AU10TIX, an Israeli-based firm specialising in online user verification, provides services to some of the world’s biggest online platforms. Its partners include X (formerly Twitter), Uber, PayPal and Google, as well as LinkedIn, Microsoft, AirB&B and Santander Bank (see scrolling list of partners on AU10TIX website).

So if you do online banking, or use online social media, or purchase items online, or you update your career profile, or indeed you search for anything online, the chances are that AU10TIX knows quite a bit about you.

But perhaps the really worrying aspect to this verification process are the historical links AU10TIX have with Israeli military intelligence.

AU10TIX’s intelligence links

AU10TIX was founded by members of unit 8200, a branch of Israeli military intelligence. As previously reported by UndercoverInfo:

Soldiers in the [8200] unit are in charge of developing and utilizing information gathering tools, analyzing, processing and sharing of the gathered info to relevant officials. The unit operates in all zones and in wartime, they join combat field headquarters in order to enable a faster flow of information.

In late October Mint Press published its investigation into AU10TIX.

It reported that the company was first set up in 2002:

as the technological arm of Dutch security company ICTS International, which itself was founded by former members of the Israeli security agency, Shin Bet, and ex-security officials at Israeli airline, El Al.

AU10TIX founder and current chairman, Ron Atzmon, served in Shin Bet’s notorious 8200 unit, which surveils Palestinians and uses the information for political persecution as well as sowing division in Palestinian society by identifying potential informants.

But Atzmon isn’t the only one

Several of Atzmon’s company’s engineers also worked for unit 8200.

Mint Press added:

The company’s leadership is also packed with former Israeli soldiers. AU10TIX’s vice president of product management, Nir Stern, served in the Israeli Air Force. Avidan Lamdan, vice president of research and development, worked as an engineer in the Israeli military. The company’s general counsel, Udi Abram, worked as an Israeli military captain, as well as working for five years at Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer arming Israel’s military. Elad Elazar, vice president of pre-sales, was a major in the Israeli military. And AU10TIX’s Asia-Pacific head, Rom Amir, was an Israeli army lieutenant.

Also AU10TIX’s Quality Control Group Manager Lior Emuna spent two years and nine months with Unit 8200.

AU10TIX’s parent company, ICTS International, specialises in airport security technology. Menachem Atzmon, chair of ICTS’s supervisory board, was the co-treasurer of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party.

AU10TIX and ID verification

In a June 2023 interview with Pulse 2.0 Atzmon briefly explained how AU10TIX’s Identity Verification Suite works, offering:

ID, age, and address verification, along with voice and video consent, face compare, and liveness testing.

He added that AU10TIX’s collaboration with Microsoft provides “verifiable credentials (VC) architecture for identity management”.

Billions of ID’s verified.

In June 2023 Atzmon pointed out that AU10TIX has verified “over one billion IDs worldwide with the highest built-in automation in the industry”. The latest figure on AU10TIX’s website claims that figure has now increased to two billion.

Let that sink in: two billion IDs were processed on behalf of the world’s biggest tech companies by a firm, based in the Israeli city Hod Hasharon, with long-standing links to Israeli military intelligence.

Featured image via Wikimedia/IDF