence sectors and start-ups benefit from
tax breaks and government funding.
But Karin Mayer Rubinstein, head of the Israel Advanced
Technology Industry association, said that while M&A brought
money into Israel, patents were being "vacuumed" out.
"In the last few years, most of the companies being bought
don't stay here as a separate entity," she said.
...
There are 282 R&D centres in Israel, most owned by foreign
firms. Eight out of 10 Israeli technology firms bought by
multinationals become a foreign R&D centre in Israel, or are
integrated in existing foreign R&D centres, said the Israel
Venture Capital (IVC) Research Center.
Entrepreneurs say investors are often looking for high
returns as quickly as possible.
"To build a long-term success story takes hard work, many
years and lots of patience," Brenmiller said.
Patience is not a strong point in Israel's start-up culture,
where entrepreneurs like to move from one idea to the next.
Israeli venture capital-backed companies take an average of
3.95 years from the first round of funding to acquisition,
compared with 6.41 years in Britain and 6.66 in France,
according to third-quarter 2014 figures from Dow Jones
VentureSource.
I hear these stories every day. At one company I know, the entire company was shut down and moved to the US. At another, everyone with six years or more of seniority has been fired. In both those cases, those fired included some or all of the company's founders. Employment in Israeli high tech has actually contracted by 2% in the last two years. And there's no end in sight.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Israeli economy, Israeli high tech
Israeli high tech takes away your last excuse for not losing weight
Good morning and greetings from Boston.
Israeli high tech has taken away your last excuse for not losing weight. Meet SCiO.
Let's go to the videotape.
More
here.
Labels: Israeli high tech
Why Israel's economy doesn't need 'peace' to grow
It's the technology, stupid!
Yoram Ettinger explains why - BDS notwithstanding -
the Israeli economy doesn't 'peace' to grow.
In fact, Israel's unique economic growth – from $1.5bn GDP in 1949 to $300bn in 2014, from $50mn annual exports in 1949 to $97bn in 2014, and from no foreign exchange reserves in 1949 to $92bn in 2014 – has been driven by Aliyah (Jewish immigration), fiscal responsibility, brain power, cutting-edge commercial and defense technologies, exports, military posture of deterrence and (most recently) natural gas; not by the peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, or the Oslo Accord with the PLO.
For example, Israel's GDP surged by 8%-14% annually following Israel's victory in the Six Day War (1967-1972), and by 9% upon the launching of the Aliyah wave of one million Olim from the USSR in 1990. On the other hand, the post Oslo (1993-1996) economic growth of 4%-7% was triggered, mostly, by the Aliyah ripple effect, but was marred by rapidly worsening budget and trade deficits.
In addition, Israel's 42.5% annual inflation in 1977 - when the Begin-Sadat peace initiative was launched - galloped to 111.4% in 1979 and 445% in 1984. Inflation was reduced to 19.7% in 1986, and to the current low single digit levels through an unprecedented policy of fiscal responsibility; not through the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty.
The BDS impact on Israel's economy is minor as demonstrated by the improved trade balance between Israel and Turkey and Britain, independent of the Turkish government and British Parliament support of BDS. Moreover, Israel's vulnerability to BDS is highly constrained since 90% of Israel's exports are business-to-business, enhancing the cost-effectiveness and the level of health, medicine, irrigation, science, education and national security of Israel's trade partners. Furthermore, Israel's trade is trending away from Europe – the epicenter of BDS – towards India, China, Russia, Japan, South Korea and the former Soviet Republics.
Read the whole thing.
If anything, I would argue that 'peace' would pose a danger to our economy because of the vastly increased risk of terrorism - including rockets - emanating from a 'Palestinian state.'
Labels: BDS, Israeli economy, Israeli high tech
War? What war? Israeli high tech near a new record
Some of you may have heard that there was a war in Israel this summer. Well, that didn't stop our high tech industry which
broke financing records in the third quarter of this year.
Investments in Israeli startups climbed to near record highs in the
third quarter, even as the country was in the throes of the worst
violence it has seen in years.
Venture investments in Israel-based companies have not only increased
in number of deals – with a near 40% rise this quarter over last- but
more than tripled the total amount invested in Q1 of 2014. And this
doesn’t account for the hundreds of venture-backed Israeli startups headquartered in New York or the Silicon Valley.
“Basically it did not create any disruption,” says Chemi Peres, managing partner at Pitango Venture Capital,
of the recent violence. “The high-tech industry continued to be
vibrant, and we never delayed a product or missed a milestone,” Peres
attests, adding that the single time he has feared for the safety of a
team was in 2001, when one of Pitango’s New York-based companies
survived the World Trade Center attacks.
