Protests are ongoing across Ireland against Allied Irish Bank (AIB) regarding a proposed $1.2 million cybersecurity contract with Snyk, a tech company founded by former members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Unit 8200. Protesters have breached the AIB Headquarters in Dublin, and campaigns are actively urging customers to close their accounts. [1, 2, 3, 4]
The Bloody Sunday Trust has advised consumers, businesses and community groups to close their bank accounts with AIB if the bank proceeds with its intention to sign a contract with SNYK Tech, an Israeli tech firm founded and run by former members of the IDF’s Unit 8200.
Tony Doherty, Chair of the Trust explained,
“As the signals and cyber-warfare arm of Israel’s military intelligence, Unit 8200 plays a central role in the targeting, murder, blackmail and mass surveillance of Palestinians.
Of relevance to the proposed AIB contract with SNYK Tech however, are the numerous examples of how the expertise developed in that unit can, and has, been used to create commercial tech platforms that have then covertly harvested data and put consumer security at risk”.
Mr Doherty made the following recommendation,
“Should this contract indeed proceed, the Bloody Sunday Trust will close its AIB bank accounts and advises people in whatever sector, who wish to protect their sensitive personal data, to do likewise.
In the interim it is also important that AIB is left in no doubt that its proposed partnership with SNYK Tech will render it complicit in genocide. As Francesca Albanese’s UN reports demonstrate conclusively, economic relationships such as the one AIB intends to enter into with SNYK Tech sustain systems of oppression and this is a documented reality that cannot be ignored or excused”.