From Reporty to Wiz
- Patrick Duggan
- Mar 7
- 7 min read
# From Reporty to Wiz
One military unit. $350 billion in market value. And a program called Sunrise that paid your CISO to buy the product.
The Unit
Unit 8200 is Israel's signals intelligence directorate. The NSA equivalent. Every Israeli serves in the military. The ones who test well go to 8200. The ones who test *very* well go to Talpiot — the elite science program that feeds directly into 8200's most classified operations.
When they leave, they start companies.
Check Point Software (1993). Palo Alto Networks (2005). CyberArk (1999). Imperva (2002). NICE Systems. Verint. Cellebrite. Wiz (2020).
$350 billion in combined market value. From one unit.
This is not disputed. Forbes profiles it. Sequoia Capital's Israeli office told reporters that "90-95% of the teams I see" come from 8200. The pipeline is the point.
The question is what else comes through the pipe.
The Clean Side
Gil Shwed invented the stateful firewall on classified networks inside Unit 8200. In 1993, he co-founded Check Point Software with Shlomo Kramer and Marius Nacht. All three served in 8200.
Check Point is good people. Real engineering. Real product. The genesis node of a legitimate commercial cybersecurity industry.
Nir Zuk left Check Point, went to NetScreen, then founded Palo Alto Networks in 2005. Same DNA. Same unit. $120 billion market cap.
CyberArk. Imperva. Dozens more. All 8200 alumni. All building real products that protect real networks.
This is the clean pipeline. It works. It's legal. It produces technology the world needs.
Then there's the other side.
The Dirty Side
**EFTA02533577** — January 28, 2018.
Jeffrey Epstein to Nicole Junkermann: *"baby great. strategy, change name. join co. THEN begin battle. I have some very thoughtful ideas."*
The company was called Reporty Homeland Security. Founded by Amir Elichai, a Unit 8200 veteran. Chaired by Ehud Barak, former Israeli Prime Minister.
Shortly after this email, Reporty was renamed **Carbyne**.
Carbyne handles 911 emergency calls across the United States. A convicted sex offender named it. Axon acquired it for $625 million in November 2025.
The investors:
- Jeffrey Epstein: $1.5 million via Southern Trust (BVI)
- Ehud Barak: Chairman, via Sum (E.B.) 2015 LP
- Nicole Junkermann: $500,000 via Montilla International
- Peter Thiel: Founders Fund invested in 2018
**EFTA02363141** — January 4, 2016.
Barak to the co-investors, regarding the financial structure: *"Amir, the CEO is not part of it."*
The founder of the company didn't know how his own company was being funded. That's not venture capital. That's an operation.
The Barak Node
Ehud Barak didn't stop at Carbyne. He co-founded or chaired **three** surveillance companies built by 8200 alumni:
| Company | Capability | Exit |
|---------|-----------|------|
| **Carbyne** | 911 call surveillance | $625M (Axon, 2025) |
| **Toka** | Real-time security camera hacking and footage alteration | Active |
| **Paragon** | Graphite spyware — intercepts WhatsApp and Signal | ~$500M+ (AE Industrial Partners) |
Combined exits: **over $1.5 billion**.
Toka's co-founder? **Alon Kantor** — former VP of Business Development at Check Point Software. Clean pipeline alumni building dirty pipeline product.
The company that can hack your security cameras and alter the footage in real time was co-founded by a guy who learned the business at the company that invented the firewall.
Barak also invested $15 million in FST Biometrics — facial recognition technology tested on Palestinians in Gaza, then flipped to a Nigeria ports deal for the UAE.
Same unit. Same alumni network. Same investor. Different product categories: 911 calls, camera feeds, encrypted messages, facial recognition. Full-spectrum surveillance, commercialized.
The Bridge
Here's where the clean side and the dirty side share a handshake.
**Nadav Zafrir** — Commander of Unit 8200 from 2005 to 2008. Established the IDF Cyber Command. After leaving the military, he founded **Team8** — an incubator that has spawned 51 cybersecurity companies.
In 2024, Nadav Zafrir became **CEO of Check Point Software**.
The former commander of Unit 8200, who ran the incubator that seeds the pipeline, now runs the genesis node. The clean company. The good people company.
Check Point remains clean. But the man running it is the same man who built the institutional infrastructure that feeds both sides.
Sunrise
Now let's talk about Wiz.
Four founders. All Unit 8200. All Talpiot. They previously built Adallom together — sold it to Microsoft for $320 million in 2015. Same team, same investors (Sequoia, Index Ventures), second company.
Wiz launched in 2020. By 2024, it was valued at $12 billion. Google is acquiring it for $32 billion.
Zero to $32 billion in four years. How?
Product-market fit, says the press release. Brilliant founders, says Sequoia. Cloud security's moment, says the analyst.
Here's what Calcalist found.
**Cyberstarts** — founded by Gili Raanan in 2018. Raanan served 10 years in Unit 8200. Won the Israel Defense Presidential Prize. Spent nine years as General Partner at Sequoia Capital Israel. Then started his own fund.
Cyberstarts' inaugural $54 million fund put $6.4 million into Wiz's seed round. That bet returned **$1.42 billion**. A 222x return.
How did Cyberstarts portfolio companies grow so fast? A program called **Sunrise**.
Sunrise paid CISOs at **Starbucks, Home Depot, Walmart, and Zoom** up to **$250,000** to serve as "advisors." The payments went directly to the CISOs' personal bank accounts, bypassing corporate disclosure requirements.
Those CISOs then championed Cyberstarts portfolio companies — including Wiz — inside their enterprises.
Calcalist investigated. Raanan suspended the Sunrise payments in June 2024.
