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McKinsey & Company DIGITAL

DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE AUDIT UPDATED 2026-10-08
Digital Score 0.00 /10 B McKinsey & Company - Complicity Index 666
Digital 0.00

Evidence-only forensic audit. Scoring happens downstream - see the main dossier for the composite assessment.

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Request: 702661d8-d2ce-44ae-b57f-32284d7c74b2 Target: McKinsey & Company Audit phase: Digital Research current to: 2026-10-08

Scope and attribution

McKinsey describes itself as operating as “one - a single global partnership”; its governance is led by the global managing partner, an elected board called the Shareholders Council, an Acceleration Team and office/practice leaders.1, 2 McKinsey’s Shareholders Council page states that the Council is the board of the parent company, McKinsey & Company, Inc., and consists of 12 Senior Partners elected by their peers plus the Global Managing Partner.3 This audit therefore treats verified firm-level acquisitions, legal subprocessor disclosures, Israel-office programs and client work as McKinsey conduct, while not automatically attributing an individual partner’s outside activity to the firm.

McKinsey states that its Israel office was founded in 2000 and currently operates in Tel Aviv.4 Its Israel practice publicly lists Aerospace & Defense, Public Sector, Technology, Media & Telecommunications, Tech & AI, QuantumBlack and Digital among the sectors/capabilities it serves, and says it works with key companies in Israel’s technology hub.5 These practice descriptions establish capability and market presence, but do not by themselves establish any particular Israeli state, military, intelligence or settlement client.

Enterprise Technology Stack & Vendor Relationships

Israeli-origin / Israel-linked software and services

McKinsey’s current legal subprocessor disclosure says the listed companies are “currently relied upon” in client-service activities and may process personal data for clients.6 It identifies Eon.io, Inc. as a “Backup as a Service Provider,” Palo Alto Networks, Inc. as an “Automated Security Operations Management Platform,” and Wiz, Inc. as a “Cloud Security Platform.”6 These are direct, current vendor/subprocessor relationships, not inferences from industry norms.

Eon was founded in Israel and New York in January 2024 and provides cloud-infrastructure backup technology.7 Wiz is a cloud-security company formed in 2020 by Assaf Rappaport and former members of the Israeli IDF’s Unit 8200, according to AWS’s published founder interview; this establishes the founder-team Israel nexus without establishing a McKinsey military deployment.8 Palo Alto Networks describes itself as a US-headquartered company founded in 2005 by a team including Nir Zuk and states that it maintains a major R&D hub in Tel Aviv.9 Accordingly, the verified current McKinsey stack includes two clearly Israeli-founded vendors, Eon and Wiz, plus Palo Alto Networks with a material Israeli founder/R&D nexus.6, 7, 8, 9

McKinsey’s same current disclosure does not list Check Point, SentinelOne, CyberArk, NICE, Verint or Claroty.6 no public evidence identified in the targeted searches establishes a current McKinsey licensing, subscription or integration relationship with those named vendors. McKinsey cautions that engagement-specific subprocessors can also be used under individual contracts, so its public list is not necessarily exhaustive.6

Scale and data-exposure limits

The public McKinsey list characterizes Eon as backup infrastructure, Palo Alto Networks as security-operations management and Wiz as cloud security, which places the verified relationships in enterprise infrastructure/security rather than peripheral event or marketing use.6 The disclosure lists Palo Alto Networks and Wiz with a United States operation location; Eon is listed as “Global,” with McKinsey explaining that globally designated services process data in environments nearest where the data originates for performance, resilience and availability.6 This is not evidence that McKinsey client data is stored, routed or processed in Israel. No public evidence identified establishes Israeli data residency or Israeli legal access to McKinsey client data through these three relationships.

The same disclosure lists AWS operations for McKinsey in the United States, Europe and UAE; Google in the United States and Ireland; and Microsoft in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Switzerland.6 It does not list Israel as a McKinsey processing location for those hyperscalers.6

Procurement and integrator relationships

No public evidence identified that a systems integrator or outsourced IT provider deployed an Israeli-origin product into McKinsey’s environment as part of a named McKinsey transformation program. The current legal disclosure establishes the three vendor relationships above directly, but does not identify an integrator that mandated or bundled them.6

