Leaked internal documents show that Cisco worked to preserve and expand its business with the Israeli military during the Gaza war, even as the company faced internal protests from workers. The documents, obtained by the Guardian, detail how Cisco responded to technical failures that undermined Israeli intelligence agencies' confidence in its networks.
Technical failures and crisis response
A confidential memo drafted by Cisco noted that a series of outages during the war deeply impacted customer sentiment, with repeated failures severely impacting critical operations. The memo was part of a trove of documents leaked by Cisco workers who objected to the company's ties to Israel's military.
Cisco, one of the world's largest tech companies, provides routers, servers and communications systems for companies, governments and militaries. Its contracts with Israel's military intelligence generated about $67m in business over three years, according to a 2025 document reviewed by the Guardian.
Expanding business during the war
The leaked documents show that Cisco activated senior staff to salvage what it described as a "critical" account, sending staff to meet on site with a secretive Israeli military unit known as Sapir. The company's goal was to restore "customer confidence" and reverse "negative sentiment."
Earlier this year, Splunk, a Cisco subsidiary, made a pitch to join the cloud computing contract between the Israeli government, Google and Amazon known as Project Nimbus. The documents also detail dozens of deals Cisco worked on in 2026 with different Israeli government clients, including the intelligence community, air force and navy, many tagged as "AI" deals.
Internal and external backlash
Members of Bridge to Humanity, a group of current and former Cisco workers, called the company's work with Israeli intelligence a "shocking and complete contradiction of values Cisco sells to us employees and externally to its customers, investors, and the public." They said the company had become "an instrument of genocide."
Earlier this year, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found reasonable cause to believe that Cisco oversaw a hostile work environment that violated the rights of Palestinian, Arab and Muslim employees. Cisco previously told the Guardian that it disagreed with the findings.
A group of investors has called on Cisco to commission an independent human rights assessment of its business with the Israeli military, and shareholders are expected to vote on a proposal requiring the company to do so at its upcoming general meeting this month.