While it seems plausible that regional instability would hinder deals
or deter investors, “the bottom line is that it comes with the turf,”
says Hillel Fuld,
Israeli entrepreneur and startup mentor. “Even when it’s quote-unquote
peaceful here there’s always violence – we’re surrounded by enemies –
but there are more entrepreneurs per capita in Israel than in any other
country, and the innovation is really off the charts.”
Much of the rest of the article complains about why the 'Palestinians' don't benefit from Israeli high tech (because much of it comes from the army). But no one is stopping them from setting up their own high tech industry like we set up ours. Oh wait... that would mean spending money on anti-terrorism inventions instead of terrorism.
Labels: Israeli high tech, Operation Protective Edge
Now it has to be tested in the field
The IDF has successfully tested in the laboratory a system for detecting underground terror tunnels. The system must now be field tested. The IDF hopes to
install it on the Gaza border within a year.
A system designed to detect infiltration tunnels proved successful in laboratory tests for the first time ever and is now being tested in the field, a senior IDF officer said Monday.
If the field test proves successful, the system can be deployed around the Gaza Strip within approximately one year, the officer added.
The system will cost from NIS 1.5 billlion to NIS 2.5 billion to deploy.
Arutz Sheva adds:
The senior officer said that the IDF had received about 700 offers for anti-tunnel systems, and chose two.
The senior officer also spoke about the Iron Dome system and
confirmed that the system worked well during Operation Protective Edge.
However, he warned, “we cannot rest on our laurels: in the next
campaign, the terrorists will try to improve the range of the missiles,
the altitude of their trajectory and the amount of missiles launched
each time. Therefore, the system must constantly update itself, and we
are operating accordingly.
The Trophy defense system that protects armored vehicles from
anti-tank missiles also worked efficiently in the war, the officer said.
Another 3 billion shekels are required to provide protection for all of
the vehicles. “Money was never the issue,” he stressed, “only providing
the proper means [for protection].”
Various media reports over the years have described possible
solutions as including sensors that would detect tunnels as they were
being dug, massive trench digging contraptions that could create a deep
protective trench around Gaza, and robots that could dig their way into
tunnels and blow them up.
Whatever we install around Gaza should also be installed around our northern border with Lebanon and probably the Syrian border as well. The borders with Jordan and Egypt seem like less of a priority right now.
Labels: IDF, Iron Dome, Israeli high tech, Operation Protective Edge, terror tunnels, Trophy system
Israeli High Tech's first casualty
Israel's high tech industry may have suffered its first casualty of the current operation in Gaza. A key backer in Israel of something called the
Y Combinator has withdrawn his support in response to its founder's pro-Hamas tweets (Hat Tip:
Sunlight). The founder -
Paul Graham - is a major high tech figure in Silicon Valley.
This is from the first link.
A heated exchange on Twitter between venture capitalist giant Paul
Graham and supporters of Israel, could delay plans by Graham’s Y
Combinator’s accelerator to recruit in Israel.
Tweets posted by Graham
that described the destruction wrought by the IDF in Gaza, but without
any citations of Hamas attacks on Israel. That led heavyweight Israeli
venture capital figure Roi Carthy to announce he was withdrawing an
offer to help Y Combinator (YC) recruit potential participants in
Israel.
Y Combinator
is considered one of the most prestigious accelerator and start-up
venture capital funds in the world. With over 700 start-ups funded since
2005, valued at over $30 billion, acceptance into the program is as
close to a guarantee of commercial and funding success as a start-up can
hope for. According to Graham, one of the group’s four founders, the
average valuation of Y Combinator-backed companies is $45.2 million.
All of the group’s programs take place in
Silicon Valley, and Y Combinator generally focuses on American
start-ups. Cognizant of the start-up scenes elsewhere, however, the
group announced several months ago that it was planning to step up its
recruiting elsewhere. Israel was in Y Combinator’s sightsl, and Carthy, a
managing partner at Tel Aviv-Sao Paolo investment firm Initial Capital — as well as former Israeli correspondent for the TechCrunch
website, which carries stories about Israeli start-ups and tech firms —
promised to help get the word out about Y Combinator’s programs to
Israeli start-ups.
“A couple of months ago though, I was
connected to a YC partner who is planning to be in Israel early August
to spread the YC gospel,” Carthy wrote in a blog post.
“I was happy to lend a hand by organizing a meet-up at a local bar and
getting the word out. “But I am now rescinding my offer,” Carthy wrote.
