The Battle for Your Computer

CHAPTER 15Unit 8200—Secrets of the IDF's Success

In December 2019, the commander of Unit 8200 was shocked to discover a giant SentinelOne billboard opposite the entrance of the IDF's intelligence base in Glilot, north of Tel Aviv. “WE NORMALLY HUNT ATTACKERS. NOW WE'RE HUNTING TALENTS. JOIN US,” read the English‐language sign.¹ The Israeli military was furious. “Placing a commercially funded recruitment billboard at the entrance of Unit 8200's base is a cynical and reckless act that I am not sure will succeed,” wrote the unit's commander in a letter to his soldiers that week, signing off with the words: “For us, our defensive mission and choice to keep contributing to the State of Israel and its future are a way of life. Big signs can't stand in the way of big values.”²

SentinelOne's shameless advertising campaign was no mere annoyance for Unit 8200's commander. Its campaign might have been especially explicit, but it illustrated what had been an open secret for over 20 years: the IDF's technological units, and especially Unit 8200, are the Israeli cyberindustry's main sources of talent. Ironically, however, SentinelOne's founders are not Unit 8200 veterans—a distinction of which they are proud.³

If you have read this far, including all the history of the Israeli cybersecurity industry, you can't have missed the fact that almost all the entrepreneurs in this field come from the IDF's elite technological units. The majority come from Unit 8200, followed by Unit 81, and even ...