Nir Zuk

Started from the metal, now we're here. 😎 From rebuilding cybersecurity at the hardware level to seeing Cylake light up the @NYSE trading floor. Not a bad week. Proud to be recognized on this year's @FortuneMagazine Cyber 60, in partnership with @lightspeedvp and @AWSstartups. Big ideas take bold people. Lucky for us, we've got a whole team of them. This one's for the builders.

Cybersecurity has a data puddle problem, and adding more AI to the puddles isn't going to fix it. For decades, we've added new security products to solve new problems, each collecting its own data and seeing only part of the picture. Now we're expecting AI to connect the dots across systems that were never designed to work together. In our latest Substack, our Founder and CEO @nirzuk breaks down how we got here, why fragmented security architectures aren't built for AI, and what needs to change. Read more: cylake.substack.com/p/cybers…

Cylake has been named to the @FortuneMagazine Cyber 60™ 2026–2027 list, developed with @lightspeedvp and @AWSstartups, recognizing 60 venture-backed cybersecurity companies shaping the industry's future. Our team has spent decades building some of the world's biggest security companies. We've seen firsthand what happens when cybersecurity evolves by adding another product, another layer, another disconnected source of data. So we're taking a different approach. We're rebuilding cybersecurity from the metal up, bringing hardware, software, data, and AI together on a single foundation for organizations where the stakes are highest and partial visibility isn't an option. This recognition is an exciting milestone for our growing team of engineers, designers, and builders who are challenging long-held assumptions about how cybersecurity should work. Read more about the recognition and what we're building: cylake.com/resources/cylake-…

AI has changed the economics of cyberattacks. Attacks are cheaper to launch and faster to scale, and human intervention alone can’t keep up. @MarkatPANW and @renebonvanie discuss why we need algorithms fighting algorithms. Hear more: substack.com/@cylake/note/p-…

Some engineers think outside the box. Ours sign the inside. We're building cybersecurity from the metal up, and we're looking for people who want their fingerprints on something entirely new. From applied AI and software infrastructure to endpoint engineering and product design, there's plenty of room to make your mark. Think you're up for it? We're hiring. Explore our open roles: cylake.com/company/careers/

Cybersecurity has always been asymmetric: attackers only need to find one opening, while defenders have to protect everything that matters. Now, AI is changing the scale and speed of that equation. @chandna, Partner at @GreylockVC and Cylake board member, believes we're entering an era of machines fighting machines, where increasingly sophisticated attacks powered by “bad AI” will require equally capable “good AI” on defense. In Episode 6 of Inside Cybersecurity, Asheem joins @renebonvanie to discuss what AI means for the cybersecurity stack, why truly AI-native architectures need to be built differently, and what three decades in cybersecurity have taught him about the people and companies that successfully navigate major technology shifts. 🎧 Watch Episode 6 of Inside Cybersecurity: cylake.substack.com/p/good-a…

The hardest environments should help shape the security built for them. That’s the idea behind Cylake’s Design Partner Program. Security and technology leaders bring us their constraints, work directly with our team, and help shape the platform before commercial launch. In Episode 5 of Inside Cybersecurity, Head of Product Management Nick Campagna explains how the program works and why we’re building with these partners from the start. Listen here: cylake.substack.com/p/inside…

A 99% attack detection rate used to be good enough. Not because the remaining 1% didn’t matter. Developing enough different attacks to consistently find a way through was expensive, largely limiting that capability to nation states and sophisticated criminal organizations. GenAI changes that equation. When developing and iterating on new attacks becomes dramatically cheaper, attackers can keep looking for the gap until they find it. @nirzuk and @renebonvanie explain why that changes a longstanding assumption in cybersecurity: that keeping adversaries out is enough. Watch the full episode: cylake.substack.com/p/ai-isn…

We’re continuing to share perspectives from Cylake’s Board of Directors. We asked @ravi_lsvp what he sees changing in cybersecurity today. "Twenty years ago, security had become a collection of single-purpose appliances. Nir saw that complexity and helped consolidate an entire layer of the industry around a common platform. What's interesting is that, over time, the industry fragmented again. Large organizations can now have dozens of security vendors, each solving a different problem, collecting different data, and giving the security team another system to manage. I've spent my career watching these cycles play out in enterprise technology. Eventually there comes a point where adding one more product isn't really the answer. You have to look underneath all of it and ask whether the architecture still makes sense. I believe that question matters more now than ever, because we're moving into an increasingly AI-native world where the nature, timing and scale of cyber threats are changing radically. An architecture designed for the last era won't likely hold up in this one. That's what I find compelling about Cylake. Nir and the team aren't trying to build the thirty-first security product. They're going back to the underlying architecture, bringing the data and functions back together, and building it to be forward-looking for what's coming."

