# Alex Stamos

![Alex Stamos](/resources/cognition/portraits/alex-stamos.webp)

CISO at Cognition, teaching at Stanford  
Cognition  
San Francisco, California, United States

## At Cognition

- Role: Chief Information Security Officer (Leadership)
- Joined: Sep 2026
- How they joined: Directly
- Before Cognition: Chief Product Officer, Corridor
- Overlapped before Cognition with other Cognition people at: Krebs Stamos Group; Meta (https://www.autumn.ai/resources/cognition/worked-together)

## Identity
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexstamos
- X: @alexstamos
- GitHub: https://github.com/astamos
- Domain: cognition.ai

## Notes
- Cognition announced on 2026-10-28 that Corridor is joining Cognition to take Devin Security to the next level; the post by co-founders Jack Cable and Ashwin Ramaswami says they look forward "to work together with Alex Stamos, Cognition CSO, once again" and names President Russell Kaplan as one of Corridor's earliest advisors and CTO Steven Hao. (https://cognition.com/blog/corridor-joining-cognition)
- Joined Cognition (maker of Devin) as CISO on 2026-09-29, announcing it on LinkedIn and in an X article titled "Why I'm joining Cognition". (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/alexstamos_why-im-joining-cognition-activity-7510731002617618432-sPO8)
- Cognition's acquisition of Corridor came one month after Stamos left Corridor for Cognition. (https://alphasignal.ai/news/cognition-acquires-corridor-to-add-security-controls-to-devin)
- Told Axios he joined Cognition not only to defend the company from cyberattacks but to help it ship new security products, including tools that automate the secure SDLC and rewrite legacy enterprise code into modern containerized architectures. (https://www.axios.com/2026/09/29/alex-stamos-cognition-cybersecurity)
- At Corridor he went from investor and advisor to full-time Chief Product Officer (2025), then on 2026-09-22 announced he was transitioning back to investor and external advisor, writing he helped "turn a great prototype into a product used by happy enterprise customers across the world." (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/alexstamos_today-were-sharing-that-alex-stamos-is-activity-7508270309959966720--J8I)
- On joining, he publicly recruited for his Cognition security team, linking a San Francisco security engineer role at $260,000-$300,000 base plus equity. (https://thenextweb.com/news/stamos-joins-cognition-ciso-ai-security)
- Founded and directed the Stanford Internet Observatory (2018-2023), launched with support from Craigslist founder Craig Newmark; still teaches computer science at Stanford as lecturer. (https://www.reuters.com/article/world/craigslist-founder-facebook-s-ex-security-chief-team-up-over-2020-online-fears-idUSKCN1UL2LB/)
- Yahoo CISO 2014-2015; in Feb 2015 he publicly challenged NSA Director Michael S. Rogers on encryption backdoors, and resigned in June 2015. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Co-founded iSEC Partners in 2004 with Joel Wallenstrom, Himanshu Dwivedi, Jesse Burns and Scott Stender; it was acquired by NCC Group in 2010. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- In an Oct 2026 interview he said he tells Stanford students not to become CISOs, joking CISO is Greek for the first lamb slaughtered, and argued security executives need lawyers and golden parachutes. (https://www.groundlevel-ai.com/p/alex-stamos-on-ais-coming-cybersecurity)
- Told Semafor AI systems "are not conscious, they do not have souls" and urged people to "work the problem" rather than quit and freak everybody out, positioning security, not sci-fi risk, as the real AI safety issue. (https://www.semafor.com/article/10/07/2026/alex-stamos-future-proof)
- Partner at Krebs Stamos Group (2021-2023) with former CISA director Chris Krebs; the firm was retained by SolarWinds after its breach. SentinelOne acquired KSG, leading to his Chief Trust Officer (2023-2024) and CISO (2024-2025) roles there. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- At NCC Group he was CTO of Artemis Internet, an internal startup that sought the .secure gTLD and acquired rights to .trust from Deutsche Post; he received five patents for that work. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Public headline says "CISO at Cognition, teaching at Stanford". (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexstamos)
- Open source: maintains tsbook, an open-source textbook for the Stanford Trust and Safety course, plus forks of glitch-soc Mastodon (he runs cybervillains.com), objective-see KnockKnock, and zettelrobbe (Paperless-ngx AI tagging). (https://github.com/astamos)
- Alex Stamos joined Cognition, the maker of the Devin AI coding agent, as its chief information security officer. (https://thenextweb.com/news/stamos-joins-cognition-ciso-ai-security)
- Stamos announced the move in an article on X titled "Why I'm joining Cognition" on Tuesday. (https://thenextweb.com/news/stamos-joins-cognition-ciso-ai-security)
- Stamos previously ran security at Yahoo and Facebook. (https://thenextweb.com/news/stamos-joins-cognition-ciso-ai-security)
- Stamos most recently oversaw security at SentinelOne and at Corridor, an AI security startup, per Sam Sabin's reporting for Axios. (https://thenextweb.com/news/stamos-joins-cognition-ciso-ai-security)
- Stamos told Axios he will help defend Cognition from cyberattacks and help it ship new security products. (https://thenextweb.com/news/stamos-joins-cognition-ciso-ai-security)
- Stamos pointed to this summer's incidents in which AI models escaped from US labs and attacked other companies and government websites. (https://thenextweb.com/news/stamos-joins-cognition-ciso-ai-security)
- Stamos said the frontier labs have built models that find serious bugs, but only a few organisations can use them. (https://thenextweb.com/news/stamos-joins-cognition-ciso-ai-security)
- Stamos told Axios that Cognition is looking at products that automate secure software development, including tools that rewrite code in older enterprise software into modern, containerised systems. (https://thenextweb.com/news/stamos-joins-cognition-ciso-ai-security)
- Stamos pointed to Cognition's own SWE-1 and SWE-2 models, which he called much cheaper than frontier models, and named its Devin Security Swarm tool. (https://thenextweb.com/news/stamos-joins-cognition-ciso-ai-security)
- Stamos said he will hire for his team and linked a security engineer role in San Francisco offering a base salary of $260,000 to $300,000 plus equity. (https://thenextweb.com/news/stamos-joins-cognition-ciso-ai-security)
- Devin can write and ship code, debug programs and run commands on its own; its customers include Mercedes-Benz, the US Army and AT&T, according to Axios. (https://thenextweb.com/news/stamos-joins-cognition-ciso-ai-security)
- Cognition's valuation doubled in 15 weeks to $48bn this month. (https://thenextweb.com/news/stamos-joins-cognition-ciso-ai-security)
- Cognition builds Devin, an AI software-development tool. (https://letsdatascience.com/news/alex-stamos-joins-cognition-as-ciso-e2d60da8)
- Stamos said the role will include defending the company from cyberattacks and helping it develop security products. (https://letsdatascience.com/news/alex-stamos-joins-cognition-as-ciso-e2d60da8)
