The IDF has instituted a number of new security measures over the past year
aimed at preventing major leaks of sensitive information, such as what was
published by WikiLeaks on Sunday.
The new safeguards were developed by
the IDF’s Information Security Unit and include a system that will track every
document classified as top secret by the military, whom it is sent to, who
printed it and who burned it onto a CD.
RELATED:'US planned Wikileaks to pressure Iran'Website listing details of IDF commanders taken downThe new system will not allow a
document that is classified as top secret, for example, to be transferred to
someone who does not have security clearance to view such
documents.
“This does not mean that something like WikiLeaks cannot
happen in Israel, but it would be more difficult,” a former officer involved in
information security said on Monday.
The tightening of regulations has
taken place over the past year and gained importance after Anat Kam was arrested
for leaking thousands of top secret and classified documents to a
Haaretz
reporter.
Kam, who served as an assistant to OC Central Command
Maj.-Gen.
Yair Naveh’s bureau chief during her IDF service, was exposed
to classified and sensitive military information.
Over a period of what
appears to be a year, she allegedly copied the documents into a folder she had
created on a computer in the office and then burned them all onto a CD during
her last week of service.
Other steps taken by the IDF have included
thorough background checks of soldiers serving in sensitive positions and the
cataloging of every IDF soldier according to their level of clearance. Sources
said on Monday that the IDF has increased the number of polygraphs it conducts
on soldiers and officers by 50 percent in the past year.
In addition, if
a disc-on-key is attached to an IDF computer, it will immediately set off an
alarm at the IDF Information Security Unit, alerting soldiers there of a
possible security breach.