Building Assymmetric Defenses w/ Zainab Majid
May 11, 2026·
·
2 min read
Into AI Safety
Zainab Majid, co-founder of Asymmetric Security, joins Jacob for a conversation on the intersection between AI Safety and cybersecurity, as well as the future of digital forensics. Drawing from years of incident response work, she explains how cyber attacks actually unfold, why AI is changing both offense and defense, and how her team is building AI-native tools to investigate breaches faster and more effectively. Other topics explored in this episode include trust in the AI/cybersecurity industries, the realities behind cybersecurity hype, and the challenge of keeping humans meaningfully involved as these systems become more capable. Zainab also gives practical, actionable advice on how you can protect yourself.
If you’re interested in over 30 minutes of additional content, head on over to the Kairos.fm Patreon where you can become a subscriber for just $2 per month, which helps make this whole podcasting thing a bit more sustainable.
INTERVIEW RECORDED 2026.04.18; ASIDES RECORDED 2026.05.06; TRANSCRIPT
Chapters
00:00:00 ❙ Intro
00:04:34 ❙ Zainab's Background
00:08:49 ❙ Jacob & Zainab's History
00:16:03 ❙ Founding Asymmetric Security
00:24:49 ❙ How to Know Who You Can Trust
00:36:31 ❙ The Threats Asymmetric Is Built to Fight
01:05:54 ❙ What's Asymmetric Tackling Next?
01:15:33 ❙ Glasswing, Dual Use, and Power Concentration
01:24:21 ❙ The Relationship Between AI Safety & Cybersecurity
01:37:01 ❙ Outro
00:04:34 ❙ Zainab's Background
00:08:49 ❙ Jacob & Zainab's History
00:16:03 ❙ Founding Asymmetric Security
00:24:49 ❙ How to Know Who You Can Trust
00:36:31 ❙ The Threats Asymmetric Is Built to Fight
01:05:54 ❙ What's Asymmetric Tackling Next?
01:15:33 ❙ Glasswing, Dual Use, and Power Concentration
01:24:21 ❙ The Relationship Between AI Safety & Cybersecurity
01:37:01 ❙ Outro
Links
- Asymmetric Security website
- The Tech Founders article - Asymmetric Security Raises $4.2M to Shrink Cyber Investigations From Days to Hours
CyberSecEval and Friends
- EvalEval @ NeurIPS workshop paper - Rethinking CyberSecEval
- Meta AI report - Purple Llama CyberSecEval
- Meta AI report - CyberSecEval 2
- Meta AI report - CyberSecEval 3
Mythos Moment
- Anthropic press release - Project Glasswing
- Anthropic Red Team blogpost - Assessing Claude Mythos Preview’s cybersecurity capabilities
- Schneier on Security blogpost - What Anthropic’s Mythos Means for the Future of Cybersecurity
- The Globe and Mail article - The Mythos question: Who decides when AI is too dangerous?
Other Resources
- Nicholas Carlini’s [unprompted] talk
- Nicholas Carlini’s personal website
- The New York Times article - Cyberattacks Upset British Life, Disrupting Car Factories and Grocery Stores
- The Guardian article - Hackers linked to M&S breach claim responsibility for Jaguar Land Rover cyber-attack
- Entrepeneur First website
- Asymmetric Security’s EF Bio
