CEO Chairman & Co-Founder, Varonis
Search every verified Yaki Faitelson interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Yaki Faitelson, co-founder and CEO of Varonis, has been discussing the impact of generative AI on data security in a series of interviews in 2025. He has described AI tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot as a "Pac-Man from hell" that can access and condense large amounts of data, creating new security risks. Faitelson stated that "bad actors — they're not breaking in, they're logging in," and argued that organizations need to focus on protecting data directly rather than relying solely on perimeter security. He said Varonis aims to automate data protection through a "find fix alert" approach, and that with its cloud architecture, "99% they will never have a data breach." Faitelson also reflected on his 20-year journey building Varonis, which he co-founded in 2005 and took public on NASDAQ in 2014. In a conversation with Deloitte, he discussed surviving the 2008 market crash by cutting salaries rather than laying off employees, and credited meditation with helping him manage anxiety during that period. He emphasized the importance of conviction, finding the right partners, and building a platform that can automate data security at scale.
“When organizations are using us and we build this cloud architecture, 99% they will never have a data breach. If attackers get to the data, we see abnormal behavior, stop it and then can do forensics.”
“Copilot is like a Pac-Man from hell — by design it's using everything it can get, and the first time we saw people use it they were getting data they didn't need; it's an accident waiting to happen.”
“After 2008 what happened is that VCs gave you little money and took the whole company.”
“The public markets will beat the out of us for a year and a half but this is the right thing to do for the customers and for our future.”
“Bad actors — they're not breaking in, they're logging in. Most of the effort is to get an identity to compromise an identity and then they are abusing what we call the blast radius; many times more than 90% of the data that this identity can access is not relevant to the identity and organizations can't monitor it effe...”
“AI is inhaling all the access control available to it — think about it like a Pac-Man from hell that just goes and grabs everything it can, and instantly end users can find critical data and create critical data at a staggering rate outside of policy. There's also poisoning of LLM models: if you put the wrong informati...”
“Generative AI is a "Pacman from hell" — it mines any data it can within a huge blast radius and can rapidly condense terabytes into high‑value information products that end up in the wrong hands.”
“Once you have an identity there is no perimeter, so the priority must be protecting data automatically — humans can't manage the data security problem at the necessary scale.”
“Now it's easy — you need very basic knowledge; you go to this AI tool and in a second you build a very sophisticated malware, and every layman can become a very dangerous bad actor; this is like a perfect storm from hell.”
“In any enterprise in the world today, if it has more than 500 users usually 80–90% of the data people can access is completely not relevant for them.”
“If you dissect the anatomy of almost every breach, it's all about the data — once attackers get into concentrated data repositories they can scan file shares, find credentials and ultimately take down the whole enterprise.”
“Without tremendous automation it's impossible to protect these enormous data sets; humans and manual processes can't win this battle.”
“It's all about the data. If you dissect the anatomy of almost every breach, it's just all about the data.”
“Regulation, together with high-profile breaches, will generate a lot of awareness.”
“2019 was truly monumentally off over on is for many reasons none bigger than the pace of our transition to a subscription model going into the transition we believe that customers who purchase five or more licenses were more likely to buy even more licenses because of the value they receive what we didn't know was how...”
What does effortless security really look like? In this episode, Amir Nooriala meets Varonis' CEO Yaki Faitelson at their London office to explore his 20-year journey building a $4bn data security giant and what’s next. They discuss: • Automating security at the speed of SaaS • Eliminating breaches and compliance risk • How AI is shaping the future of data protection Don't miss it.
Varonis CEO Yaki Faitelson sat down with Upen Sachdev of Deloitte to discuss the lessons learned from building billion-dollar cybersecurity companies. Yaki talks about the story of Varonis from its inception, hiring its first employees, how he and Varonis survived the 2008 market crash, dealing with anxiety through meditation, and understanding what’s important in life. Looking for a specific point? Check out the highlights below: Yaki's Beginnings - 0:47 The importance of conviction - 5:00 Controlling your destiny - 11:00 Handling anxiety - 15:20 "All-in" decisions - 17:10 The power of bel…
How is AI impacting data security? What do CISOs care about most? What is on the horizon for Varonis' Data Security Platform?
Yaki Faitleson, Co-founder and CEO of Varonis, chats with Ed Amoroso, CEO of @TAGInfosphere about the impacts generative AI has had on data security. They discuss the power of Microsoft 365 Copilot and security concerns around gen AI tools, how data security posture management (DSPM) fits into an overall security strategy, and Varonis' newest Managed Data Detection and Response (MDDR) offering, that is now available. Use the chapters below to listen to what topic interests you most. ⬇️ Introduction | 0:00 Risks associated with gen AI | 1:35 How Varonis protects data from AI | 3:15 Var…
Ed Amoroso, CEO of TAG Infosphere, chats with Yaki Faitleson, Co-founder and CEO of Varonis, about the power of security platforms, how Varonis was rebuilt in the cloud, and more. Watch the full interview. More from Varonis ⬇️ Visit our website: https://www.varonis.com LinkedIn: / varonis X/Twitter: / varonis Instagram: / varonislife #DataSecurity #Cybersecurity #Varonis
Yaki Faitelson, Co-Founder and CEO of Varonis, joins Ed Amoroso, CEO of TAG Cyber in a discussion about the recent uptick in data breaches. Visit the Varonis WEBSITE: https://www.varonis.com/ SUBSCRIBE for more Cyber Security content: http://bit.ly/2yLQcm7 Connect with TAG Cyber Online: Visit the TAG Cyber WEBSITE: http://bit.ly/2itN6NF Follow Ed Amoroso on TWITTER: http://bit.ly/2zxETeq Follow TAG Cyber on TWITTER: http://bit.ly/2gwYfcm Follow TAG Cyber on INSTAGRAM http://bit.ly/2yIH1T3 Like TAG Cyber on FACEBOOK: http://bit.ly/2z0iVVi Recent posts by Ed Amoroso on LINKEDIN: http://bit.l…
Recently TAG Cyber LLC CEO Edward Amoroso and Varonis CEO Yaki Faitelson sat down to discuss the latest high-profile data ...
Sign in to search the full transcript archive, filter by topic, and access every quote from Yaki Faitelson.
The summary and quote tags on this profile are produced with AI assistance from verified, first-person interview transcripts, then checked by our team to confirm the speaker's identity and the accuracy of every quote. See how we verify →