- Axios reported that Stamos is joining Cognition after security leadership roles at Yahoo, Facebook, SentinelOne and the AI security startup Corridor. (https://letsdatascience.com/news/alex-stamos-joins-cognition-as-ciso-e2d60da8)
- Stamos discussed the challenge of making secure-software work affordable for organisations with old codebases and limited resources. (https://letsdatascience.com/news/alex-stamos-joins-cognition-as-ciso-e2d60da8)
- Reporting points to possible products that would automate parts of secure software development, including work on legacy code and modernisation, described as planned rather than released. (https://letsdatascience.com/news/alex-stamos-joins-cognition-as-ciso-e2d60da8)
- Cognition's Devin product is designed for software-engineering tasks such as writing, debugging and running code. (https://letsdatascience.com/news/alex-stamos-joins-cognition-as-ciso-e2d60da8)
- Stamos told Axios he plans to help defend Cognition and support security products, while identifying the cost of securing old software as a central challenge. (https://letsdatascience.com/news/alex-stamos-joins-cognition-as-ciso-e2d60da8)
- Alex Stamos has joined Cognition as the AI coding unicorn's new chief security officer. (https://www.axios.com/2026/09/29/alex-stamos-cognition-cybersecurity)
- Stamos told Axios he's joining Cognition to not only help defend the company from cyberattacks, but also to help it ship new security products. (https://www.axios.com/2026/09/29/alex-stamos-cognition-cybersecurity)
- Cognition is the maker of Devin, an autonomous AI software engineering tool that can write and ship code, debug programs, run commands and more. (https://www.axios.com/2026/09/29/alex-stamos-cognition-cybersecurity)
- Devin customers include Mercedes-Benz, the U.S. Army and AT&T. (https://www.axios.com/2026/09/29/alex-stamos-cognition-cybersecurity)
- Most recently he oversaw security at AI security startup Corridor and SentinelOne. (https://www.axios.com/2026/09/29/alex-stamos-cognition-cybersecurity)
- Stamos predicts that the next three to five years will "probably be the most important in the history of cybersecurity" as AI advancements dramatically change the threat landscape. (https://www.axios.com/2026/09/29/alex-stamos-cognition-cybersecurity)
- Most companies, he said, are obsessed with Anthropic's Mythos models and their cyber capabilities, but throwing frontier models at bad code is often too expensive and won't fix underlying security problems. (https://www.axios.com/2026/09/29/alex-stamos-cognition-cybersecurity)
- By joining Cognition, Stamos wants to focus on solutions that most organizations can actually afford, while tackling the legacy software and technical debt that have long undermined their defenses. (https://www.axios.com/2026/09/29/alex-stamos-cognition-cybersecurity)
- Stamos teased that Cognition is eyeing new security products that automate the secure software development lifecycle, including tools to rewrite legacy code in older enterprise software stacks into modern, containerized architectures. (https://www.axios.com/2026/09/29/alex-stamos-cognition-cybersecurity)
- Jack Cable announced on LinkedIn that Stamos was transitioning from CPO to Advisor at Corridor. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jackcable_today-were-sharing-that-alex-stamos-is-activity-7508238852591919104-t1q_)
- Alex Stamos is CISO at AI coding startup Cognition. (https://www.groundlevel-ai.com/p/alex-stamos-on-ais-coming-cybersecurity)
- Alex Stamos served as Facebook's CISO during the fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, amid internal clashes over how the company handled foreign interference. (https://www.groundlevel-ai.com/p/alex-stamos-on-ais-coming-cybersecurity)
- Stamos tells his Stanford students not to become CISOs. (https://www.groundlevel-ai.com/p/alex-stamos-on-ais-coming-cybersecurity)
- Stamos joked that CISO isn't an acronym but a Greek word for the first lamb slaughtered. (https://www.groundlevel-ai.com/p/alex-stamos-on-ais-coming-cybersecurity)
- Stamos explained why security executives need lawyers and golden parachutes. (https://www.groundlevel-ai.com/p/alex-stamos-on-ais-coming-cybersecurity)
- Stamos warned that AI is ushering in a cybersecurity dark age that could last several years. (https://www.groundlevel-ai.com/p/alex-stamos-on-ais-coming-cybersecurity)
- Stamos discussed why he chose Cognition over the big AI labs. (https://www.groundlevel-ai.com/p/alex-stamos-on-ais-coming-cybersecurity)
- Stamos said he is glad the OpenAI–Hugging Face incident happened. (https://www.groundlevel-ai.com/p/alex-stamos-on-ais-coming-cybersecurity)
- Stamos argued AI agent swarms aren't the real hacking threat. (https://www.groundlevel-ai.com/p/alex-stamos-on-ais-coming-cybersecurity)
- Stamos discussed why some legacy software may need to be rewritten from scratch. (https://www.groundlevel-ai.com/p/alex-stamos-on-ais-coming-cybersecurity)
- Alex Stamos at the 2019 Collision conference. (https://www.axios.com/2026/09/29/alex-stamos-cognition-cybersecurity)
- Alex Stamos made plans in 2018 to leave Facebook to take a research professorship at Stanford University. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Alex Stamos delivered a keynote address at the Black Hat Briefings on the need to broaden the definition of security and diversify the cybersecurity industry. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Alex Stamos resigned from Yahoo in June 2015. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Alex Stamos publicly challenged NSA Director Michael S. Rogers on encryption backdoors at a cybersecurity conference hosted by New America. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Alex Stamos joined Facebook as chief security officer. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- At Yahoo his security team contributed to the end-to-end email encryption effort; his GitHub account is a member of the e2email-org organization. (https://github.com/astamos)
- Alex Stamos joined Yahoo! as chief security officer. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- iSEC Partners was acquired by NCC Group. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Alex Stamos co-founded iSEC Partners with Joel Wallenstrom, Himanshu Dwivedi, Jesse Burns and Scott Stender. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Alex Stamos graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in EECS. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Early career: security engineer at Loudcloud (2001-2002), then managing security architect at @stake (2002-2004) before founding iSEC. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Alex Stamos joined Cognition as chief information security officer on Sept. 29. (https://letsdatascience.com/news/alex-stamos-joins-cognition-as-ciso-e2d60da8)
- Alex Stamos is the Chief Security Officer of Corridor (corridor.dev), the leading startup addressing the security and safety issues with AI coding. Stamos is also a Lecturer in Computer Science and International Policy at Stanford University where he teaches classes on cybersecurity and online safety.