“I will not lend my hand to an organization that is comfortable with its
founder criticizing a nation, while at the same time, pitching to
incubate its best and brightest.”
Graham, said Carthy, makes no secret of his
sympathy for the Palestinian position, while ignoring the context of
Israeli responsive actions, such as Israel’s decision to hit Gaza
terrorist targets after facing thousands of rockets fired by Hamas
terrorists before Operation Protective Edge. “Paul has been making his
views known via tweets over the past few years,” wrote Carthy. “Nothing
new under the sun in this respect,” he noted.
“It’s not uncommon to accept that an
individual’s views do not reflect that of his employer. However, much as
it would be unacceptable to separate misogynistic views of a founder
from reflecting upon his company, I cannot separate Paul’s continued
views about Israel from YC,” Carthy added.
Read the whole thing. I just hope Roi is able to come up with something equivalent either on his own or with someone else.
Labels: Israeli high tech, Operation Protective Edge
The kidnap app
Israeli technologists are developing a phone application that will allow persons in distress to notify authorities of their whereabouts by pressing a
panic button.
A new smartphone app to help people from getting kidnapped is currently being developed in Israel, Channel 2 reported.
As Israeli police and security forces search for three missing Israeli
teenagers, believed to be kidnapped in the West Bank – the Samaria
Regional Council is working on an app that will enable people in danger
to report their location to authorities. The council has reportedly
hired a company to upgrade a current app already in use – so that
rather than contacting police to report your whereabouts during an
emergency – you can transmit your location with a push of a button on
the phone.
The app alerts authorities to a person's specific location in time of
need by triggering the phone's GPS system. If in danger, the app
transmits an instant SMS as well as a specific place. It continues to
send signals to authorities who will then notify security forces,
without the person having to call.
It's sad that this is necessary, but why didn't anyone think of it before?
Labels: Israeli high tech, kidnapping, Palestinian terrorism
#BDS_Fail: Al-Qaeda using Israeli company for secure email
I don't know whether we should laugh or cry about this one. Al-Qaeda is
using an Israeli company for secure email services.
Al-Qaida’s media wing, Al-Sahab, has begun using an Israeli company in order to secure its communications.
The
Middle East Media Research Institute discovered that the group was
using Safemail, which according to its website “is owned and operated
by Secure Information Technologies Ltd., which is a privately owned
company registered in Israel and with offices in Israel, the UK and
Japan.”
The company describes itself as: “The most secure, easy to use
communication system. It includes encrypted mail system with
collaboration features and document storage functions.
Always
accessible at any time from anywhere!” According to the MEMRI report,
released on April 25, “Al-Qaida’s Embrace Of Encryption Technology –
Part II: 2011-2014, And The Impact Of Edward Snowden,” the al-Qaida
media wing announced on April 9 that an open interview of Maulana Asim
Umar, the head of al-Qaida’s Shari’a Committee in Pakistan, would take
place.
Questions would be received in Urdu, Arabic, English or
Pashto at either a Yahoo or Safe-mail email address, said the
announcement.
Since 2007, the report said, al-Qaida began using
encryption technology in order to protect its communications from
breaches of its websites by Western government agencies.
Following
the disclosures by former US intelligence computer professional,
Edward Snowden, Western governments have noticed that the group has
changed its communication methods.
You don't think Israel is tapping into that 'secure' email, do you? Heh.
Labels: al-Qaeda, BDS, Islamic terrorism, Israeli high tech
Israel develops blood test for breast cancer
Something else for the BDS'ers to boycott. Israeli scientists have developed a
blood test for the early detection of breast cancer.
The Octava Pink test is now available in Israel and Italy, and is
undergoing clinical trials to receive US Food and Drug Administration
approval.
This is the first blood test ever that can reveal
cancer, not merely markers that might indicate cancer or something else.
Its innovation also lies in its examination of antibodies in the blood
to pinpoint this specific cancer.
Molecular biologist Galit
Yahalom — who heads the research team at the EventusDx offices and lab,
located in Moshav Ora outside of Jerusalem – explains the breakthrough
to ISRAEL21c.
“For the last decade, we have known that there is a
connection between cancer and the immune system,” says Yahalom, a
43-year-old mother of two from Modi’in who has been working on this
project since its inception.
“We know that it recognizes cancer as
an external enemy that must be destroyed. It is possible that each of
us has had instances of cancer we were unaware of, because our immune
systems killed it when it was still very small. For whatever reason, the
immune system of people with cancer is not functioning properly.”
...