AI has made targeted attacks cheaper to build and easier to scale. Defenders need to move faster, and they need the complete picture to do it. Today, that picture is scattered across security products that were never built to work together. Our investors are backing Cylake’s answer: rebuild the architecture from the metal up. @nirzuk founded Palo Alto Networks. Wilson Xu helped build it and led its engineering team. Udi Shamir co-founded SentinelOne. Now they’re building one platform with one data lake, where security and AI run on infrastructure you control. @angusloten covers the surge in early-stage cyber funding, including Cylake’s recent raise, in @WSJ. Read the story: wsj.com/pro/cybersecurity/fl…

Data sovereignty comes down to one thing: control. Where is your data? Who has access to it? And how much control do you have over what happens to it? Cylake’s @MarkatPANW and @renebonvanie break down why these questions matter now more than ever. Dig into the new meaning of data sovereignty: substack.com/@cylake/note/p-…

We’re building Cylake with the people who will use it. In Episode 5 of Inside Cybersecurity, Nick Campagna and @renebonvanie go inside Cylake’s Design Partner program and what we’re learning about AI, legacy security stacks, sovereignty, hardware, and more. 🎧 Watch: cylake.substack.com/p/inside…

You cannot build complete visibility from 30 tools. What you get instead is 30 puddles of data and 30 bills. We are building Cylake around a different premise: one system, one ingestion pipeline, working across complete data on infrastructure the customer controls. @renebonvanie spoke with @ISMG_News about why that architecture led us all the way down to the hardware, and why it matters for organizations that cannot send their most sensitive security data somewhere else. Read the full story: inforisktoday.com/cylake-get…

“It should be your data. In the cloud, it’s not.” - @NirZuk, Cylake Founder & CEO Data ownership is one of a company’s most valuable assets. If working with your own data requires permission and a massive bill, how much of it do you really own? Listen to the full conversation on our latest episode of Inside Cybersecurity: cylake.substack.com/p/who-re…

Sophisticated cyberattacks are becoming cheaper to launch and easier to scale. Organizations need security operations that can respond at machine speed. Hear Cylake CMO @renebonvanie and Cylake Board Member @MarkatPANW discuss this shift in the latest episode of Inside Cybersecurity: substack.com/@cylake/note/p-…

Your cybersecurity data should be your data. But who actually controls it? Cylake founder and CEO @nirzuk sits down with @JoelFishbeinJr, Senior Managing Director at Guggenheim Securities, to discuss cloud economics, fragmented security data, AI, and why data sovereignty is becoming an architectural requirement. 🎧 Inside Cybersecurity Episode 4: cylake.substack.com/p/who-re…

AI can only defend what it can see. Before asking what AI can do for your organization’s cybersecurity, you need to ask: Can our architecture support AI? If your security data is scattered across multiple ingestion pipelines and disconnected "data puddles," AI only sees pieces of the picture. A single ingestion pipeline and a unified data lake give AI the complete visibility it needs to operate effectively. More in our latest article: cylake.substack.com/p/ai-is-…

Cybersecurity has become a board-level issue. Former Palo Alto Networks CEO @MarkatPANW joins @renebonvanie to discuss AI, resilience, digital sovereignty, and why cybersecurity has become a strategic business issue. 🎧 Episode 3 of Inside Cybersecurity: open.substack.com/pub/cylake…

Every week brings another AI analyst, AI SOC, AI agent, or AI assistant. But AI can only work with what it can see. If cybersecurity systems are built on fragmented data and incomplete visibility, AI will inherit those same limitations. Read more in our latest Substack: cylake.substack.com/p/ai-is-…

Are cybersecurity vendors building products around security outcomes, or around cloud pricing models? In the inaugural episode of Inside Cybersecurity with Cylake, CEO @nirzuk explains to @renebonvanie why cloud economics have a greater influence on cybersecurity architecture than many organizations realize. Hear more from Nir and René: cylake.substack.com/p/why-we…