{"id":646,"date":"2018-01-03T16:28:33","date_gmt":"2018-01-03T16:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forbes.co.il\/e\/?p=646"},"modified":"2021-06-29T13:26:51","modified_gmt":"2021-06-29T13:26:51","slug":"i-dont-want-to-be-an-anecdote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forbes.co.il\/e\/i-dont-want-to-be-an-anecdote\/","title":{"rendered":"“I Don\u2019t Want To Be An Anecdote”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello Neo | How do you know that name? | I know a lot about you | Who are you? | My name is Trinity | Trinity\u2026 the<\/strong> Trinity? That cracked the IRST base? | That was a long time ago | Jesus | What? | I just thought… you\u2019re a guy | Most guys do<\/p>\n

(The Matrix, 1999)<\/p>\n

Meet Keren Elazari<\/strong> (36), one of the most successful individuals in the cyber security world today. \u201cI\u2019m a researcher, I\u2019m an analyst, I\u2019m a strategic consultant, I\u2019m an author, I\u2019m a lecturer. When people ask me what\u2019s my title it\u2019s always hard to narrow it within just one field – I do a lot of things,\u201d she says. But in the early 90\u2019s, when 13 years old Elazari was taking her first steps as an autodidact hacker, the world was not ready for an outstanding successful woman in this manly field. It wasn\u2019t only Keanu Reeves who thought Trinity was a guy.<\/p>\n

Elazari actually names another film, Hackers<\/em>, starring Angelina Jolie<\/strong>, as part of what led her to cyber security. \u201cWhen I first started going into chat rooms I used all kinds of nicknames, one of them was even Angelina\u2019s character\u2019s nick in the film, Acid Burn,\u201d says Elazari. \u201cPeople who watched the film probably knew it was a girl on the other side, and people who didn\u2019t – just didn\u2019t. I kept it like this for a simple reason: there was no advantage back then to say you\u2019re a girl in a chat room. On the contrary – it would have attracted negative attention. It was better for me to keep a certain profile and chat about the technical stuff. In these forums there\u2019s something called ASL (age, sex, location) question and it wouldn\u2019t necessarily have been to my best interest to say I was a 13 year old girl from Tel Aviv.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Inspired by an Angelina Jolie hacker character. Keren Elazari<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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We will talk more about the absence of women that is still typical to this industry , more than 20 years later, but clearly the situation has significantly improved. \u201cIn ten days I\u2019m flying to Las Vegas, to the biggest hacker conference in the world, where 20 thousand people are expected to attend. In the first years I went I could have set listening to a lecture with another thousand people in the conference hall, and besides me there were maybe five women sitting there. Five women in the same room with a thousand men is intimidating.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the last few years it\u2019s been changing. I see more women, children, older people, transgenders, people with disabilities. In the 90s it was a white men club but today it\u2019s changed, not just because people are more aware and it\u2019s politically correct, but also because more and more people just feel more comfortable with the exposure.\u201d<\/p>\n

My Dad, The Cyber Security Expert<\/h3>\n

Elazari\u2019s father is Ami Elazari<\/strong>, CEO of Millennium Electric<\/strong> and formerly a senior in 8200, the cyber intelligence unit in the Israeli Defense Forces, one of the first cyber security experts in Israel. He began his career in cyber security when Elazari was a young girl, but one shouldn\u2019t immediately assume that has to do with Elazari\u2019s choice of career.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth my parents, together and apart, always encouraged me to be inquisitive. It was my mom who bought me my first computer and had it connected to the internet. They supported me when I wanted to attend conferences, when I wanted to go to academic science youth programs, when I wanted to sign up for school, when I researched, sitting hours in front of the computer, when I asked for a separate phone line for the Internet at the time when you had to use a phone line to get online. Even when I wanted to learn to type in English it was my mom who helped me,\u201d she reflects. \u201cMy parents, both of them, my dad with his professional background and my mom who is a career woman in an international airline, are the ones who gave me the means to delve in it and become a pro. They watched me and helped me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The self learning time Elazari spent during her childhood was not stopped when it was time for her to join the IDF. She looked for ways she can use her new abilities during her service but this was uncharted waters for the army. \u201cWhen I was drafted there were no courses or units for cyber defense or cyber warfare like they have today but I just spent four years in the cyber world and I already knew that\u2019s what I want to do, so in all my interviews with the recruiting and sorting officers I kept saying the same thing – information security. I was persistent yet sensitive and eventually I managed to get to a relevant position in a relevant department.\u201d<\/p>\n