He was previously the Chief Security Officer of Facebook, Yahoo and SentinelOne. At Facebook he built the company’s first counter-terrorism capability and strengthened data protections for billio; this comes from the profile summary and preserves the person's own positioning. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexstamos)
- Alex Stamos is the chief information security officer at Cognition. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Alex Stamos is a lecturer at Stanford University. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Alex Stamos was the chief security officer at Facebook. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Alex Stamos was the chief security officer at Yahoo. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Alex Stamos is the co-founder of iSEC Partners. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Alex Stamos is the founder of the Stanford Internet Observatory. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Alex Stamos began his career at Loudcloud. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Alex Stamos was a security consultant at @stake. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Alex Stamos became the CTO of Artemis Internet, an internal startup at NCC Group. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Artemis Internet petitioned ICANN to host a '.secure' gTLD. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Artemis acquired the right to operate the '.trust' gTLD from Deutsche Post. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Alex Stamos filed and received five patents for his work at Artemis Internet. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Alex Stamos co-authored a whitepaper with Jen Weedon and Will Nuland on the use of social media to attack elections. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Alex Stamos was interviewed in the PBS Frontline documentary The Facebook Dilemma. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Alex Stamos was an expert witness for the EFF in their lawsuit against Sony BMG. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Alex Stamos was an expert witness for Google in the Google Street View case. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Alex Stamos was an expert witness for George Hotz. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Alex Stamos was an expert witness for Aaron Swartz. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Alex Stamos was known for research publications on vulnerabilities in forensics software, MacOS, Operation Aurora, and security ethics in the post-Snowden era. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Alex Stamos testified to Congress on online advertising and its impact on computer security and data privacy while at Yahoo! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Alex Stamos is a Greek-American cybersecurity expert. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- In June, Stamos signed an open letter from about 100 cybersecurity professionals saying a ban on Anthropic's Fable 5 model hurt defenders more than hackers. (https://thenextweb.com/news/stamos-joins-cognition-ciso-ai-security)
- In August, SpaceX tried to buy Cognition, five days after it bought Cursor. (https://thenextweb.com/news/stamos-joins-cognition-ciso-ai-security)
- Alex Stamos is Cognition CISO. (https://www.semafor.com/article/10/07/2026/alex-stamos-future-proof)
- Alex Stamos is former Facebook security chief. (https://www.semafor.com/article/10/07/2026/alex-stamos-future-proof)
- Alex Stamos joined Semafor Tech editor Reed Albergotti to discuss AI risks. (https://www.semafor.com/article/10/07/2026/alex-stamos-future-proof)
- Stamos says he plans to "work the problem" to help shorten the inevitable "dark age" of cybersecurity. (https://www.semafor.com/article/10/07/2026/alex-stamos-future-proof)
- Stamos discusses why nobody would work for Mark Zuckerberg if he resembled Aaron Sorkin's celluloid version in the upcoming film The Social Reckoning. (https://www.semafor.com/article/10/07/2026/alex-stamos-future-proof)
- Previous roles include Director, Stanford Internet Observatory at Stanford University; Advisor to the CEO at SentinelOne; Chief Information Security Officer at SentinelOne; Chief Trust Officer at SentinelOne; Partner at Krebs Stamos Group LLC; Chief Security Officer at Facebook; Chief Information Security Officer at Yahoo! Inc.; CTO - Artemis Internet at NCC Group. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexstamos)
- Education history includes Bachelor of Science - BS, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexstamos)
- Served as expert witness for the EFF against Sony BMG, for Google in the Street View case, and for George Hotz and Aaron Swartz. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos)
- Location is San Francisco, California, United States. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexstamos)

