Amnon Jackont (born 1948 in
Ramat GanRamat Gan is a city in the Tel Aviv district of Israel, located east of Tel Aviv. It is home to one of the world's major diamond exchanges and Israel's tallest building, the Moshe Aviv Tower. Ramat Gan was established in 1921 as a moshava, a communal farming settlement. At the end of 2007, the...
) is an
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
i author of thrillers, an
historianAn historian is an individual who studies and writes about history, and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all events in time...
and a literary editor.
Jackont was allowed to postpone his military service for law studies at the
Hebrew University of JerusalemThe Hebrew University of Jerusalem is Israel's oldest university....
. During the summer breaks he would serve in the military, but was injured and became disabled. He stopped his studies and became a successful businessman, active in real estate, investements and insurance. From 1980 he writes next to his business endeavours.
Amnon Jackont (born 1948 in
Ramat GanRamat Gan is a city in the Tel Aviv district of Israel, located east of Tel Aviv. It is home to one of the world's major diamond exchanges and Israel's tallest building, the Moshe Aviv Tower. Ramat Gan was established in 1921 as a moshava, a communal farming settlement. At the end of 2007, the...
) is an
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
i author of thrillers, an
historianAn historian is an individual who studies and writes about history, and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all events in time...
and a literary editor.
Jackont was allowed to postpone his military service for law studies at the
Hebrew University of JerusalemThe Hebrew University of Jerusalem is Israel's oldest university....
. During the summer breaks he would serve in the military, but was injured and became disabled. He stopped his studies and became a successful businessman, active in real estate, investements and insurance. From 1980 he writes next to his business endeavours. Almost all his books became bestsellers. From 1988 he worked as a literary editor for the
Keter Publishing HouseKeter Publishing House is one of the largest publishers in Israel. It was formed in 2005 through a merger of Keter Publishing and Steimatzky. Keter has a large book marketing and distribution network, as well print services and book production for the Israeli domestic and export market...
.
In 1997 Jackont ceased his business activities to concentrate on his own writing and editing and on his history studies at the
Tel Aviv UniversityTel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Israel. In 2006, it had 29,000 students.-History:...
, were he also teaches history and literature. After completing his masters (2002), he has completed his PhD degree at the same university (2006).
Since 2002 he is also active in business and relationship counseling, in workshops and TV programs. Some of these are conducted with his wife, radio show hostess Varda Rasiel-Jackont. Amnon and Varda Jackont live in
Tel AvivTel Aviv-Yafo , usually called Tel Aviv, is the second largest city in Israel, with an estimated population of 391,300. The city is situated on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline, with a land area of...
.
Trojan horse exposure
In 2005, Jackont helped expose an
industrial espionageIndustrial espionage or corporate espionage is espionage conducted for commercial purposes instead of national security purposes.The term is distinct from legal and ethical activities such as examining corporate publications, websites, patent filings, and the like to determine the activities of a...
ring involving executives at several major Israeli corporations. During the previous year, he had noticed excerpts from an unpublished manuscript appearing in
internet forumAn ', or message board, is an online discussion site. It originated as the modern equivalent of a traditional bulletin board, and a technological evolution of the dialup bulletin board system. From a technological standpoint, forums or boards are web applications managing user-generated content...
s, followed by a series of harsh reviews once the book was actually published. He also determined that his email was being read and manipulated by someone else.
When a computer technician found that the problem was a
Trojan horseA Trojan horse, or trojan for short, is a term used to describe malware that appears, to the user, to perform a desirable function but, in fact, facilitates unauthorized access to the user's computer system. The term comes from the Trojan Horse story in Greek mythology.Trojan horses are not...
program on his computer, Jackont reported the matter to police. The person responsible was eventually identified as Michael Haephrati, the ex-husband of Varda's daughter from a previous marriage, who had apparently written the Trojan horse. The same program was identified as having been used by three private detective agencies to collect information from the espionage victims on behalf of their competitors.
Hebrew
- Pesek-Zeman (Borrowed Time) (Israel: Am Oved, 1982) ISBN 9651301155.
- Malkodet Devash (Honey Trap) (Israel: Keter Publishing, 1984) ISBN 9650703632.
- Ish ha-sagrir: Sifre penai (The Rainy-Day Man) (Israel: Am Oved, 1987) ISBN 9651304758.
- Aharon ha-meahavim ha-hakhamim (Last of the Wise Lovers) (Israel: Keter Publishing, 1991) ISBN 9650701656.
- Mukhan le-hayim: Sipurim: Keter ketsarim (Ready for Life: Stories) (Israel: Keter Publishing, 2000) ISBN 9650709150.
- Mavo Le-Ahava (Introduction to Love) (Israel: Keter Publishing, 2001)
- With Varda Rasiel Jacont: Shin Kmo Sheker (L as in Lies) (Israel: Keter Publishing, 2004)
English
- Borrowed Time (UK: Hamish Hamilton, 1986, ISBN 0241118476) (USA: Trafalgar Square, 1988, ISBN 0241118751)