Light Tactical UAS, Elbit Systems

Opening the airspaces for unmanned air systems (UAS) for homeland security missions is expected to increase the sales of Israeli systems in the coming years.

Israeli annual export sales of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) averaged US $578 million over the past eight years and is expected to grow by up to 10 percent annually y through 2020, according to Frost & Sullivan.

The Tel Aviv branch of the international consulting firm calculated Israeli UAS export contracts of US $4.62 billion from 2005-2012, nearly 10 percent of overall defense trade over the eight-year period.

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According to the firm, Europe leads Israel’s UAS market, with slightly more than half of global sales. Asia Pacific countries constitute Israel’s second largest UAS market, with some 33.3 percent of sales, followed by South America, North America and Africa.

According to Frost & Sullivan’s the projected annual expansion of Israel’s UAS export market was based on a combination of intensifying international demand, U.S. export license restrictions and aggressive Israeli marketing and investment activities.

The firm identified some 20 firms involved heavily in Israel’s UAS platform, payload and support systems sector, including industry leaders Elbit Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).

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Elbit Systems Ltd. has teamed with Windward . To offer integrated maritime solutions for the Indian authorities. The joint solution combines Windward’s innovative satellite-based maritime analytics system, MarInt, with Elbit Systems’ wide range of solutions for maritime domain awareness, including Hermes 900 maritime patrol unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).

The cooperation between the two companies addresses the specific needs of India and its vast and complex maritime arena .

The cooperation makes available a unique system adapted for very large maritime area monitoring, providing authorities with powerful means to control India’s waters.

MarInt, Windward’s proprietary satellite-based maritime analytics system, maps the global maritime activity in unprecedented details, based on data collected from various sources, such as commercial satellites, open-source databases and other sensors. Covering any area of interest, regardless of the distance from shore, MarInt delivers maritime domain awareness over littoral or blue water areas, for Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) monitoring, fishery control, regional traffic analysis or port traffic management. After the routine maritime patterns are observed and learned, the system performs deep behavior analysis on every vessel spotted in the designated area of interest, in order to detect anomalous and suspicious behavior.

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The Maritime Hermes 900 is a new configuration of Elbit Systems’ largest UAS, adapted for maritime operations, carrying selectable mission payload of up to 350 kg., including maritime surveillance radar, Automatic Identification System (AIS), an electro-optical multi-sensor payload and electronic surveillance systems. It has the endurance to cover vast ocean areas, redundant line-of-sight and satellite communications links and radio relay, enabling operators to talk to local vessels while flying patrols over remote sea areas at extended ranges from shore.

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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has taken control of two bank accounts belonging to a company that exchanged US dollars for the ‘Bitcoin’ virtual currency. The department claims the accounts had not been properly registered with financial regulators.

Bitcoin is not issued by any real-world financial institution. Instead, each unit of currency is represented by a unique piece of code generated by an algorithm.

Whenever somebody makes a payment using Bitcoins, the details of the transaction is shared using a peer-to-peer network, similar to they way some users share music and video files. The theory is that there’s no possible dispute about who owns a particular coin.

Supporters of the system say the algorithm used to create the currency means there’s an inherent limit to how many Bitcoins can be in circulation. They say this protects users against the inflation risk that comes if governments simply print more cash to deal with debts.

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However, government agencies have questioned whether Bitcoins are secure, given that they aren’t subject to any official regulation.

Bitcoin users can exchange real world currencies into Bitcoins, and vice versa, through a series of businesses. The Department of Homeland Security has now seized two real world bank accounts belonging to one of these firms, Mutum Sigillum. (Source: reuters.com).

The seizure is the result of recent law changes which say firms that exchange real dollars for virtual currencies must register with financial regulators. The goal of such a procedure is to prevent money laundering.

Some Bitcoin users are concerned that these events could negatively impact public confidence in the virtual currency.

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While al Qaeda has become the most well- known international terrorist organization, it is not the most successful. That title goes to less well known regional terrorist organizations. The most successful of these has been Pakistani Islamic terror group Lashkar I Toiba (LeT). While al Qaeda has been reduced to a franchising operation, LeT is a real organization with separate departments for recruiting, fund raising, training, and operations.

According to Srategy Page the LeT is, like the Taliban, a creation of the Pakistani ISI (Inter Service Intelligence agency). ISI is part of the army and performs some of the same functions as the American CIA and British MI6. This organization has long been a power unto itself, with its own agenda and many members who support Islamic radicalism. In 2008, the civilian government (that replaced nine years of military dictatorship) sought to disband the political wing of the ISI. This section was believed to be largely responsible for Pakistani support of Islamic, or simply Pakistani, terrorist operations in Afghanistan and India, as well as support for Taliban and al Qaeda in Pakistan itself. The political wing has also served as a domestic spying operation whenever the military was running the country (which is more than half the time). That effort failed, as did several previous attempts to reform this espionage agency.

