Unit 8200
Unit 8200 is the signal intelligence and code deciphering arm of the Israel Defence Forces. It is the largest unit in the IDF and is headquartered at at Camp Glilot, north of Tel Aviv.[1] Until recently, it was usually referred to in public as the Central Collection Unit.[2] According to Israel Hayom, Unit 8200 is the Israeli Sigint National Unit referred to in National Security Agency (NSA) documents released by Edward Snowden.[3]
History
Unit 848
Prior to 1976, the unit was known as Unit 848.[4]
Autonomy recommendation
In 2004 a Knesset committee recommended turning the unit into an autonomous entity separate from the Defense Ministry, along the lines of its US equivalent, the National Security Agency.[5]
US intelligence-sharing deal
The Israeli Sigint National Unit agreed a deal for the mutual exchange of raw signals intelligence with the US National Security Agency in 2009, according to documents released by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.[6]
Cyber-attacks
UPI reported in June 2012 that the Unit 8200 had been involved in the Stuxnet and Flame cyber-attacks:
- Unit 8200 is widely seen to have been a key player in the Flame cyber attack on Iran, and some Arab states, in recent weeks.
- It was also deeply involved in the ground-breaking Stuxnet malware attack on Iran's uranium enrichment program, a vital element in the quest for nuclear weapons, in 2009-10 that U.S. officials say was jointly mounted by Israel and the United States.[7]
Syria
In August 2013, the German Focus website claimed that Unit 8200 had intercepted communications which showed that the Syrian regime was responsible for poison gas attacks near Damascus.[8][9]
Tech sector alumni
A Forbes article by Former Unit 8200 member Gil Kerbs, stated that "Israel's high-tech world is "flooded" with Unit alumni, as entrepreneurs and company founders or junior and senior executives.":
- "Take Nice, Comverse and Check Point for example, three of the largest high-tech companies, which were all directly influenced by 8200 technology," says [former Unit 8200 commander Hanan] Gefen. "Check Point was founded by Unit alumni. Comverse's main product, the Logger, is based on the Unit's technology. Look at Metacafe, one of the hottest companies today. Eyal Herzog, one of the founders, is also an 8200 alumnus and he accumulated a huge amount of relevant experience in the Unit."[10]
Author James Bamford and former CIA officer Philip Giraldi have suggested that the role of Unit 8200 veterans in the telecommunications industry is a threat to US national security.[11]
A US diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks in 2011, highlighted the role of former Unit 8200 personnel in Hazard Threat Analysis, Ltd. (HTA), a private company specializing in internet-based counter-terrorism (CT) intelligence gathering.[12] Unit 8200 alumni have founded or hold senior positions in numerous Israeli startups and global technology companies, particularly in cybersecurity, cloud computing, software and data analytics.[13][14]
More than 1,000 companies are estimated to have been founded by Unit 8200 veterans; at least five publicly traded U.S. tech firms started by alumni are collectively valued at around $160 billion.[13][15]
Hundreds of alumni are employed by global tech giants, with Microsoft alone hiring roughly 250 veterans and Google at least 99 (figures from public LinkedIn data as of 2025).[14][16]
Notable Unit 8200 alumni in technology companies
| Name | Company | Role | Company type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gil Shwed | Check Point Software Technologies | Co-founder & CEO | Israeli cybersecurity (global) | Co-developed first commercial firewall; company publicly traded in U.S.[17] |
| Nir Zuk | Palo Alto Networks | Founder & CTO | U.S.-listed cybersecurity | Publicly traded; market value over $100 billion.[14] |
| Udi Mokady | CyberArk | Founder & Executive Chairman | Cybersecurity | Israeli-origin global leader in privileged access management.[14] |
| Assaf Rappaport | Wiz | Co-founder & CEO | Cloud security startup | Four co-founders all Unit 8200 alumni; nearly acquired by Google for $23–32 billion in 2024–2025.[14] |
| Shlomo Kramer | Check Point, Imperva, Cato Networks | Co-founder (multiple) | Cybersecurity | Serial founder of multiple cybersecurity unicorns.[17] |
| Avishai Abrahami | Wix | Co-founder | Cloud-based web development | One of Israel's leading platforms.[15] |
