ISRAEL: NEW INITIATIVE IN IDF'S SECRETIVE UNIT 8200 DRAWS LESSONS FROM MICROSOFT, GOOGLE, FACEBOOK

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06530912
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2022
• Document Release Date: March 3, 2017
• Case Number: F-2016-01162
• Publication Date: September 26, 2013

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CITE OSC RESTON VA 117397
WARNING: TOPIC: MILITARY, TECHNOLOGY, TELECOM
SERIAL: PLL2013092641136713
BODY
COUNTRY: ISRAEL
SUBJ: (U) ISRAEL: NEW INITIATIVE IN IDF'S SECRETIVE UNIT 8200 DRAWS
Lessons From Microsoft, Google, Facebook
SOURCE: Tel Aviv Haaretz.com in English 0230 GMT 26 Sep
13 (U)
TEXT:
[ (U) Report by Inbal Orpaz: "Preserving the madness' in IDF
intelligence"]
[INTERNET]
[OSC Transcribed Text]
(U) This product may contain copyrighted material; authorized use is
for national security purposes of the United States Government only.
Any reproduction, dissemination, or use is subject to the OSC usage
policy and the original copyright.
A new initiative in Israeli military's secretive Unit 8200 draws
lessons from Microsoft, Google, and Facebook on how to constantly
foster creativity and fend off complacency. 30 young people, divided
into eight teams, are peering into their screens, energetically
engaged in computer programming. Although some of them were complete
strangers to the group, together they are now building creative
projects that will prove to be either revolutionary or forgettable.
By the fifth day of an intensive week, they will have produced
something, usually a software program, that can be showcased and
marketed. This is not a description of a software developer's
marathon - "hackathon" in the lingo of start-up incubators - nor of
an undertaking at Microsoft or Google. Despite the squarely
entrepreneurial and civilian atmosphere, the week described above
took place in a Unit 8200's secret military intelligence base.
8200 is an elite unit known for using state-of-the-art technology to
gather intelligence. For many years, 8200 has served as a hotbed for
computer experts who take the knowledge and skills they acquire in
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their military service and go on to work for the leading companies in
Israel's private high-tech sector. Though companies cull their finest
talent from 8200's graduates, the commanders feel the unit the talent
comes from began suffering from a bloated bureaucracy and
complacency. The two intelligence figures spearheading a change in
direction cannot be named. Their titles, however, reveal enough about
the intention to create something new within the shell of an IDF unit
bogged down by tradition. Lieutenant Colonel K. is 8200's Chief
Technology Officer, a title usually found in the high-tech industry,
while T, a civilian working for the unit, who use to be a soldier
there, bears the demanding title: Head of the Department of the Law
for Preserving Madness. He is responsible on a daily basis for
strategic innovation in the unit. This is how their tasks are
divided: T. ensures the ideas thought up by the unit are the "right"
ones, while K. is in charge of screening ideas, developing them and
then eventually execution. Behind the new forum tasked with
fostering innovation is the understanding that Unit 8200 must remain
at the cutting edge. Innovation is essential for two main reasons
according to K: the dynamic environment of Middle East and the rapid
evolution of technology.
"There are instances when you have to know how to quickly adopt new
technologies and there are instances when you have to know how to
invent them, " he said. "In any event, we cannot allow ourselves to
lag behind the market." Not only can 8200 not afford to lag behind
but it must reinvent the game. "In a business like ours, there is
almost no one that we can emulate; therefore, we have to produce the
innovation on our own," K. said. But what happens when using
advanced technology to gather intelligence becomes routine? "There
is a built-in tension between efficiency and innovation," T. said.
"If you want to be efficient, everything has to function with the
smoothness of a machine and there must be a work plan. In an
,environment like that of Unit 8200, it is difficult to be dynamic and
to launch projects. Ironically, Unit 8200's very success forced it to
become institutionalized turn serious and square."
Thinking outside the box for five days
8200 began to look at the world's major high-tech companies for
inspiration on how to encourage innovation. One idea under study was
Google's "20 percent time" principle by which employees take time out
of their day to work on creative projects. However, it was quickly
realized the idea is not applicable in a military unit devoted to
monitoring ongoing and pressing security matters. Ultimately, the
rilechanism that won out was SOOB, short for SIGINT Out of the Box. For
those who lack an expertise in the field of intelligence, SIGINT is
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signal intelligence, or the gathering of data by intercepting
communication signals. The name of the project comes from Microsoft's
Out of the Box Week, which puts engineers to work together
creatively, even if what they come up with is not productive. The
week has a uniform structure: On Day 1, the idea is crystallized, on
Days 2 and 3 the product is turned into an archetype. On Day 4 a
presentation is prepared and on Day 5 the development is shown to the
relevant players - partners, investors, managers in the company and
anyone else who might be interested in the product and
commercializing it. Many outside of Microsoft now participate in the
software giant's event. 8200 is using the format of the 00BW,
including a presentation at the end of the week of the successful
projects to senior intelligence commanders, and to leaders in the
high-tech industry. Over the past three years, ten such events have
been held, with 30 soldiers participating in each. More than 80 ideas
have hatched. Of all the ideas so far, ten have been adopted and five
of those have had a major impact on Unit 8200 - telling of the long
sifting out process necessary to reach truly good ideas.
Soldiers submit ideas to the unit-wide system, called Abracadabra
system. The ideas can seek to improve both the unit's operations or
bureaucracy. A proposal typically outlines the manpower necessary for
the task. Others in the system can respond by developing the
product's technical features and to formulate a user interface. Ideas
that mobilize people are invited to the SOOB week. One of the most
interesting ideas draws from Facebook, illustrating how social media
influences intelligence work. "In recent years, there is a crazy
global revolution in social media in how information is produced and
disseminated," T. said. "The intelligence community has understood
that Facebook is source for intelligence gathering; however, up until
now, the community has not looked at Facebook and blogs and said,
'Perhaps I can publish my information in this manner because it
presents several advantages.' The IDF's Military Intelligence's role
is to process data after all. We created a rich social network
intelligence-oriented platform that has been designed very much like
Facebook - not because we deeply admire Facebook's design but rather
because 18-year-olds come here and they intuitively know how to use
it." In this social network used in the military intelligence world,
the dissemination of data changes and the data is open to all
relevant players. Anyone tapped into the network can use their
expertise to analyze the information coming in and start discussions.
As is the case in open social networks, the information is archived
and remains accessible. Such a system facilitates the sharing of
information and allows to draw conclusions among bodies that don't
typically work together.
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At 8200 they know, however, there is a distance between theory and
practice. Coming up with ideas is not enough - they must be
implemented. "Part of the beauty is the fact that, during such a
week, people are willing to take risks; they are not opening up a
major project that requires massive resources," K. said. "Therefore,
this week enables the participants to deal with many ideas that are
high risk; an idea or two ultimately comes out that is sufficiently
low-risk." However, T., who is charged with the task of persuading
the unit's commanders to implement the ideas and to make them
operational, admits that the "easy part is to free people for a week.
The hard part is to persuade the organization to buy the idea."
[Description of Source: Tel Aviv Haaretz.com in English -- Website of
English-language version of Ha'aretz, left-of-center, independent
daily of record; URL: http://www.haaretz.com/]
(U) This product may contain copyrighted material; authorized use is
for national security purposes of the United States Government only.
Any reproduction, dissemination, or use is subject to the OSC usage
policy and the original copyright.
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