Shalev Hulio, once dubbed “Israel’s cyber bad boy,” has been working hard to remake himself. By all appearances, it’s been a big success.

Things were looking dicey a few years ago when his company, the Israeli firm NSO Group, rose to infamy. Its Pegasus spyware had been exposed as enabling human rights abuses. Eventually, NSO was blacklisted by the U.S. government, and in August 2022, Hulio resigned as CEO.

In the last two years, however, Hulio has become involved in a web of new cybersecurity ventures. He is back, it seems, and better than ever.

In November, in a video filmed at the Gaza Strip, Hulio announced his new startup, Dream Security, an AI firm focused on defending critical infrastructure.

In April, according to Israel’s largest newspaper, a co-founder of IntelEye — a company that monitors the “dark web” — identified his former NSO colleague Hulio as an investor. (Another IntelEye official later told The Intercept that Hulio isn’t a shareholder but refused to clarify further.)

Now, Hulio is moving his cybersecurity entrepreneurism into a new arena: the academy. This month, he announced the founding of “The Institute,” a new initiative at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev that aims to become an Israeli hub for training and research on artificial intelligence.

Hulio has described his post-NSO career as a move away from “offensive” cybersecurity work. When he launched Dream, Hulio told the press, “We decided to leave the intelligence side, offensive side if you want, and move to the defensive side.”

Taking the helm of The Institute is the most recent step in Hulio’s makeover from being a public villain to becoming a cyberhero, leading a nation’s technological education. At The Institute’s highly publicized launch he shared a stage with Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

The companies Hulio has been involved in — founded, led, launched, or reportedly invested in — feature the same rotating cast of characters. And from NSO to Dream to IntelEye, there are different, sometimes intersecting missions, but one thing is constant: All three support the Israeli government in its war effort.

Hulio had bragged in November that NSO’s Pegasus software was used to track down Israeli hostages, confirming an October report. Meanwhile, Hulio announced Dream’s founding one month after Hamas’s attack on the Gaza border to show Israel’s resilience and help the government.

IntelEye is involved in direct, offensive intelligence work. At the request of the Israeli government, the company reportedly uncovered information identifying a pair of Palestinian brothers and shutting down Hamas propaganda — leading to the killing of one brother and a police raid on the other.

Exactly what resulted from IntelEye’s work, however, is the subject of conflicting accounts. This much is obvious: The company is in the high-stakes........

© The Intercept