Surveillance, Biometrics & Retail Technology

Facial recognition and biometrics

No public evidence identified that McKinsey deploys Trigo, BriefCam, AnyVision/Oosto, Trax or another Israeli-origin facial-recognition, biometric, gait-analysis or frictionless-retail system for its own operations or client-data processing. McKinsey’s current disclosed client-service subprocessors include security, cloud, survey, AI and analytics platforms, but no facial-recognition or biometric vendor of the named type.6

Predictive analytics and monitoring

No public evidence identified of McKinsey’s own use of an Israeli-origin predictive-policing, sentiment-analysis, social-media-monitoring or workforce-surveillance product. The verified Palo Alto Networks and Wiz relationships are described by McKinsey as security operations and cloud security, not employee or population surveillance.6

Third-party deployment

No public evidence identified that the above biometric or surveillance categories reach McKinsey indirectly through a managed-service bundle. McKinsey does disclose that engagement-specific subprocessors can exist beyond its public list, so this is a searched absence rather than a claim that such deployment is impossible.6

Cloud Infrastructure, Data Residency & Sovereign Cloud Participation

Data-centre operations in Israel

McKinsey has current offices and technology/R&D activity in Israel, but no public evidence identified that McKinsey itself owns, leases or co-locates a data centre in Israel.4, 10, 11 Its public subprocessor data-location disclosure does not identify Israel as an operating location for its listed AWS, Google, Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks or Wiz processing, and gives only a global/nearest-origin designation for Eon.6

Project Nimbus and Israeli government cloud

In April 2021, reporting on Israel’s Project Nimbus said Google and Amazon won the core cloud-infrastructure tender and that Somekh Chaikin-KPMG won the policy/governance consulting portion, beating McKinsey, Deloitte, EY and HPE.12 The report describes Nimbus as serving the Israeli government, defense system and other bodies, but it does not identify McKinsey as an awardee.12 no public evidence identified of a later McKinsey Nimbus cloud-provider, systems-integration or governance contract.

Data sovereignty and resilience services

No public evidence identified that McKinsey provides a data-sovereignty, sovereign-cloud, data-residency or infrastructure-resilience service to an Israeli state or military body. The firm’s Israel practice advertises broad public-sector, defense, digital and technology capabilities, but does not identify a specific sovereign-cloud engagement.5

Defence, Intelligence & Security Sector Technology Relationships

Historical Israeli Ministry of Defense / IDF consulting

[pre-2020] In July 2008, The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel’s Ministry of Defense awarded McKinsey a three-year, multimillion-shekel contract - reported as roughly NIS 30 million over three years - to develop a ten-year streamlining plan for the IDF; the report said cleared consultants could work inside IDF and Ministry headquarters.13 This establishes a direct historical defense-sector consulting relationship.

[pre-2020] McKinsey’s own 2014 defense article described Israeli Ministry of Defense and IDF integrated procurement teams and said detailed work on six categories representing roughly one-third of spending yielded annual savings of 8–10 percent, with projected total savings of $250 million per year.14 The examples concerned procurement requirements, quantities, contract terms, stocks and distribution, including quantities of high-end personal weapons.14 Globes later reported that the defense establishment had contracted McKinsey following the Brodet report and that the State Comptroller examined implementation of McKinsey-related efficiency recommendations.15

These sources establish management, procurement and efficiency consulting, not a McKinsey cloud, AI, biometric, surveillance or offensive-cyber product supplied to the IDF.13, 14, 15 no public evidence identified that this 2008-era engagement continued after 2020; its current status is therefore not established.

David Chinn, a current McKinsey senior partner in Tel Aviv and former Israel managing partner, states in his current biography that he supports governments, armed forces and defense-industrial clients, particularly in Europe, and previously established McKinsey cybersecurity work and led services for defense ministries and armed forces globally.16 A 2022 McKinsey Israel podcast similarly records Chinn describing roughly two decades of aerospace-and-defense work with governments and armed forces.17 Neither source identifies a current Israeli defense or intelligence client, so those biographies are not treated as proof of a current Israeli military contract.

