Tal Kollender Co-Founder & CEO, CISO at Gytpol
G
rowing up in Israel, Tal Kollender
hacking; to her it was simply playing with the game’s
became a tomboy because her mother
scoring system and its database.
was out at work most days and her father out in the evenings working as
Over time she learnt to hack many online games
an investigator. There were few girls her
and saved herself many hours of playing hard.
age living nearby, so Kollender was left on her own
She became driven by how easy it was that she
much of the time to hang out with her brother and
didn’t need to invest as much time to play over and
the neighbourhood boys, outdoors playing ball. She
over again winning items. This was in the days
quickly realised that Barbie’s and Polly Pocket dolls
before Google and explanatory videos made such
were not for her.
hacks easily accessible: hers were all self-taught from scratch. She became the Robin Hood of her
When she was 11 years old Kollender was given her
neighbourhood, handing out her winnings.
first computer. The internet and online games were just starting to gain traction. She was intrigued, and
A YOUTHFUL BLACK HAT HACKER
very quickly learnt how to cheat at games. She greatly
At 16, no one looked at her as someone serious so
enjoyed competing and winning.
she decided to prove to them that they needed her product by showing them how easy it was to hack
There was one particular game she had mastered and
into their accounts.
in which she always came out on top. But after one long night of play she awoke the next morning only
A few years later when Kollender had been called
two hours later to find someone had beaten her top
up for her mandatory Israeli Defence Force service
score. She concluded the only way they could have
she entered pilot training but failed. However her
done this in two hours was by cheating.
superiors recognised her potential and assigned her to the intelligence service, which obliged her to
44
To figure out how this had been achieved she became
mend her ways in order to gain security clearance
a hacker at age 14. She did not at the time see this as
and serve her country. She changed from being a
W O M E N I N S E C U R I T Y M A G A Z I N E
S E P T E M B E R • O C T O B E R 2023