THE Student Loans Company is under fire for having an open public contract with an Israeli firm which has ties to the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF).
Cybersecurity firm CyberArk currently has a contract with the UK Government-owned non-profit – which administers loans and grants to UK university students – totalling over £1.4 million.
The Israeli firm also previously had a contract with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) which ended in 2024.
A spokesperson told The National that it has “no direct interest in or corporate association” with the IDF.
But Omer Grossman, CyberArk’s chief information officer, served in the IDF for 25 years.
Its current vice president of cyber research, Lavi Lazarovitz, is also an active duty officer in the Israeli Air Force (IAF) according to the Hind Rajab Human Rights Foundation (HRF) – who recently filed a complaint with the Dutch Public Prosecutor’s Office accusing him of potential war crimes.
His social media suggests he previously (rather than currently) served in the IAF.
Meanwhile, CyberArk founders, Udi Mokady and Alon N. Cohen, also have backgrounds in Israel's military intelligence Unit 8200.
The Scottish Greens have criticised that public money is being sent to the firm given these ties to the IDF, and suggested it should be boycotted amid the genocide in Gaza.
Pro-Palestine campaigners at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) previously called on the university to drop CyberArk’s multi-factor identification software.
The firm is listed as “high priority” on boycott-israel.org – which compiles a list of Israeli and international companies to boycott to put pressure on the Israeli government to stop its illegal settlements in the West Bank and comply with international law amid the genocide in Gaza.
The Scottish Palestine Solidarity campaign (SPSC) also criticised SLC’s public contract with CyberArk, saying that giving money to the company contributes to Israel’s tax base.
CyberArk was recently acquired by Palo Alto Networks for £25bn, with the deal – according to Israeli media – hugely boosting state coffers.
“Israel's huge technical edge over Palestinians has been key in allowing Israel to proceed for decades without any need to negotiate meaningfully with its victims,” SPSC spokesperson Mick Napier told The National.
“Investing in such technology, whether the Israeli surveillance system deployed in Glasgow city centre for over a decade, Police Scotland's recent purchase of Israeli Cellbrite technology to hack thousands of Scottish phones, or the lucrative contracts for Israeli CyberArk – each of these contributes to the tax base of the state currently charged with genocide at the ICJ and whose leader has an arrest warrant for war crimes from the ICC.”
He added: “These are all aspects of Britain's participation in the genocide, carrying out what a recent UN Human Rights Committee inquiry called the 'extermination' of Palestinians.”
Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie (below) told The National that this Labour Government, in spite of the genocide, is continuing to support the state of Israel by “refusing to boycott and divest from companies with obvious links to the IDF and the state itself”.
“The UK Government are claiming they will recognise a Palestinian state next month and calling for a two-state solution,” he said.
“But in practice, this Labour government are still continuing to blatantly support the state of Israel, by refusing to boycott and divest from companies with obvious links to the IDF and the state itself, both of which are carrying out the most horrific war crimes in recent history in the mass killing and genocide of people in Gaza.”
Harvie added: “Both the Scottish and UK Governments must fully commit to ensure that no more public money is sent to fund Israel’s abhorrent war machine and its supporters. It is anti-democratic and frankly, insulting to the taxpayers who don’t want their money going towards those aiding and abetting such detestable crimes against humanity.”
The Student Loans Company (SLC) said the contract with CyberArk was entered into via G Cloud, which is the UK Government framework that enables public sector organisations to purchase cloud-based services from suppliers
“SLC procured the CyberArk product, in accordance with the required compliance arrangements in alignment with Public Contract Regulation 2015, using the Crown Commercial Service ‘G Cloud 13’, contracting via a third-party reseller,” the SLC spokesperson said.
“Ahead of the contract expiring in 2026, SLC will conduct a replacement procurement that meets current public sector procurement regulations.”
A CyberArk spokesperson said: “CyberArk is a global company, with approximately 4000 employees situated in more than 50 countries worldwide.
"Our Israeli employees, like citizens employed by all companies with operations in Israel - no matter where they originate - are subject to compulsory national service. Israel has a thriving technology and R&D industry contributing towards numerous global technology companies, many of which are household names.
"Collectively, these enterprises protect millions of citizens worldwide from organised cybercrime (precisely as CyberArk does).
"CyberArk is absolutely not unique in this respect, so we’re not clear on the narrative that this article is attempting to convey. For its part, CyberArk is a publicly traded company on NASDAQ and subject to the independence rules of the US listing authorities. The company has no direct interest in or corporate association with the IDF.
"CyberArk’s solutions are categorically not tools which can be used for war or any other act of aggression and are entirely defensive in nature.
"In fact, we pride ourselves on helping to defend our customers against malicious threat actors. These customers include a wide range of non-governmental organisations globally in critical sectors such as finance, healthcare, energy, and manufacturing, which utilise CyberArk to safeguard sensitive data and infrastructure.
"In doing so, CyberArk plays an instrumental role in fortifying the global economy against persistent and evolving threats in the technology landscape.”