Dual-use technology provision

No public evidence identified that McKinsey’s current general-purpose AI platform, cloud-security stack or other commercial technology has been confirmed as deployed by the Israeli military, intelligence services or law enforcement in Israel or the occupied Palestinian territory. The historical defense sources above concern organizational/procurement work, not a verified McKinsey technology deployment.13, 14, 15

Offensive cyber and digital weapons

No public evidence identified that McKinsey develops, sells, licenses or maintains zero-day exploits, offensive-cyber tooling or digital weapons for Israeli state actors. McKinsey’s verified current Palo Alto Networks and Wiz relationships are procurement by McKinsey for security functions, not evidence that McKinsey resells offensive capability to Israel.6

AI, Algorithmic & Autonomous Systems

McKinsey-owned AI platform and Israel R&D

In January 2023 McKinsey acquired Tel Aviv-based Iguazio, an AI and machine-learning technology company with more than 70 data and AI specialists; McKinsey called it its first acquisition in Israel and said the team would form the foundation of a new QuantumBlack location.18 A later McKinsey update states that Iguazio is integrated into QuantumBlack, that QuantumBlack has five AI R&D centers including Tel Aviv, and that the Iguazio platform can develop, deploy and manage AI/gen-AI solutions on-premises or in public, private and hybrid environments.10

Current McKinsey material identifies Asaf Somekh in Herzliya as co-founder and leader of Iguazio and says he leads “McKinsey’s AI platform.”19 A current McKinsey vacancy for an Iguazio QA Automation Engineer Lead is based in the Herzliya office, works with R&D/Product/Architecture/DevOps, and describes Iguazio as an MLOps platform for deploying AI services across enterprises.11 This establishes an ongoing Israeli engineering/R&D footprint rather than only a historical acquisition.

AI/ML provision to Israeli state or security bodies

No public evidence identified that Iguazio, QuantumBlack Horizon or another McKinsey AI/ML product has been provided to the Israeli government, Ministry of Defense, IDF, intelligence services or police. McKinsey’s Israel practice markets Tech & AI and QuantumBlack capabilities, but no reviewed source names such a state/security customer.5, 10

Training data, surveillance-derived data and autonomy

No public evidence identified that a McKinsey AI model or platform was trained on Palestinian civilian data, intercepted communications, biometric data or surveillance-derived datasets from Israel or the occupied territories. No public evidence identified that McKinsey supplied autonomous target-generation, threat-detection-for-kill-chain, fire-control or autonomous tracking systems to Israeli forces. The Iguazio material describes a general-purpose enterprise AI/MLOps platform, not a purpose-built targeting system.18, 10, 11

Technology Ecosystem & R&D Footprint

Israeli R&D and engineering footprint

McKinsey’s acquisition of Iguazio created a QuantumBlack technology presence in Israel in 2023; by the later McKinsey update, Tel Aviv was one of five QuantumBlack AI R&D centers.18, 10 Current McKinsey personnel and recruiting pages place Iguazio leadership and software QA/R&D activity in Herzliya.19, 11 The relationship is therefore confirmed as ongoing in the current source set.

Acquisitions, startup services and investments

The 2023 Iguazio transaction is a verified acquisition of an Israeli-origin technology company and was described by McKinsey as its first acquisition in Israel.18 Separately, McKinsey’s Israel “Fuel” activity was described in 2022 as working with Israeli startups from early stage through exit on fundraising, strategy, operations and scaling.17 McKinsey also operated a Circle of Women Founders program for Israeli Seed/Series A founders, providing coaching, workshops and investor/ecosystem networking.20 Those two programs establish commercial/ecosystem support, not an equity stake; no public evidence identified in the reviewed sources that McKinsey invested its own capital in the participating startups.20, 17

No public evidence identified of McKinsey corporate investments in an Israeli surveillance, SIGINT, offensive-cyber or military-technology venture fund or startup beyond the verified Iguazio acquisition. Targeted searches of the current governance principals named by McKinsey did not yield a source-backed controlling-principal investment in the listed surveillance/cyber firms; this remains an evidence gap rather than proof of absence.2, 3

Patent and academic IP relationships

No public evidence identified of a significant McKinsey patent-licensing or co-development arrangement with Technion, Hebrew University, Weizmann Institute or another Israeli research institution. McKinsey’s current Iguazio leadership profile notes Asaf Somekh’s Technion education, but education is not an institutional IP agreement.19

Civil Society Scrutiny & Regulatory History

UN, OHCHR and civil-society source checks

The 2025 OHCHR update of the settlement-business database is published as A/HRC/60/19.21 A target-specific review did not identify McKinsey in that document. The database process is not an exhaustive census of every company or business relationship, so non-appearance is not treated as proof of no settlement nexus.21