Another innovation is the nanotechnology developed at EventusDx,
which enables testing 96 blood samples simultaneously. This process
takes no more than three hours, allowing a woman’s doctor to rule out or
confirm breast cancer very quickly.
Speed, of course, is as
important in breast-cancer detection as accuracy – not only for those
whose results confirm their physicians’ suspicions or diagnoses of
breast cancer, but also for those found to be cancer-free.
This is
because false positives and false negatives are frequent. According to
Yahalom, “Only 20 to 30 of every 100 biopsies performed as a result of
growths detected in mammograms reveal cancer; the rest are benign.
Meanwhile, 50% of young women with breast cancer, and 30% of older women
with breast cancer, are diagnosed as healthy.”
The Octava Pink
test has had astounding results, correctly diagnosing 95% of the healthy
women and 75% of those with breast cancer.
Though one in nine
women will contract breast cancer at some point in their lifetime, only
three in 1,000 have it at any given moment. This is why it is important
for women to get regular checkups and to be provided this extra tool to
assuage their fears.
This particular tool costs NIS 700 (about
$200), not including the fee charged by the doctor who purchases the
Octava kit and sends it to Yahalom’s lab.
You want to boycott Israel? Die!
Labels: BDS, biotech, cancer victims, Israeli high tech
Charge your smartphone in 30 seconds
Israeli high tech strikes again. Here's a demo.
Let's go to the videotape.
That video has gotten nearly 700,000 views... today.
Here are
more details about StoreDot.
Tel Aviv-based StoreDot's prototype battery and charger is currently
being tested with Samsung's Galaxy phones, but the startup's founder and
CEO Doron Myersdorf told AFP that a product compatible with all makes of smartphone should be on the market by 2016.
He said that at the core of the new technology was the use of peptides, compounds containing amino acids.
"We are modifying the surface of the electrodes with bio-organic
compounds, peptides, to increase the chemical reaction to produce extra
energy," he said.
Myersdorf added the breakthrough "allows us to avoid the most
annoying aspect of our smartphones, of which we are demanding more and
more, and to ensure that we have a charged telephone all day."
StoreDot has not received capital from global smartphone market
leaders Apple or Samsung but is getting backing from a Chinese
manufacturer, Myersdorf said, without naming the investor.
I wonder whether they need a lawyer....
Labels: cell phone, iPhone, Israeli high tech
Israelis figure out how to turn marijuana into heroin?
Well, only in the 'Palestinians' fantasyland.
Official spokesman of the PA Security Forces Adnan Al-Damiri: "The
challenges facing us... [are] drugs. You don't know how many problems
we've had these past two weeks... A shocking amount of drugs that the
Israeli occupation has spit up and vomited onto our land. A lab was even
made in the Tulkarem District. The lab turning marijuana into heroin
has been seized [by the PA]."
[Official PA TV Live, Feb. 12, 2014]
Let's go to the videotape.
Well, it makes a good headline anyway. But no, it's nonsense.
Labels: drug running, Israeli high tech, Palestinian lies
Israeli company receives US patent for potential ALS cure
An Israeli company has received a
US patent for a potential cure for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), which is commonly referred to in the US as
Lou Gehrig's disease after the Yankee Hall-of-Famer who died from it. This is from the first link (Hat Tip:
Soccer Dad).
The patent covers BrainStorm's stem cells
induced to secrete elevated levels of neurotrophic factors for the
treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.
Pending
approval from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, the company is
preparing for its upcoming mid-stage Phase II trial in the United States
with its NurOwn adult stem cell therapy.
BrainStorm
is developing NurOwn for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
(ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, a progressive
neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and
spinal cord.
Separately, the
company said it has signed a definitive agreement with Massachusetts
General Hospital in Boston to conduct a Phase II clinical trial of
NurOwn in ALS, pending FDA approval. The other two clinical sites slated
for the trial are the University of Massachusetts Memorial Hospital and
Mayo Clinic.
"The recent bill
introduced to the U.S. Senate to support regenerative medicine research
is yet another indication of the increasing recognition that stem cells
hold the promise for curing life-threatening and debilitating conditions
like ALS," said Chaim Lebovits, BrainStorm's president.
"We
are very encouraged by the bill's proposal to appoint a council that
would develop and maintain a national strategy for the promotion of
regenerative medicine research and development."
What follows is a clip from Israel's Channel 2 television. The patient is a well-known Rosh Yeshiva in the Haredi community.
Let's go to the videotape.
הפוך בה והפוך בה דכולה בה.
Labels: biotech, God, Israeli high tech, Torah