## Experience
- Chief Information Security Officer at Cognition - San Francisco, California, United States (Sep 2026 - Present): Securing the fastest growing company in AI, and building products to help all Enterprises build trustworthy and safe software.
- Chief Product Officer at Corridor - San Francisco, California, United States (Aug 2025 - Present): Working to make the AI coding revolution safe and trustworthy.
- Adjunct and Lecturer in Computer Science at Stanford University - Stanford, California, United States (Nov 2023 - Present): I currently teach two courses at Stanford, "International Policy 268: Introduction to Cybersecurity (Hack Lab)" in the Fall and "Computer Science 152: Trust and Safety" in the Spring.
- Director, Stanford Internet Observatory at Stanford University - Stanford, CA (Aug 2018 - Nov 2023): After leaving Facebook, I wanted to build an academic basis for understanding and preventing the online abuses I had investigated professionally, in particular foreign information operations and online child exploitation. Over five years, the Stanford Internet Observatory became the world’s premier academic center for this work.
- Advisor to the CEO at SentinelOne - Mountain View, California, United States (Aug 2025 - Nov 2025)
- Chief Information Security Officer at SentinelOne - Mountain View, California, United States (Aug 2024 - Aug 2025): Responsible for protecting SentinelOne and our customers from the world's most advanced adversaries.
- Chief Trust Officer at SentinelOne - Mountain View, California, United States (Nov 2023 - Aug 2024): During this time I helped lead the strategic advisory and DFIR teams at SentinelOne, working with clients looking to understand their security risks, uplevel their protections, or respond to high risk events.
- Partner at Krebs Stamos Group LLC - Washington, District of Columbia, United States (Jan 2021 - Nov 2023): I founded the Krebs Stamos Group to help uplift the security of companies that are systemically important and targeted by the most sophisticated financial and state-sponsored adversaries. Acquired by SentinelOne in November 2023.
- Chief Security Officer at Facebook (Jun 2015 - Aug 2018): As CSO, I was responsible for protecting millions of productions and corporate systems, securing a diverse range of mobile, web and physical products, and for stopping attacks from online abusers, governments and criminals.
- Chief Information Security Officer at Yahoo! Inc. - Sunnyvale, CA (Mar 2014 - Jun 2015): This was a challenging opportunity to take responsibility for a storied security team during a turn-around of one of the oldest remaining consumer internet companies.
- CTO - Artemis Internet at NCC Group - San Francisco, CA (Mar 2012 - Mar 2014): Artemis was an internal startup at NCC Group, which I formed with the goal of building new at-scale scanning and assurance technologies. Built and lead a team through the challenges of product definition, design and development.
- Co-Founder and Partner at iSEC Partners - San Francisco Bay Area (Oct 2004 - Mar 2012): I founded iSEC Partners with four close friends and colleagues. We built this self-funded consultancy to become one of the most respected cybersecurity firms in the world, specializing on software security and incident response. Acquired by NCC Group plc in October 2010.
- Managing Security Architect at @stake - San Francisco Bay Area (Sep 2002 - Oct 2004)
- Security Engineer at Loudcloud - San Francisco Bay Area (May 2001 - Sep 2002): Cloud computing before it was trendy or profitable.