| Talmon Marco | Viber | Founder | Messaging app | Acquired by Rakuten.[18] |
| Yotam Segev | Cyera | CEO | Cloud data security startup | Unicorn valued at $1.4 billion+.[19] |
| (Multiple unnamed) | Various roles | Global tech giant | At least 99 alumni identified via public profiles.[16] | |
| Tom Chet, Gilad Turbahn, others | Meta Platforms (Facebook) | Activations, engineering & management roles | Global tech giant | Multiple named alumni in key positions.[16] |
Unit 8200 alumni employed at Microsoft
LinkedIn data and investigative reporting (2022) identified at least 166 former Unit 8200 members at Microsoft. The following 22 named individuals are confirmed alumni working (or formerly) in technical, product, security and leadership roles at Microsoft.[16]
| Name | Role at Microsoft | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ayelet Steinitz | Former Head of Global Strategic Alliances | Senior leadership role.[16] |
| Tomer Lev | Senior Software Engineer | Technical development.[16] |
| Maayan Mazig | Senior Product Manager | Product strategy.[16] |
| Or Serok-Jeppa | Senior Product Manager | Product management.[16] |
| Yuval Derman | Senior Product Manager | Product management.[16] |
| Lia Yeshoua | Security Researcher | Security research.[16] |
| Yogev Shitrit | Security Researcher | Security research.[16] |
| Guni Merom | Security Researcher | Security research (joined Microsoft directly from Unit 8200).[16] |
| Meitar Pinto | Security Researcher | Security research (joined Microsoft directly from Unit 8200).[16] |
| Yaniv Carmel | Security Researcher | Security research (joined Microsoft directly from Unit 8200).[16] |
| Gilron Tsabkevich | Threat Protection Software Engineer | Threat protection engineering.[16] |
| Danielle Poleg | Data Scientist | Data science and analytics.[16] |
| Itai Grady | Threat Intelligence Officer | Threat intelligence.[16] |
| Liat Lisha | Security Product Manager | Security product management.[16] |
| Michael Bargury | Senior Architect | Architecture and systems design.[16] |
| Shlomi Haba | Principal Software Engineering Manager | Principal engineering leadership.[16] |
| Yaniv Yehuda | Senior Software Engineering Manager | Engineering management.[16] |
| Assaf Israel | Senior Software Engineering Manager | Engineering management.[16] |
| Michal Ben Yaacov | Senior Software Engineering Manager | Engineering management.[16] |
| Tal Rosler | Senior Product Manager | Product management.[16] |
| Adi Griever | Software Engineer | Software engineering.[16] |
| Yael Genut | Product Manager | Product management.[16] |
Unit 8200 alumni employed at Google
| Name | Role at Google | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Gavriel Goidel | Head of Strategy and Operations | Senior leadership role.[16] |
| Jonathan Cohen | Head of Insights, Data and Measurement | Senior leadership role.[16] |
| Ori Daniel | Head of Global Self-Service for Google Waze | Senior leadership role.[16] |
| Ben Bariach | Product Partnership Manager | Product partnerships.[16] |
| Gai Gutherz | Software Engineer | Technical development.[16] |
| Lior Liberman | Software Engineer | Technical development.[16] |
Unit 8200 alumni at Meta/Facebook
| Name | Role at Meta | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Guy Rosen | Vice President, Integrity | Senior leadership role in trust and safety.[16] |
| Eyal Klein | Head of Data Science, Messenger | Data science leadership.[16] |
| Eli Zeitlin | Engineering Manager | Engineering management.[16] |
| Tom Chet | Product Manager, Activations | Product management.[16] |
| Gilad Turbahn | Engineering Manager | Engineering management.[16] |
| Ranen Goren | Software Engineer | Technical development.[16] |
| Gil Osher | Software Engineer | Technical development.[16] |
| Yoav Goldstein | Product Manager | Product management.[16] |
| Dana Baril | Security Researcher | Security research.[16] |
| Omer Goldberg | Software Engineer | Technical development.[16] |
People and Structure
Masrega
Masrega was a Cold War-era unit within Unit 848 focused on the Soviet Union.[20]
- Nehemiah Burgin - head of the Translations Desk, c.1973.[21]
Known commanders
Limited verified details are available from public sources. Unit 848 was the direct predecessor of Unit 8200 (renamed in the 1950s/1960s). No named commanders of Unit 848 are publicly documented in available sources.