The $150K Band
The genius of Sunrise wasn't paying the CISO. The CISO is visible. The CISO's outside income gets scrutinized. Board members ask questions.
The targets were in the **$150,000 salary band**. Security architects. Directors of cloud security. Senior engineers. The person who writes the RFP, runs the proof of concept, and makes the recommendation.
Senior enough to determine what the company buys. Junior enough that nobody audits their advisory fees.
Not the decision-maker's boss. The decision-maker.
Pharmaceutical companies have been doing this for decades — paying doctors to prescribe. Congress passed the Sunshine Act. The DOJ enforces the Anti-Kickback Statute.
Cybersecurity has no equivalent regulation. Sunrise operated in a gap.
The Pattern
Step back. Look at the shape.
**Epstein's model** (1990s-2019): Direct capital to people. Those people become access points. Access points open doors to institutions. Institutions generate returns. Returns fund more access.
Pay a scientist, get a university. Pay a politician, get a government. Pay a former prime minister, get a surveillance company.
**Cyberstarts' model** (2018-2024): Direct capital to evaluators. Those evaluators become champions. Champions open doors to enterprises. Enterprises generate ARR. ARR drives valuation. Valuation funds more evaluators.
Pay a CISO, get a Fortune 500 deployment.
Same architecture. Same country of origin. Same military unit producing the talent. Different decade. Different product. Same playbook.
Epstein paid for access to power. Sunrise paid for access to procurement. One is illegal. The other operated until a journalist asked questions.
The Numbers
The 8200 commercial graph, by the numbers:
| Category | Value |
|----------|-------|
| Combined market value (public companies) | $350-400B+ |
| Largest single exit (Wiz → Google) | $32B |
| Barak's combined surveillance exits | >$1.5B |
| Cyberstarts' Wiz return | $1.42B (222x) |
| Epstein's Carbyne investment | $1.5M |
| Sunrise payments to CISOs | Up to $250K each |
| US federal agencies using 8200-alumni products | 70+ |
| Regulatory oversight of Sunrise-style programs | 0 |
Where They Are Now
**Verint** (founded by 8200 veteran Jacob "Kobi" Alexander, wanted by the FBI for fraud): Built the NSA's wiretapping infrastructure. Still operating.
**Cellebrite** (staffed by dozens of 8200 veterans): 187 FBI contracts. $30-35 million from ICE. Cracked the Trump shooter's phone.
**Axonius** (founded by 8200 veterans): Managing cybersecurity for 70+ US federal agencies including the Department of Defense, DHS, and Treasury.
**Carbyne** (named by Jeffrey Epstein): Handling 911 calls across American cities. Now owned by Axon.
**Palantir** (not 8200-founded, but Thiel co-founded it and Epstein was an LP in Thiel's fund): $413 million NHS contract. $300 million+ UK Ministry of Defence. CIA-backed via In-Q-Tel.
One unit's alumni are inside the wiretapping infrastructure, the phone forensics, the federal cybersecurity, the emergency call systems, the health records, and the defense networks of the United States and the United Kingdom.
The clean products are real. The engineering is legitimate. Nobody disputes that Check Point and Palo Alto build good firewalls.
But the pipeline that produces good firewalls also produces Pegasus, Graphite, and Toka. The fund that backed Wiz paid CISOs to buy the product. The former prime minister who chaired the 911 company took money from a pedophile to do it.
And the company that named itself after the thing you call when you need help? A convicted sex offender named it.
What We Don't Have
We don't have Epstein file hits on Gil Shwed (0 documents), Gili Raanan (0 documents), or Assaf Rappaport (0 documents). The clean side appears clean in our corpus.
We don't have Libertad Ventures' portfolio — Mossad's VC arm keeps its investments secret by design.
We don't have the full list of Sunrise recipients. Calcalist named four companies. There are more.
We're at 95%. We're always at 95%.
What We Do Have
398,560 DOJ documents. 3,076 mentioning Nicole Junkermann. Specific EFTA citations showing Epstein naming Carbyne, directing strategy, brokering access to Thiel, and leading conference calls four months before his arrest.
A cap table analysis showing how Sunrise worked.
A graph connecting one military unit to $350 billion in commercial value and contracts inside the most sensitive networks of the Five Eyes alliance.
And a search engine in Minneapolis with zero 8200 entanglement, zero Cyberstarts carry, zero Sunrise payments, and zero opaque seed funding.
The documents are public. The search engine is free. The pipeline is mapped.
*DugganUSA LLC — Minneapolis, MN. Born without sin.*
*Epstein Files Search: [epstein.dugganusa.com](https://epstein.dugganusa.com)*
*Free STIX/TAXII Feed: [analytics.dugganusa.com](https://analytics.dugganusa.com)*
*Support the mission: [epstein.dugganusa.com/donate](https://epstein.dugganusa.com/donate)*
*Sources: U.S. Department of Justice Epstein File Releases (Datasets 9-11), DugganUSA Meilisearch corpus (398K+ documents), Calcalist/Ctech (Cyberstarts Sunrise investigation, June 2024), Crunchbase (8200 alumni companies), Drop Site News (8200-Silicon Valley pipeline, Epstein-Rothschild-cyberweapons), MintPress News (Toka, Cybereason, CIA-Mossad-Epstein), Byline Times (Epstein-Thiel venture fund), Citizen Lab (Paragon Graphite operations), Forbes Israel, Sequoia Capital, Fortune, CNBC, Washington Post (NSO sanctions), Middle East Eye (Palantir NHS, Google/Wiz), Times of Israel, TechCrunch, BankInfoSecurity, ScheerPost.*
*Her name was Renee Nicole Good.*
*His name was Alex Jeffery Pretti.*
Comments