IDF buys computers to prevent further information theft

Extra layers of protection to be installed on tens of thousands of new machines.

By YAAKOV KATZ
Two weeks after the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) lifted a gag order on the Anat Kamm affair, The Jerusalem Post learned on Thursday that the IDF has purchased tens of thousands of new computers that will be installed with extra layers of protection against information theft.
Kamm is awaiting trial for allegedly stealing some 2,000 classified and top-secret documents from the office of the commander of the IDF’s Central Command during her military service, which ended in 2007. Kamm has admitted to then passing on some of the documents to Haaretz reporter Uri Blau.
The decision to purchase the new computers – a decision made by Mamram, the C4I Directorate unit responsible for the military’s computer network – was not directly connected to the Kamm affair, but was, a senior officer said on Thursday, part of the military’s overall efforts to tighten security.
“Information security is always on our minds,” the officer said.
Some of the new computers, made by Hewlett Packard and purchased in amultimillion-dollar deal, will come with specially-designed keyboardsthat can only be accessed by the insertion of a smart card into itsside and the biometric identification of the designated user’sfingerprint. Currently, IDF computers are accessed by a smart cardinserted into a special apparatus connected to the computer.
The new computers will come without a CD-ROM drive, to prevent thecopying of sensitive information. In addition, if a disk-on-key isattached to an IDF computer, it will immediately set off an alarm atthe IDF Information Security Unit, alerting soldiers there of apossible infiltration.