The 2025 Special Rapporteur report A/HRC/59/23 discusses technology companies and systems including major cloud/AI providers and Project Nimbus; a target-specific review did not identify McKinsey in the report.22 No conduct attributed there to Microsoft, Alphabet/Google, Amazon or Palantir is transferred to McKinsey merely because McKinsey uses hyperscalers or offers AI consulting.6, 22

The 2023 Don’t Buy Into Occupation report identifies 51 companies in its examined settlement-linked company set, including Cisco, HPE and IBM, but not McKinsey.23 The report itself describes a defined research set and should not be read as a complete registry of all possible commercial links.23 No target-specific technology finding against McKinsey was identified in the authoritative/civil-society materials reviewed for this audit.

A Charity Commission-hosted Portland Trust filing states that Portland “again appointed McKinsey & Company” to undertake research, consultation and drafting for a new long-term economic strategy for Palestine; it says initial scoping began at the end of 2022 and research/consultation continued through the first half of 2023.24 The intended output was described as a 10–15 year roadmap for Palestinian economic growth.24 This is direct corporate McKinsey work for a Palestinian economic-development initiative and is distinct from Israeli state work.

Palestine Emerging, launched in 2024 by the Palestinian Reconstruction and Economic Partnership (PREP), describes itself as a private-sector/cooperative initiative for long-term economic reconstruction and development of an integrated Palestinian state including Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.25 Secondary reporting identifies McKinsey partners Eric Hazan and David Meredith among its supporters but explicitly says they participated in a personal capacity, not in the name of McKinsey.26 That participation is therefore not attributed here as a McKinsey corporate engagement.

A separate, prominent 2025 controversy involving Gaza Humanitarian Foundation design and post-war/relocation modeling was checked for entity confusion. BCG’s own statement says a US Boston Consulting Group team provided pro-bono support related to the aid organization and that two former partners later carried out unauthorized work; BCG disavowed the work.27 BCG’s written response to the UK Parliament identifies BCG personnel, its investigation and control failures.28 No direct McKinsey-specific evidence was found for that controversy, so BCG conduct is not attributed to McKinsey.

Boycott/divestment campaigns and legal/regulatory actions

No public evidence identified of an organized boycott/divestment campaign specifically targeting McKinsey for technology provision to Israeli state, military or settlement bodies in the source set reviewed. The UN/OHCHR and DBIO materials checked above do not provide a McKinsey-specific technology finding.21, 22, 23

No public evidence identified of a regulator, court, export-control authority or sanctions body taking action against McKinsey for technology sales or digital services to an Israeli state entity. The verified historical MOD/IDF engagement predates 2020 and was management/procurement consulting; the verified current Israel technology activity is the firm’s own AI R&D/acquisition and enterprise-vendor stack.18, 13, 14

Post-19 July 2024 / post-November 2024 continuity

McKinsey’s Israel office, QuantumBlack/Iguazio AI R&D footprint and current Eon/Palo Alto Networks/Wiz subprocessor relationships are all current or evidenced after 2024.4, 6, 10, 19, 11 However, no public evidence identified that these current technology activities constitute provision to an Israeli state, military, intelligence or settlement customer after the ICJ advisory opinion of 19 July 2024 or after the November 2024 ICC arrest warrants. The only directly verified Israeli military/state engagement found in this audit is [pre-2020] historical defense-efficiency/procurement consulting, whose later continuation was not established.13, 14, 15

Footnotes

  1. McKinsey & Company, “About Us” - https://www.mckinsey.com/about-us/overview ↩

  2. McKinsey & Company, “Our Governance” - https://www.mckinsey.com/about-us/overview/our-governance ↩ ↩2

  3. McKinsey & Company, “Shareholders Council” - https://www.mckinsey.com/about-us/overview/our-leadership/shareholders-council ↩ ↩2

  4. McKinsey & Company, “Israel” - https://www.mckinsey.com/il/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. McKinsey & Company, “Our Work - Israel” - https://www.mckinsey.com/il/our-work ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. McKinsey & Company, “Third Party Sub Processors” - https://www.mckinsey.com/legal/sub-processors ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17

  7. TechCrunch, “Eon emerges from stealth with $127M to bring a fresh approach to backing up cloud infrastructure” - https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/01/eon-emerges-from-stealth-with-127m-to-bring-a-fresh-approach-to-back-up-cloud-infrastructure/ ↩ ↩2

