What happened
A cybersecurity startup founded by a former Iranian immigrant turned Israeli cyber-intelligence operative has secured a substantial funding round. The founder, Sanaz Yashar, who fled Iran and later served in Israel’s elite cyber-intelligence unit, raised funding to launch her company, Zafran, aiming to help organisations defend against advanced cyber threats.
Who is affected
The funding and launch of Zafran have implications for enterprises worldwide. Organisations that face risk from sophisticated attackers may now have access to tools backed by deep threat intelligence and insider experience. Security vendors and competing cybersecurity firms are also affected, as Zafran’s emergence introduces additional competition in the exposure management and resilience space.
Why CISOs should care
- Sanaz Yashar’s background (fleeing Iran, working in Israeli intelligence) gives Zafran a potentially unique perspective on attackers operating in hostile, state-linked contexts, a growing concern for enterprises globally.
- The broader context: the cybersecurity sector in Israel continues to draw impressive capital, reflecting increasing investor confidence and signalling a wave of innovation that could reshape defensive tooling.
- For CISOs, this means more options, but also more complexity: emerging solutions like Zafran may offer powerful new capabilities, but integrating them requires careful evaluation in the context of existing security architecture, risk model, and compliance requirements.
3 Practical actions
- Assess exposure-management needs: Conduct an internal review of your attack surface, including legacy systems, cloud, identity, and external dependencies. Map where current defenses may fall short or rely on outdated assumptions.
- Watch emerging vendors carefully: Monitor startups like Zafran, evaluate their threat model relevance, and consider pilot testing if their approach aligns with your organisation’s risk profile.
- Update vendor-evaluation criteria: Include founder/organization threat-intelligence pedigree, adaptability to state-level adversary tactics, and ability to integrate with existing tools when selecting new cybersecurity vendors.