How Israeli spy veterans are shaping US big tech
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 747 Ratings
🗓️ 29 August 2025
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Unit 8200, Israel’s elite cyber-intelligence division, has long been compared to the US National Security Agency. Its veterans are now embedded in US tech companies, shaping how the world’s data is managed, and making deals worth billions. What does it mean for privacy and security?
In this episode:
- Murtaza Hussain (@mazmhussain) Journalist, Drop Site News
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Noor Wazwaz and Diana Ferrero with Sarí el-Khalili, Melanie Marich, Farhan Rafid, Kisaa Zehra, and our guest host, Natasha Del Toro. It was edited by Amy Walters.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Today, where do Israeli high-tech spies go after their government service? |
| 0:16.0 | We see a pipeline of people being brought in from the Israeli intelligence apparatus |
| 0:21.8 | into major roles in the cybersecurity space. |
| 0:25.4 | So what does it mean when former Israeli spies are embedded in the tech companies that run our lives? |
| 0:33.9 | I'm Natasha Deltoro, and this is The Take. |
| 0:46.1 | I'm Murtazza Lusain. I'm a national security reporter for Dropside News based in New York. |
| 0:50.4 | Well, welcome back to the Take, Murtaza. |
| 0:52.7 | So you published a story that was looking at more than |
| 0:56.6 | a thousand Israeli intelligence veterans who are now working inside U.S. tech companies, which is |
| 1:02.6 | pretty striking. Why don't you tell me a little bit about your investigation? And what stood out |
| 1:08.7 | most to you? |
| 1:11.7 | So recently, there was a very high profile takeover by a cybersecurity company in Silicon Valley called Paulo Alto Networks of an Israeli company called CyberArk. |
| 1:22.5 | It was a multi-billion dollar takeover. It made a lot of headlines for the size. |
| 1:26.9 | But what was not mentioned was that the head or the |
| 1:29.4 | CTO of Palo Alto Networks and the head of CyberArc were both veterans of the same Israeli intelligence |
| 1:34.6 | unit, unit 8200. That's the elite signals intelligence unit of the Israeli military. They're tasked with |
| 1:41.6 | carrying out surveillance, helping develop AI programs for targeting, |
| 1:45.9 | and other military operations on behalf of the Israeli military in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, other countries. |
| 1:52.6 | And it was only one of a very, very large string of takeovers by Palo Alto network, |
| 1:57.5 | specifically of startups, which were also founded by Unit A-200 members. |
| 2:01.6 | So actually, the number of former intelligence officials from Israel publicly identified ones |
... |
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