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> Wiz has raised a total of $1.9 billion from a combination of venture capital funds and private investors > Wiz agreed to acquire Tel Aviv-based Raftt, a clou
by czk 2y ago
> Wiz has raised a total of $1.9 billion from a combination of venture capital funds and private investors
> Wiz agreed to acquire Tel Aviv-based Raftt, a cloud-based developer collaboration platform, for $50 million in December 2023. In April 2024, the company acquired cloud detection and response startup, Gem Security, for around $350 million
> Wiz was founded in January 2020 by Assaf Rappaport, Yinon Costica, Roy Reznik, and Ami Luttwak, all of whom previously founded Adallom.
> Adallom was founded in 2012 by Assaf Rappaport, Ami Luttwak and Roy Reznik, who are former members of the Israeli Intelligence Corps’ Unit 8200 and alumni of the Talpiot program.
> Adallom was reportedly acquired by Microsoft for $320 million in July 2015
> On March 18, 2025, Google announced an all-cash acquisition of Wiz for $32 billion
Had never heard of Wiz until they posted the blog post about the DeepSeek database being public earlier this year.
https://www.wiz.io/blog/wiz-research-uncovers-exposed-deepseek-database-leak https://www.wiz.io/blog/wiz-research-uncovers-exposed-deepse...
- coliveira 2y agoThese companies are the closest you can get to a legal mafia, they are effectively charging companies around the world to keep them "safe". In other words, a job that is traditionally considered to be a basic service of the government is now being privatized by people that nobody knows if we can really trust.
- culanuchachamim 2y agoBig difference The mafia charges protection from itself, here the bad actors are out there and wiz help you protect from them. Wiz selling doors with appropriate locks for your bussines.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- marcus0x62 2y agoThis is an absurd take. There’s nothing stopping anyone from building their own cloud security tools (many have), and unlike the Mafia, Wiz isn’t threatening anyone who doesn’t buy their service. I’m also not aware of any government agency providing any reasonable analog to what these tools provide in the physical world.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- fourseventy 2y ago1.) What
- biggc 2y agoYou’re stretching here. Companies hire private physical security all the time. Why is digital security different?
- chii 2y agobecause the amount of money is so huge, the grandparent poster imagined there must be something wrong or sus going on. Likely due to personal biases. And since most people's experience is shallow, the only analog they can muster is the mafia.
- ixsploit 2y agoThere are other CNAPP solutions. If you do an evaluation you will see why WIZ comes out on top.
- blackhawkC17 2y ago> In other words, a job that is traditionally considered to be a basic service of the government is now being privatized by people that nobody knows if we can really trust. How on earth is it the government's job to protect people's software? It's a mere digital product, not human life or property. Besides, people also buy padlocks and door locks for safety. Wiz is no different.
- IncreasePosts 2y agoIt would only be like the Mafia if they launched cyber attacks against your infra if you turned down their services. Do you think that's what they do?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- Suppafly 2y agoI do wonder how long it'll be until we uncover some scandal showing that the security companies are also the ones creating exploits.
- pjc50 2y ago[flagged]
- otterley 2y agoWTF does that mean?
- rrr_oh_man 2y ago[flagged]
- haliskerbas 2y agoIs it a religious entity or part of a religious doctrine?
- otterley 2y agoThe Mossad is a security service of the nation of Israel, which, for all intents and purposes, is a nation designed to house and protect Jews. And Judaism is a religion. So yes, a connection exists.
- FuriouslyAdrift 2y agoMany Jews do not practice Judaism. Being Jewish is an ethnicity. Source: am Jewish, not religeous.
- otterley 2y ago> Source: am Jewish, not religeous [sic]. Me too, but a lot of (admittedly not all) opposition to Israel's existence, extent, and its security apparatus is rooted in anti-semitism. I'm not going to undertake a long discussion about it, but in short, you can hear the dog whistles and they're inappropriate.
- 2y ago
- bschmidt69 2y ago[flagged]
- pixelatedindex 2y agoI mean… Hue bulbs are insanely expensive, and Wiz is a much cheaper option. I’ve used their lights since like 2021 and Costco carried them. Does that make me a huge liar?
- bschmidt69 2y ago[flagged]
- ktkaufman 2y agoI can tell you from firsthand experience that people - including people I have personally worked with at large organizations - have absolutely heard of Wiz. Yes, it is a relatively new player, but the people there have been putting out high quality research for years and have also demonstrated a very compelling approach to securing cloud environments. They get a lot of praise, and they've earned it. Second, I have no idea what you're doing to get Wix results from a search for Wiz. When I search for Wiz, I get a whole bunch of results about Wiz, including links to discussion threads where random people (i.e., not high-rep HN users) also talk about how much they like the product. Finally, something to consider: would Google actually pay $32B for a company that "nobody has heard of" and doesn't provide any value? Probably not. I would hope not.
- tristor 2y ago> Everyone here saying they've used Wiz for years are huge liars. I have seen Wiz at AWS re:Invent multiple years in a row, and have seen their product used to good success in multiple companies I've worked with. It's not vaporware, it's a real product that really works and has a place in the cloud/container security space. I don't think anyone is lying here at all. The fact it's /also/ an acquisition vehicle as a path to an exit for the founders is a separate thing.
- marcus0x62 2y agoThey built the core CSPM module themselves. And, yes, their customers really do exist and really do love the product. What they particularly liked was the alert fidelity - most other cloud security vendors back when Wiz started required a host agent to provide a similar level of assurance a given alert was real, whereas Wiz would do offline volume scanning. Just because you aren’t the target market for something doesn’t mean it isn’t real or valuable. Source: used to compete against them. I no longer have any dog in this fight.