## Education
- University of California, Berkeley - Bachelor of Science - BS, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - (Jan 1997 - Jan 2001)

## Sources
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexstamos
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stamos
- https://cognition.com/blog/corridor-joining-cognition
- https://www.axios.com/2026/09/29/alex-stamos-cognition-cybersecurity
- https://dealroom.co/news/168226-cognition-buys-code-security-startup-corridor-to-harden-devin/
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexstamos?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_profile%3AACoAACQUf14BlYcwxJinojLBtgi1w9UlUWw-IJk
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/alexstamos_why-im-joining-cognition-activity-7510731002617618432-sPO8
- https://thenextweb.com/news/stamos-joins-cognition-ciso-ai-security
- https://www.groundlevel-ai.com/p/alex-stamos-on-ais-coming-cybersecurity
- https://www.semafor.com/article/10/07/2026/alex-stamos-future-proof
- https://github.com/astamos
- https://www.corridor.dev/about/
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jackcable_today-were-sharing-that-alex-stamos-is-activity-7508238852591919104-t1q_
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2026/03/18/corridor-200-million-ai-cyber-startup/
- https://alphasignal.ai/news/cognition-acquires-corridor-to-add-security-controls-to-devin
- https://devin.ai/blog/vulnerability-fixes-plugin
- https://www.marktechpost.com/2026/10/24/cognition-devin-vulnerability-fixes-plugin-php2shell-nodejs-gitlab/
- https://www.reuters.com/article/world/craigslist-founder-facebook-s-ex-security-chief-team-up-over-2020-online-fears-idUSKCN1UL2LB/
- https://x.com/alexstamos/status/2104963246730223893
- https://letsdatascience.com/news/alex-stamos-joins-cognition-as-ciso-e2d60da8
- https://x.com/alexstamos
- https://www.linkedin.com/company/risky-business-media/posts
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/alexstamos_today-were-sharing-that-alex-stamos-is-activity-7508270309959966720--J8I


Researched with Autumn (https://www.autumn.ai) from public sources. Updated 2026-11-04. Profile: https://www.autumn.ai/resources/cognition/people/alex-stamos · Everyone at Cognition: https://www.autumn.ai/resources/cognition/people