  8. Amazon Web Services, published Wiz founder interview - https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/aws/wiz-startup-assaf-rappaport-tips-for-founders ↩ ↩2

  9. Palo Alto Networks, “Palo Alto Networks: Our Global Identity & Operations” - https://www2.paloaltonetworks.com/cyberpedia/palo-alto-networks-global-identity-operations-faq ↩ ↩2

  10. McKinsey & Company, “McKinsey accelerates gen AI value creation with Iguazio” - https://www.mckinsey.com/about-us/new-at-mckinsey-blog/mckinsey-accelerates-gen-ai-value-creation-with-iguazio ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  11. McKinsey & Company, “QA Automation Engineer Lead - Iguazio” - https://www.mckinsey.com/careers/search-jobs/jobs/qaautomationengineerlead-iguazio-105551 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  12. The Jerusalem Post, “Google and Amazon win Israel’s NIS 4b. Nimbus cloud tender” - https://www.jpost.com/jpost-tech/google-and-amazon-win-israels-nis-4b-nimbus-cloud-tender-665868 ↩ ↩2

  13. The Jerusalem Post, “Defense prize crowns Mossad team and Rafael’s SPICE bomb” - https://www.jpost.com/israel/defense-prize-crowns-mossad-team-and-rafaels-spice-bomb/article-106183 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  14. McKinsey & Company, “Fiscal shock, combat awe” - https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-sector/our-insights/fiscal-shock-combat-awe ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  15. Globes, “State Comptroller slams IDF inefficiency” - https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-state-comptroller-slams-idf-inefficiency-1001058574 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  16. McKinsey & Company, “David Chinn” - https://www.mckinsey.com/our-people/david-chinn ↩

  17. McKinsey & Company, “Turning start-up challenges into opportunities” - https://www.mckinsey.com/il/podcast/turning-start-up-challenges-into-opportunities ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  18. McKinsey & Company, “McKinsey acquires Iguazio, a leader in AI and machine-learning technology” - https://www.mckinsey.com/about-us/new-at-mckinsey-blog/mckinsey-acquires-iguazio-a-leader-in-ai-and-machine-learning-technology ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  19. McKinsey & Company, “Asaf Somekh” - https://www.mckinsey.com/our-people/asaf-somekh ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  20. McKinsey & Company, “Circle of Women Founders” - https://www.mckinsey.com/il/Circle-of-Women-Founders-program ↩ ↩2

  21. United Nations, “A/HRC/60/19” - https://docs.un.org/A/HRC/60/19 ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  22. United Nations, “A/HRC/59/23” - https://docs.un.org/A/HRC/59/23 ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  23. Don’t Buy Into Occupation coalition, “European Financial Institutions’ Continued Complicity in the Illegal Israeli Settlement Enterprise” - https://dontbuyintooccupation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/2023_DBIO-III-Report_11-December-2023.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  24. Charity Commission for England and Wales, “The Portland Trust annual report/accounts” - https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/charity-search?_uk_gov_ccew_onereg_charitydetails_web_portlet_CharityDetailsPortlet_objectiveId=A14524170&_uk_gov_ccew_onereg_charitydetails_web_portlet_CharityDetailsPortlet_priv_r_p_mvcRenderCommandName=%2Ffull-print&_uk_gov_ccew_onereg_charitydetails_web_portlet_CharityDetailsPortlet_priv_r_p_organisationNumber=4011521&p_p_cacheability=cacheLevelPage&p_p_id=uk_gov_ccew_onereg_charitydetails_web_portlet_CharityDetailsPortlet&p_p_lifecycle=2&p_p_mode=view&p_p_resource_id=%2Faccounts-resource&p_p_state=maximized ↩ ↩2

  25. Palestine Emerging, “Prologue” - https://palestine-emerging.org/2024/04/08/1-prologue/ ↩

  26. Consultancy-me.com, “McKinsey partners back international coalition to rebuild Palestine” - https://www.consultancy-me.com/news/8521/mckinsey-partners-back-international-coalition-to-rebuild-palestine ↩

  27. Boston Consulting Group, “Correcting the record on BCG teams’ involvement in work in Gaza” - https://www.bcg.com/news/6july2025-clarifying-bcg-involvement-with-aid-in-gaza ↩

  28. Boston Consulting Group, written response to the UK Parliament, 22 July 2025 - https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/49038/documents/257649/default/ ↩