| Unit | Commander | Dates of service | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 848 (predecessor) | Col. Yoel Ben-Porat[22] | Pre-1950s/1960s | A commander of Unit 848 during the 1973 Yom Kippur War attempted to warn of imminent Egyptian attack but was overruled.[23] |
| Unit 8200 | Reuven Yerdor | c.1982.[24] | |
| Unit 8200 | Elie Barr | 1987-90.[25] | |
| Unit 8200 | Aharon Zeevi Farkash | 1990-93[26] | |
| Unit 8200 | Pinhas Buchris | 1997-2001 | |
| Unit 8200 | Yair Cohen | 2001–2005 | Brigadier General; commanded during a period of significant operational and structural development.[27] |
| Unit 8200 | Harari | 2004–2009 | Commander during this period (possible overlap or succession with Cohen).[28] |
| Unit 8200 | Asaf Kochan | Unknown (pre-2021) | Brigadier General (Res.); former commander.[29] |
| Unit 8200 | Hanan Gefen (Hanan Geffen) | Post-2005 (exact dates unknown) | Former commander.[30] |
| Unit 8200 | Yossi Sariel | February 2021 – September 2024 | Brigadier General; resigned following criticism over intelligence failures related to the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack.[31][32] |
| Unit 8200 | Brigadier General "A" (anonymous) | November 2025 – present | Current commander; assumed command in a closed ceremony at the unit’s southern base.[33] |
Unit Hatzav
Unit Hatzav is the open source intelligence unit within Unit 8200. It is responsible for obtaining intelligence and counterintelligence from television, radio, newspapers, and the Internet.[34] Hatzav produced a daily summary of the Arab press which is distributed to intelligence desks and decision makers.[35]
The unit was re-organised in 2007, according to Haaretz:
- In 2007 Hatzav was split up, with some members assigned to each Unit 8200 division that deals with a specific country or with the Palestinian Authority. It was meant to increase cooperation between the departments monitoring different sources of information, but has instead reduced Israel's intelligence capabilities, according to the sources. They said that over the past two years, the commanders of Hatzav and of Unit 8200 have been attempting to improve Hatzav, with limited success.[36]
With the onset of the Arab Spring in 2011, a decision was taken to increase military intelligence coverage of Arabic language social media. According to Israeli government sources quoted by Haaretz, this forced a reduction in resources devoted to mainstream media such as television broadcasts. As a result, the government increasingly relied on two right-wing private organisations, MEMRI and Palestinian Media Watch for coverage of anti-Israeli material in the Arab media. Government officials had reportedly complained about the situation to the head of military intelligence, Aviv Kochavi. In a response to Haaretz, the IDF insisted it was monitoring Arab media "24 hours a day, every day of the week, in a wide variety of fields, including the Palestinian field".[36]
External Resources
- Tobias Buck, Israel's army of tech start-ups, FT.com, 30 November 2011, archived at Israeli Occupation Archive.
- Peter Beaumont Israeli intelligence veterans refuse to serve in Palestinian territories. Innocent people under military rule exposed to surveillance by Israel, say 43 ex-members of Unit 8200, including reservists The Guardian, Friday 12 September 2014 10.44 BST
- https://css.ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/special-interest/gess/cis/center-for-securities-studies/pdfs/Cyber-Reports-2019-12-Unit-8200.pdf
Notes
- ↑ Amos Harel, Mystery surrounds suicide of officer from elite intel unit, Haaretz, 5 June 2009.
- ↑ Stacy Perman, Spies Inc. Business Innovation from Israel's Masters of Espionage, Pearson Education, 2005, p.12.
- ↑ Report: NSA routinely shares raw intelligence with Israel, Israel Hayom, 12 September 2013.
- ↑ Ephraim Kahana, Historical Dictionary of Israeli Intelligence, Scarecrow Press, 2006, p.43.
- ↑ Amos Harel, Mystery surrounds suicide of officer from elite intel unit, Haaretz, 5 June 2009.
- ↑ Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Ewen MacAskill, NSA shares raw intelligence including Americans' data with Israel, Guardian, 11 September 2013.
- ↑ Unit 8200 and Israel's high-tech whiz kids, upi.com, 4 June 2012.
- ↑ Bundeskanzlerin im FOCUS-InterviewGiftgasmassaker in Syrien: Merkel fordert Zugang für UN-Inspekteure, Focus, 24 August 2013.
- ↑ Adiv Sterman, ‘IDF intercepted Syrian regime chatter on chemical attack’, The Times of Israel, 26 August 2013.
