Itzik Kotler
Itzik Kotler is an Israeli entrepreneur,[1] inventor,[2][3] and information security specialist[4] who is the co-founder and CTO of SafeBreach, an Israeli cybersecurity firm.[5][6] Kotler was previously the Security Operation Center Team Leader at Tel Aviv-based Radware.[7] He has given multiple talks at DEF CON, the world's largest hacker convention.[8][9][10]
Itzik Kotler | |
---|---|
Born | |
Occupation | Entrepreneur Inventor Information security specialist |
Known for | Co-founder and CTO of SafeBreach |
Website | SafeBreach |
Career
Kotler is an autodidact and played with computers and programmed since an early age. He started his career with the Israel Defense Forces.[5][11] After serving in the military, Kotler worked at Radware where he became the Security Operation Center Team Leader.[12] In 2009, Kotler (along with colleague, Tomer Bitton) demonstrated at DEF CON how a hacker could feasibly spread malware through software updates for applications like Skype. At the conference, Kotler and Bitton released a tool known as Ippon ("game over" in judo parlance) that could ask users on a public Wi-Fi network to update a specific application. If the users agreed, they would download malware instead of the updated version of the application.[7][8]
Kotler left Radware in 2010 and joined a digital security firm, Security Art. Kotler served as the company's CTO. In May 2011, Kotler presented at the HackInTheBox conference in Amsterdam where he demonstrated how a Stuxnet-like malware could physically destroy servers in a permanent denial-of-service (PDoS) attack.[13] Later in 2011, Kotler and Iftach Ian Amit presented at DEF CON, demonstrating how a bot master could communicate with botnets and with "zombie machines" using VoIP conference calls. Their open-source software, Moshi Moshi, illustrated how they could send instructions to and receive data from botnets and infiltrated networks using any phone line (including payphones).[9][14] Kotler also hosted a "Hack-a-thon" in 2011 with the goal of teaching hackers new techniques and improving information security.[4][15]
After leaving Security Art, Kotler went on to co-found SafeBreach with Guy Bejerano in September 2014.[16] Kotler serves as the company's CTO.[5] In July 2015, SafeBreach announced that it had raised $4 million in funding from Silicon Valley-based Sequoia Capital and angel investor, Shlomo Kramer.[1][6] One of the company's primary services is a simulated "war game" that seeks to find breaches in a network's system.[6]
Kotler is the author of "Reverse Engineering with LD_PRELOAD," an article published in 2005.[17] The article discussed how LD_PRELOAD can be abused in order to highjack functions and inject code and manipulate applications flow.[18] The same year, Kotler wrote for and presented at the 22nd Chaos Communication Congress.[19] His presentation "Advanced Buffer Overflow Methods" was used in various academic papers and conferences.[20][21][22] Additional work includes speaking at BlackHat USA and RSA Europe in 2008 on the topic of a prototype Javascript malware called Jinx,[23][24] and organizing two additional hackathons proving the concept of Trojan in Python that infects Python files.[25]
References
- "TechNation Bezeq Launches Smart' Home Monitoring System Featuring Camera and Door Monitors". Haaretz. 9 July 2015. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
- Ligh, Michael Hale; Andrew Case; Jamie Levy; Aaron Walters (28 July 2014). The Art of Memory Forensics: Detecting Malware and Threats in Windows, Linux, and Mac Memory (1 ed.). Wiley. ISBN 978-1118825099.
- Grant, Nicholas; Joseph Shaw II (7 October 2013). Unified Communications Forensics: Anatomy of Common UC Attacks. Syngress. ISBN 9780124046054.
- "קבוצת Defcon Israel בכנס Hackathon ראשון" (in Hebrew). Geektime. 28 June 2011. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
- Weinglass, Simona (8 July 2015). "What would your enemy do? Israeli cybersecurity firm SafeBreach raises $4m". Geektime. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
- Goldenberg, Roy (8 July 2015). "Cyber security co SafeBreach raises $4m". Globes. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
- Mills, Elinor (3 August 2009). "Using software updates to spread malware". CNET. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
- "קבוצתחוקרים ישראליים מזהירים: תהליך העדכון של תוכנות חשוף להפצת מזיקים" (in Hebrew). PC.co. 3 August 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
- Greene, Tim (9 August 2011). "Defcon: VoIP makes a good platform for controlling botnets". Network World. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
- "חברים בוועדות תקינה אבטחת מידע". www.sii.org.il (in Hebrew). Standards Institute of Israel. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
- Masserini, John Lucas (8 July 2015). "SafeBreach Raises $4 million In First Funding Round". Security Current. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
- Kotler, Itzik (30 July 2008). "Web 2.0: Attack of the JavaScript malware". SC Magazine. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
- Rubens, Paul (30 June 2011). "Stop Software Attacks From Destroying Your Servers". Serverwatch.com. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
- Greene, Tim (10 August 2011). "10 scariest hacks from Black Hat and Defcon". Network World. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
- "ריצת המרתון של ההאקרים". Globes (in Hebrew). 27 June 2011. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
- "סקויה ושלמה קרמר משקיעים 4 מיליון דולר בחברת אבטחת מידע ישראלית" (in Hebrew). TheMarker. 8 July 2015. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
- Kotler, Izik (6 July 2005). "Reverse Engineering with LD_PRELOAD". Security Vulns. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
- Ligh, Michael Hale (2014). The Art of Memory Forensics: Detecting Malware and Threats in Windows, Linux, and Mac Memory. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781118824993.
- "Advanced Buffer Overflow Methods or Smack the Stack". Chaos Communication Congress. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
- Heelan, Sean (3 September 2009). "Automatic Generation of Control Flow Hijacking Exploits for Software Vulnerables" (PDF). Univbersity of Oxford. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
- "CSE 277 - Computer Security" (PDF). ECSD.edu. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
- Muller, Tilo (17 February 2008). "ASLR Smack & Laugh Reference" (PDF). Seminar on Advanced Espoitation Techniques. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
- "RSA Conference Europe 2008".
- "Javascript to be next core malware language". itNews. 30 October 2008. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
- Doherty, Stephen (7 October 2011). "THis Python Has Venom!". Symantec. Archived from the original on 6 December 2011. Retrieved 20 October 2015.