- singularity2001 2y ago[flagged]
- weatherlite 2y ago[flagged]
- VerminOctopus1 2y agoSeems like a disingenuous and cynical reading to me.
- arandomusername 2y agoin times like this I'm reminded of "every accusation is a confession"
- genewitch 2y agoThere's a dutch phrase I hear often, like "Wat je zegt ben jezelf, met je kop door de helft" Whatever you say about someone else, you're saying about yourself. It's an idiom, so the translation is a bit funky.
- dandellion 2y agoFrom the guidelines: > Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.
- detourdog 2y agoI never heard of them until they were purchased for $32 billion.
- debarshri 2y agoThats the kind of a company everyone wants to build in enterprise security. Incognito unicorns. There are many companies like these in security space. Another company I can think of is Rubrik. All these large security companies under the radar success.
- 1oooqooq 2y agomost people here are also in security and still haven't heard. It's more likely backroom kickbacks (and/or mossad) than invisible unicorn.
- debarshri 2y agokickbacks, may be. I have seen the product. It is not so mossad-y. It fairly straight forward cloud, VM, kubernetes scans. Does it protect stuff? Somewhat. Is it the best product out there - no. Are CISOs happy? CSPM is mostly a checklist item in their bucket to things to do. It depends on what kind of security you are working in. Most of the people in CSPM, CNAPP world have heard their name. It is product built for cloud security/devsecops folks.
- manquer 2y ago> It is not so mossad-y. Would we (i.e. anyone not in the intelligence space) know how intelligence service-y software would look like ? . Aren't all such organizations trained and designed to be inconspicuous and in places we are unlikely to expect.
- alephnerd 2y agoMossad aren't the guys doing cyber ops in Israel. They're suave arsim (how else can you blend in Beirut or Tehran). Also, if you've worked with Israeli government cybersecurity teams, they aren't much different in caliber from the kind you'd find at the NSA, GCHQ, or Netherlands.
- hristov 2y agoLooks like a payoff to me.
- Nexxxeh 2y agoWhen I read the headline, I assumed the IoT platform and smart light brand, the now Wi-Fi arm of Signify, the smart home people who do (Philips) Hue smart lighting. https://www.wizconnected.com/en-gb https://www.wizconnected.com/en-gb
- badc0ffee 2y agoThis is the logo I envision in my head when hearing Wiz.
- admiralrohan 2y agoI am hearing for first time, I thought Google is buying Wix the website builder and was thinking why!
- belter 2y agoGuess what is common between Wix and Wiz....
- encoderer 2y agoWiy?
- belter 2y ago8200
- genewitch 2y agoWhat a strange shorthand. 73
- vintermann 2y ago8200 is an Israeli spy agency, whose alumni turn up in security companies almost as often as CIA alumni turns up in US newsrooms.
- sph 2y agoThank you, didn't know about this rabbit hole. The wikipedia page has a handy list of companies to avoid at all costs: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_8200 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_8200
- belter 2y agohttps://darknetdiaries.com/transcript/28/ https://darknetdiaries.com/transcript/28/
- brightball 2y agoDidn’t Palo Alto Networks come out of 8200 too?
- marcus0x62 2y agoThe primary founder (Nir Zuk) is a Unit 8200 alumni, as are the founders of Checkpoint and a bunch of other cyber security companies. Nir Zuk is also a US citizen and went out of his way to base PANW in the US, including their hardware manufacturing and software engineering operations. You'll find former-intelligence blob operators in a great many cyber security companies. Including former American intel employees[0]. Hell, the CIA basically has their own VC fund[1]. Also, there is zero evidence any of these people are currently acting at the behest of their former employers, apart from obviously the CIA venture fund acts at the behest of the CIA. 0 - Robert M Lee https://dragos.com https://dragos.com, Keith Alexander (formerly https://ironnet.com https://ironnet.com,) amongst many others 1 - In Q Tel https://www.iqt.org/ https://www.iqt.org/
- DeathArrow 2y ago>Adallom was founded in 2012 by Assaf Rappaport, Ami Luttwak and Roy Reznik, who are former members of the Israeli Intelligence Corps’ Unit 8200 and alumni of the Talpiot program. It's interesting that many people working in intelligence found ways to become very successful in business. I wonder what is the reason.
- rubenvanwyk 2y agoIntelligence communities tend to pick very smart people who are particularly good at acquiring niche skills and operating under extreme situational uncertainty. I think those are valuable attributes for someone in business.
- menaerus 2y agoIt surely must be exactly that.
- CokeFaultSoyuz 2y agoBlackmail
- stdclass 2y agowell you might get downvoted, but its still true, just look what Robert Maxwell did with the PROMIS software. That was also coincidentally Mossad.
- Adverblessly 2y agoMilitary service in Israel is mandatory and the conscription rate in the core "educated" areas is ~90%. Each year, the intelligence corps then gets what is practically* first pick of the best minds of that year (typically kids who are already skilled in programing). They then get to have them for 4-6 years meaning unlike modern employers, they have time and motivation to invest in training them. Then you get the most apt programming minds of a generation spending six years together learning and building connections with each other in core programming and security skills. Imagine if all the ivy league graduates in the US would be forced to work together for the same company, for free, for 4-6 years. Would you be surprised if suddenly former employees of that company found ways to become very successful in business? * - Technically they get something like 3rd pick and there's negotiations and it depends on what sort of roles are involved etc. In practice, conscripts have some influence on where they'll go and if you have a choice in any role in the military, you are going to pick "write code in an air-conditioned office" over any other available option.