- ↑ Gil Kerbs, The Unit, Forbes, 8 February 2007.
- ↑ Christopher Ketcham, Full-Spectrum Penetration: Israeli Spying in the United States, 12 March 2009.
- ↑ Private Israeli Company Collects Counter-terrorism Intelligence, Wikileaks, 1 September 2011.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Wall Street Journal, Silicon Valley’s Hot Talent Pipeline Is an Israeli Army Unit Wall Street Journal, 31 August 2024.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 Drop Site News, Hundreds of Former Israeli Spies Are Working in Big Tech Drop Site News, 13 August 2025.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Forbes, Inside Israel’s Secret Startup Machine Forbes, 11 May 2016.
- ↑ 16.00 16.01 16.02 16.03 16.04 16.05 16.06 16.07 16.08 16.09 16.10 16.11 16.12 16.13 16.14 16.15 16.16 16.17 16.18 16.19 16.20 16.21 16.22 16.23 16.24 16.25 16.26 16.27 16.28 16.29 16.30 16.31 16.32 16.33 16.34 16.35 16.36 16.37 16.38 16.39 16.40 16.41 MintPress News, Revealed: The Former Israeli Spies Working in Top Jobs at Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon MintPress News, 31 October 2022. Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "MintPress2022" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid<ref>tag; name "MintPress2022" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid<ref>tag; name "MintPress2022" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ 17.0 17.1 Laurence Sangarde-Brown, Unit 8200: The Startup Machine of Israel LinkedIn, accessed 14 May 2026.
- ↑ Interesting Engineering, Israel’s Unit 8200, a Conveyor Belt of High-Tech Startups Interesting Engineering, 17 August 2020.
- ↑ Ynet News, IDF's Unit 8200 is Silicon Valley's new talent pool Ynet News, 9 February 2024.
- ↑ Dima P. Adamsky, American and Israeli Intelligence Failure, in Nigel John Ashton, ed., The Cold War in the Middle East: Regional Conflict and the Superpowers, 1967-73, Routledge, 2007, p.124.
- ↑ Dima P. Adamsky, American and Israeli Intelligence Failure, in Nigel John Ashton, ed., The Cold War in the Middle East: Regional Conflict and the Superpowers, 1967-73, Routledge, 2007, p.130.
- ↑ Ephraim Kahana, Historical Dictionary of Israeli Intelligence, Scarecrow Press, 2006, p.43.
- ↑ Grey Dynamics, Unit 8200: Israel’s Information Warfare Unit Grey Dynamics, accessed 14 May 2026.
- ↑ Seymour M. Hersh, The Samson Option: Israel, America and the Bomb, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.293.
- ↑ Stacy Perman, Spies Inc. Business Innovation from Israel's Masters of Espionage, Pearson Education, 2005, p.76.
- ↑ Stacy Perman, Spies Inc. Business Innovation from Israel's Masters of Espionage, Pearson Education, 2005, p.97.
- ↑ El-Sibai, Unit 8200: Exposing the Technical Secrets of the World’s Most Cyber Elite LinkedIn, accessed 14 May 2026.
- ↑ Grey Dynamics, Unit 8200: Israel’s Information Warfare Unit Grey Dynamics, accessed 14 May 2026.
- ↑ Harry Walker Agency, Asaf Kochan Keynote Speaker Harry Walker, accessed 14 May 2026.
- ↑ YouTube/CGTN, Former IDF unit 8200 chief: Unprecedented op in intelligence history YouTube, 21 September 2024.
- ↑ The Jerusalem Post, IDF intelligence Unit 8200 commander informs Halevi of resignation The Jerusalem Post, 12 September 2024.
- ↑ The Times of Israel, ‘I did not fulfill my mission’: Commander of IDF’s 8200 intelligence unit resigns The Times of Israel, 12 September 2024.
- ↑ Ynet News, Brig. Gen. A. appointed as new commander of Unit 8200 Ynet News, 3 November 2025.
- ↑ Cnaan Lipshitz, Native English speakers have lost exclusive status with IDF Intelligence, Haaretz, 17 July 2012.
- ↑ Ron Schleifer, Psychological Warfare in the Intifada: Israeli And Palestinian Media Politics And Military Strategies, Sussex Academic Press, 2005, p.5.
- ↑ 36.0 36.1 Barak Ravid, Officials: Israel outsources monitoring of Palestinian media after IDF lapse, Haaretz, 31 January 2012.