In its first-ever public recruiting drive, being launched on Tuesday, the Shin Bet security service is calling on high-tech geeks to join the anti-terror battle. "If you thought the only way to fight terror was with Arabic, think again," says the campaign's slogan.

Shin Bet sources admit the ad campaign is also intended to change the organization's image. For many, the first thing that springs to mind at the mention of Shin Bet is torture. The people in the service are tired of that. They want the Shin Bet to be associated with advanced technology and software development.

"We want the public to know other sides [of the service], not only the investigations and dark rooms," a Shin Bet source said on Monday. "The public doesn't know the service's technological side, which is an essential tool of preventive security. Part of the campaign's aim is to bring that to mind."

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"We've located web sites used by high-tech people, and will put Shin Bet banners in them," he added.

The want ads will be published over a few weeks. The service will also approach potential candidates with a letter signed by Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin.

The Shin Bet will market the jobs as "technology with real vocation, not just another start-up waiting for a chance," says a source close to the campaign.

The service was looking for people "who have been out there and made it," and who are now looking for an opportunity to develop technology "that could save lives, catch the suicide bomber on his way to Tel Aviv," he says.

"People think Israel's warfare with terror organizations takes place mainly in operative field activity. But a lot of the secret people who belong to the Shin Bet are software engineers, programmers, and IT and communications people. The technological interface is an important part of our operative activity and many of the warnings and preventive activity we hear of in the media would not have succeeded without the Shin Bet's advanced information systems," he says.

The security service is also putting together a benefits package intended to entice high-tech people from the private market.

MK Yisrael Hasson (Yisrael Beitenu), who was the service's deputy head until 2002, says that in his time the Shin Bet did not bother with its public image. He is also surprised that Shin Bet is associated with torture. "All the Shin Bet's interrogation facilities are supervised today. On the other hand, the advanced technology field was always very developed," he says.

Asked why today ads were needed to recruit people, Hasson says: "It's always hard to get people in technology. It's a very competitive market, even if you're named Bill Gates. There's a lot of satisfaction in the service, but if you develop things you can't make use of them or advertise them afterward."

One of the founders of ICQ, high-tech entrepreneur Yossi Vardi, has also been recruited to the campaign. He is overseas and unavailable for comment, but a Shin Bet source explained that Vardi is "a known high-tech figure. He can help recruit suitable people."

Five years ago the Shin Bet opened a spokesman's office. Its heads deny that the Shin Bet has a spokesman but journalists are given a telephone number to refer questions to. Shin Bet people from that office also ghost-write articles themselves and offer them to journalists.

The source refused to discuss the cost of the recruitment drive.