Israeli security forces have thwarted over 450 significant terrorist attacks in 2019, Shin Bet security agency Director Nadav Argaman said on Thursday.
Speaking at the UVID International Conference and Exhibition on Unmanned Vehicles in Tel Aviv, Argaman credited his agency's success to cutting-edge technologies, collaboration with the IDF and Israel Police, and what he called the Shin Bet's "synergy with our counterparts around the world."
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The effort by the Israeli domestic security and counterintelligence service "have allowed Israeli citizens to go about their daily lives without knowing what's going on behind the scenes," he said
Elaborating on the technological means the Shin Bet uses in its operations, Argaman noted, "As an organization, we first and foremost have people, excellent people. We try to use the best technology in the world and collaborate with our counterparts worldwide, and this allows us to maintain our relative advantage against the challenges our enemies pose."
The Shin Bet, he added, always prefers using Israeli technology and the innovations produced by the local military industries. "We procure Israeli technologies before anything else," Argaman said.
In addition to an extensive network of confidential informants and other conventional intelligence-gathering techniques, the Shin Bet has long been known to use advanced algorithms to scan social media and other databases for indications of terrorist activities.