ISI has long supported Islamic terrorists. Islamic radicals have been operating openly in the ISI for three decades and were put there by the government in the late 1970s, when it was decided that Islamic conservatism was the solution for Pakistan’s problems (corruption and religious/ethnic conflicts).

LeT (and several similar outfits) was created to carry out terror attacks in India, while the Taliban was created to give Pakistan more influence over what happened in Afghanistan. While the Taliban, or part of it, turned against Pakistan, LeT did not and has quietly grown into a regional Islamic terrorist organization directly responsible for far more death and destruction than al Qaeda. While al Qaeda is homeless and tends to franchise its name, LeT has a secure base within Pakistan and the protection of ISI and the Pakistani military. This allows LeT to recruit and train operatives and plan and carry out terror attacks in India and, more recently, in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and a growing list of other countries. One thing that keeps LeT safe from attack by the U.S. and other Western counter-terror organizations is its decision to not attack Western targets or get too involved in international terrorism. But for India and Afghanistan, LeT is a major source of death and destruction. The ISI and Pakistani military deny any involvement with LeT, despite the growing pile of evidence otherwise.

For a long time the major source of Islamic terrorism in India has been the Pakistani backed terror campaign to drive Indians, particularly non-Moslem Indians, out of the disputed, by India and Pakistan, province of Kashmir (actually Jammu-Kashmir, as the lower portion of the state, Jammu, is largely Hindu). Kashmir, on the other side of a mountain range from Jammu, is largely Moslem and Pakistan believes all of Kashmir (Pakistan invaded and seized northern Kashmir in the late 1940s) should be theirs. Back in the late 1970s, Pakistan decided that terrorism was the only practical way to get Kashmir back. India was more powerful militarily and had beaten Pakistan in every war between them. Groups like LeT used bases and training camps in Pakistani Kashmir to train and send terrorists across the border into Indian Kashmir. These ISI groups have also been responsible for about two-thirds of the deaths from Islamic terrorism in the rest of India.

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There are several separate terrorist groups operating in Kashmir. In addition to LeT, there is Jaish-e-Muhammad, Harakat ul-Jihad-I-Islami, and Harakat ul-Mujahedeen (the last two formerly operated in Afghanistan against the Russians during the 1980s). There have been several thousand Islamic terrorists active in Kashmir (on both sides of the border) since the late 1980s. The numbers are kept down by the deaths of most terrorists who get into Indian Kashmir. The Pakistani based terrorists have also caused the growth of similar, but much smaller, groups inside India (which has 150 million Moslems). The Kashmir terrorism campaign has largely failed, and the number of active terrorists there has been dwindling over the past decade. This has apparently played a part in LeT carrying out attacks elsewhere in India.

Only some parts of the Pakistani government back these terrorists, as most Pakistanis realize that too much Pakistani based Islamic terrorism inside India could trigger a major war with India. Since both nations now have nuclear weapons, this could get very ugly. The Islamic terrorists don’t care, as they are on a Mission From God and whatever happens is God’s Will.

It’s interesting that many LeT leaders come from the same middle class neighborhoods that produce many of the army and ISI officers that back Islamic terrorism. The connections between ISI and Islamic terror groups are numerous, and this intelligence organization has become a major threat to Pakistani democracy and Pakistan itself.

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The FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has released the 2012 Internet Crime Report — a summary of reported fraudulent activity, including data and statistics.

In 2012, the IC3 received and processed 289,874 complaints, averaging more than 24,000 complaints per month. Unverified losses reported to IC3 rose 8.3 percent over the previous year.

A new section in this year’s report includes charts for each of the 50 states detailing demographic, complaint, and dollar-loss data. The section allows for easy comparisons and convenient reference.

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Additional content includes frequently reported Internet crimes, case highlights, and graphs that explain the lifecycle of a complaint. The most common complaints received in 2012 included FBI impersonation e-mail scams, various intimidation crimes, and scams that used computer “scareware” to extort money from Internet users.

The report gives detailed information about these and other commonly perpetrated scams in 2012.

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Read the report here: FBI – IC3 2012 Report

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U.S. President Barack Obama defended America’s controversial drone attacks as legal, effective and a necessary linchpin in an evolving U.S. counterterrorism policy. But he acknowledged the targeted strikes are no “cure-all” and said he is haunted by the civilians unintentionally killed.

Since taking office, Obama’s counterterrorism strategy has increasingly relied on the use of strikes by unmanned spy drones, particularly in Pakistan and Yemen. The highly secretive program has faced criticism from congressional lawmakers who have questioned its scope and legality.

The president, in his most expansive public discussion on drones, defended their targeted killings as both effective and legal. He acknowledged the civilian deaths that sometimes result — a consequence that has angered many of the countries where the U.S. seeks to combat extremism — and said he grapples with that trade-off.

“For me, and those in my chain of command, these deaths will haunt us as long as we live,” he said. Before any strike, he said, “there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured — the highest standard we can set.”

