Tal Dilian, a former senior ranking IDF intelligence officer and a high-tech entrepreneur, is in big trouble with the American government. The Administration of President Joe Biden blacklisted two firms that Dilian runs. Cybersecurity firms Intellexa and Cytrox have both been placed on the official U.S. Commerce Department blacklist.
This means that American firms are basically prohibited from doing business with Intellexa and Cytrox.
American authorities say that Intellexa and Cytrox have both been involved with a political scandal in Greece, allowing their cyber software to be used to hack the mobile devices of journalists and political dissidents alike. This is reminiscent of the recent scandal surrounding Israel’s cybersecurity firm NSO Group which allowed non-democratic regimes to do the same thing with its spyware tech.
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Cytrox provides governments with an operational cyber solution for design, management and implementation of cyber intelligence as well as innovative engines for gathering intelligence from end devices and cloud services. IAI is showcasing the solutions offered by these two companies at the Cyber Week conference in Tel-Aviv.
Intellexa develops and fuses intelligence and investigation systems for LEA’s (law enforcement agencies) and the Intel community aimed at obtaining incriminating evidence and converting large data-sets into insightful intelligence all with one goal in mind; Win the digital race
A senior Biden Administration official explained the blacklisting to the press saying, “without appropriate guardrails, these tools can be misused to conduct intrusive and harmful surveillance on a wide range of targets, including against activists, dissidents, journalists and political opposition.”
“We are also encouraging other countries to consider measures they can take within their own respective systems,” the official added.
According to his official bio, al Dilian’s impressive career began in the neighborhoods of the German Colony and Katamonin in Jerusalem. Menashe, Dilian’s late father’s family immigrated from the Armenian province in Iran which they left as a child for Israel in 1932, and his mother, Hannah, immigrated to Israel that same year from Europe. Both Dilian’s parents were artists and teachers at the famed Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem. Dilian is the oldest of four siblings.
He attended Jerusalem’s Hebrew Gymnasium, which was not merely a school for disadvantaged children but also a social bubble that incorporated children from the city’s elite. Tal Dilian participated in the Interdisciplinary Program for Outstanding Students at Tel-Aviv University where he earned his BA, LLB and MBA degrees.
Tal Dilian served an impressive 25 years in the Israeli Defense Force. He served in leadership positions in an elite combat unit and as Chief Commander of the technological unit.
