Ehud Tenenbaum
Israeli hacker (born 1979)
- Life
- 1979 – present
- Born
- August 29, 1979
- Nationality
- Israel
Ehud "Udi" Tenenbaum, also known as The Analyzer, is an Israeli hacker.
Early Life
Ehud Tenenbaum, also known by the handle The Analyzer, was born on August 29, 1979, in Hod HaSharon, Israel. Little is documented about his early education or background prior to his emergence as a significant figure in the hacking community during the late 1990s.
The Solar Sunrise Intrusions (1998)
Tenenbaum came to international attention in 1998 when he was arrested in connection with a series of intrusions into some of the most sensitive computer systems in the United States. Targets included NASA, the Pentagon, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy, the Knesset, and MIT, among other high-profile organizations. To carry out the intrusions, Tenenbaum installed packet analyzer and trojan horse software on compromised servers. He also claimed to have hacked into computers belonging to Palestinian groups and to have destroyed the website of Hamas.
The scale and coordination of the attacks alarmed U.S. officials at the highest levels. Then-Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre described the campaign as "the most organized and systematic attack to date" on U.S. military systems, and military analysts initially suspected the intrusions might represent sophisticated Iraqi information warfare operations. In response, the U.S. government assembled a task force drawing on agents from the FBI, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, NASA, the Department of Justice, the Defense Information Systems Agency, the NSA, and the CIA. Briefings on the threat reached the President of the United States.
The investigation, code-named Solar Sunrise, first led authorities to two teenagers in California. Their arrest in turn directed investigators toward Tenenbaum. Israeli police were provided evidence of his activities, and he was subsequently arrested. FBI agents later traveled to Israel to question him directly.
Legal Proceedings and Sentencing
Before sentencing, Tenenbaum served briefly in the Israel Defense Forces but was released after being involved in a traffic collision. In 2001, he pleaded guilty to the charges, stating that his intent had been to expose flaws in the targeted systems rather than to obtain classified information. He was sentenced to a year and a half in prison but served only eight months under the provisions of what was referred to as the "Deri Law."
The FBI produced an eighteen-minute training video titled Solar Sunrise: Dawn of a New Threat in the aftermath of the case. The video was sold as part of a hacker defense course that was discontinued in September 2004.
Post-Prison Career and Second Arrest
Following his release from prison in 2003, Tenenbaum founded an information security company called 2XS. However, in September 2008, he was arrested again in Montreal, Canada, following a joint investigation by Canadian police and the U.S. Secret Service. He and three accomplices faced charges related to credit card fraud totaling approximately US$1.5 million. U.S. investigators alleged that Tenenbaum and others had penetrated financial institutions around the world to steal credit card numbers, which were then sold to third parties who used them to commit large-scale fraud.
Tenenbaum was extradited to the United States to stand trial and remained in the custody of the U.S. Marshals for more than a year. In August 2010, he was released on bond after agreeing to plead guilty. In July 2012, New York district judge Edward Korman sentenced Tenenbaum to time already served, following a plea bargain that may have involved cooperation with investigators. He was also ordered to pay $503,000 in restitution and placed on three years' probation.