New guidelines on drone strikes

Ahead of the address, Obama signed new “presidential policy guidelines” aimed at illustrating more clearly to Congress and the public the standards the U.S. applies before carrying out drone attacks. Officials said the guidelines include not using strikes when the targeted people can be captured, either by the U.S. or a foreign government, relying on drones only when the target poses an “imminent” threat and establishing a preference for giving the military control of the drone program.

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However, the CIA is still expected to maintain control of the drone program in Yemen, as well as in Pakistan’s tribal areas, given the concern that al-Qaeda may return in greater numbers as U.S. troops draw down in Afghanistan. The military and the CIA currently work side by side in Yemen, with the CIA flying its drones over the northern region out of a covert base in Saudi Arabia, and the military flying its unmanned aerial vehicles from Djibouti.

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This has become almost a daily reality- citizens call the 100 police number and get insufficient answers to use mild word. In spite of all prior cases , very little has changed and this week it has ended with the death of two infants.

Police Insp. Gen. Yohanan Danino on Wednesday ordered the Israel Police headquarters to open an investigation against officers from the Arad police station.

He ordered the probe after it emerged that officers had received a complaint from the mother of two young Beduin girls 24 hours before they were found murdered in the village of al-Fura.

The woman told officers that she feared that the girls’ father – from whom she was separated – had threatened to harm the girls and her, but that officers did not pay a visit to the father’s house, where the two girls lived, or follow up on the complaint.

The bodies of the girls, aged three and five, were found in a house in the village showing signs of violence, including strangulation, on Tuesday night.

By Wednesday morning, police had arrested four members of the family – including the mother, who was found in the Jerusalem area and brought in to give testimony before she was released. The father has still not been found and a large-scale operation is under way to locate him.

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Heads will roll but that is treating a disease with Aspirin. The police has to completely reorganize the emergency line procedures. In many countries , the police emergency centers , where all the calls of citizens are received , are manned by very experienced policemen .By listening to recordings of recent conversations with the 100 number,  the impression is of some amateurs that do not know their job.

Arie Egozi
i-HLS Editor-in-Chief

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Assessment: the overwhelming majority of attacks will be using free shareware botnets. Muslim hackers organizations are preparing for another concentrated attack against government sites in Israel on Saturday, May 25^th – Revealed Sivan Doron, MADSEC CEO and Specialist in Defense against hacker attacks, author of the book “Guide to Hacking and Security”.

Sivan explained that in a number of messages posted on forums, hackers from all over the world are welcome to join the list of hackers to attack Israeli targets – an attack called Operation Israel 2.

According to estimates by Sivan, from past experience, the overwhelming majority of attacks using botnets will be free shareware. “The wave of attacks is expected to be low and medium level, with the main effect could be critical loading on web- sites,” said Sivan. “Most organizations attacked at the previous offensive reported loads aiming to disable the sites, penetrating the computer system of the site itself and vandalism attempts. The Group that we found uploaded text message in which it announced the reasons for the attack, and that this is part two of the onslaught of OpIsrael that took place on April 7^th“.

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In hacker’s Lists specified on the sites, there are listed hackers from a number of countries. The lists include the IP addresses of the hackers, the Muslim group hopes the numbers will reach thousands.

The text as appeared on the Muslim hackers website:

Hello World , Hello Human Rights Deffenders , Hello Israel .. We Are Anonymous .

Israel … This is an official message.

The 7th day of April was an inforgettable day for you, all the world knew that we are the Power.

you was afraid but you choosed to continue your violence , you promess to answer to our attacks and this was an insult for anonymous , but we gave you the time to answer it … and what you wanted to do is making trouble in muslim people relationships , a lot of experiences was failed . Yesterday , Israelien people desecrated al aqsa mosque , This is an unauthorized action, it’s a violence for the human rights ! this is a violence to the freedom of doctrine ! … For that reason , we loaded the Israelien operation Phase 2 , Operation Israel 2 will be your nightmare , if you support Zionism , secure your website.

Finally , we ask all free people of the world to join us this is a serious call .

Today they attacked al aqsa mosque , tommorrow they’ll attack your country … they maybe attack you , they may censure your freedom .

It’s a dangerous case . Join us the 25 of May.

We Are Anonymous, We Are A Legion, We Do Not Forget, We Do Not Forgive.

Expect-us

By Doron Sivan, an expert in defense against hacker attacks and CEO of MADSEC

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This is a unique event and this time it will happen here and very soon Windriver the leading company in the development of embedded software and mobile systems will unveil its new product. The event will bring together senior figures from the software industry and the Israeli defense industries. Among the lecturers Dr. Gabi Siboni from INSS, Adi Sussholz Elbit systems CTO and many others. The special event will take place in Cinema City Glilot on May 29. As a desert – the movie “Fast and furious 6″.

1. Free Registration

2. Executives Session

3. “Fast and furious 6″

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Conference Site Home

Conference Agenda

Conference Registration

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