Business Innovation from Israel's Masters of Espionage

Preface

I first came across unit 8200 when I wrote a magazine piece chronicling Israel's high-tech boom. It was 2000, and there was a cataclysmic buzz going on about this tiny, defiant nation that had in a very short period of time lept onto the global stage as one of the world's most dynamic technology clusters. At the time, Israeli startups numbered in the thousands, and the country placed third behind the United States and Canada in the number of companies listed on NASDAQ. There was something big going on inside of this small nation. Undeniably, the driving force behind much of this was the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and, in particular, its elite technological units. However, there was one that stood out—unit 8200—and although it had remained ...