The IDF, it seems, has grasped by now that cyber is important in more than just one way, not just for military purposes – but also social ones. \u201cNowadays they have so many more options, for men and for women. There are varied programs in high schools and even earlier. I think women in the army do get opportunities nowadays. What\u2019s missing is the thing that happens afterwards, when women leave the army and for some reason choose not to make a career in cyber\u201d.<\/p>\n

This is not just about unit 8200, whose veterans are most sought after in the industry, but also about a wide selection of tech units and programs that the IDF is preparing and training. \u201c8200 is truly an amazing platform, but just like the head of their veterans foundation, Nir Lempert<\/strong>, says, we should aspire to spread the opportunities and the success of 8200 to more groups in society, not just for people who were in 8200. There are women who don\u2019t want to join the army for different reasons, and of course 8200 is not suitable for everyone. That\u2019s why Israeli society should create more opportunities and programs for populations outside the army, such as ultra-orthodox women, the Arab sector and so on. Parts of the population who normally don\u2019t serve in the IDF. That shouldn\u2019t mean that they have no room in the cyber, hi-tech and technology industry. On the contrary. There are plenty of promising initiatives in this area, but what\u2019s really missing in my eyes is acceptance from the people who are already in the in the industry towards the other half of society – women,\u201d says Elazari.<\/p>\n

8200 IDF Unit: Narrowing the Gender Gap<\/h3>\n

Naturally, being a woman in the cyber world, as well as in the military, has a feminist meaning. \u201cI think that if we want equal rights then we should have equal duties,\u201d says Elazari when trying to explain one of the most intriguing details in her biography: the self-taught proactive girl, who came from a supporting well connected background, who was persistent when dealing with the army and gained one success after another – chose to serve 10 years in the army, first in the standing army and later in reserve, as an officer of cyber-security in the Intelligence department. \u201cI would have kept on serving in the reserve forces but they don\u2019t call me anymore,\u201d she smiles.<\/p>\n

\u201cServing in certain units in the army is sort of an entry ticket to a professional club. I strongly believe serving in the reserve force is part of my duty, for the sake of equality but also because I think it\u2019s important professionally. For me the military service was gap narrowing. I see a lot of women serving in tech units but not continuing that path after their discharge – and it\u2019s a shame. There\u2019s a potential here to increase the number of women in the tech industry based on tech military service.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the archetypal Israeli course of life we described hitherto, one cannot help wondering if being successful in the cyber world, where national borders do not exist, has changed Elazari\u2019s Israeli perception. \u201cThe truth is I see myself as first of all Tel Avivi,\u201d she answers frankly. \u201cI was born in Tel Aviv, and even today when they ask me where I\u2019m from I say I\u2019m from Tel Aviv.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elazary and her partner, cinematographer and augmented reality games creator Nadav Hekselman, own an apartment in the city, but – if to use Elazari\u2019s own words – they are actually \u201cdigital nomads\u201d. She explains: \u201cLast year Nadav was filming an American TV series for Sony and that was mostly in East Europe. I was moving in between the US, Europe and Tel Aviv. We were living out of our suitcases. But I pay taxes in Israel, my public health service is in Israel, I serve in the reserve army in Israel and my family is in Israel. Business wise I work around the world – my customers sit in Europe, the US and Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n

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