Daniel Miessler

Building AI that upgrades humans.

Hi,

My name is Daniel Miessler and I'm an AI / Security Researcher and Founder based out of the San Francisco Bay Area.

My goal is to help bring about the good version of an AI future—which I call Human 3.0—and avoid the bad one. In order to do that, I build AI systems, companies, products, and tools that upgrade people and organizations rather than try to replace them. E.g.:

  • threshold.app — An AI-powered content filtering system that rates the quality of content and lets you decide how good it has to be before it's shown to you. Addresses the problem too much content and too little time, as well as the problem of individual writers/creators being ignored because they don't have a large audience.
  • HELIOS — An AI-augmented state monitoring system.
  • SAMEPAGE — An AI-augmented system for maintaining startup focus so they can sell and go to market effectively.
  • KNOSIS — An AI-augmented daily intelligence brief product.
  • (more to come)

I also advise and consult with companies on how best to become antifragile against the AI environment that's coming.

To look around, you can check out my writing, telos, projects, ideas, and/or predictions—or a deeper version of this explainer on the about page.

Known Projects ​

  • The Fabric AI Framework, released in January of 2024, which is a set of crowd-sourced AI solutions that address specific work and personal use cases. Over 30K stars in less than 30 months.
  • The SecLists project, which serves as a Pentester's essential List of Lists, and it's been part of Kali Linux since 2018.
  • The Consumer Authentication Strength Maturity Model (CASMM), which helps people assess and improve their authentication game.
  • Expanded list here: Projects

Background ​

I've been writing and building in public since 1999. My work unapologetically spans multiple domains, including cybersecurity, AI, technology, society, and philosophical exploration.

Professionally, I've been in cybersecurity for my entire career, and have worked at companies like Apple, Robinhood, IOActive, HP, and others. I've also consulted for hundreds of companies from the Fortune 10 to the Global 1,000.

Here's more detail, and a rough timeline of how I got here.

Today ​

  • Since 2022 I've been running my own company called Unsupervised Learning, which is focused on building AI that upgrades humans.
  • I also advise several companies on cybersecurity and AI adoption, serve as a fractional CISO, and do 2-3 security assessments per year.

2021 - 2022 — Robinhood ​

  • Built and ran the Vulnerability Management and Application Security programs.

2018 - 2021 — Apple ​

  • Head of Business Intelligence for Information Security for all of Apple. Built and ran the team that's still in place today.

2015-2018 — IOActive ​

  • Built and ran the Advisory Services group for IOActive, focused on full-spectrum security assessments.

2009 - 2015 — HP ​

  • Had several roles at HP, starting with web security testing and consulting for building application security programs.
  • Co-founded Fortify on Demand, and built it up from 2 people to over 350 people and being one of the top performing divisions over my time there.

2006-2009 — Aflac ​

  • Head of Application Security, focused on web assessments and attack surface for the company.

2003-2006 — DynTek ​

  • Technical security assessments and security consulting for government and corporate customers.

1999-2003 - Multiple ​

  • University, Computer Science.
  • Hired as Head of Information Security for the university.
  • Worked as the IT and Security administrator for the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving.

1992-1998 - US Army ​

  • Infantry
  • Airborne
  • Air Assault
  • Spanish Linguist
  • 101st Airborne
  • Served over a year in S2 (Intelligence) for my battalion

Look around and reach out ​

To learn more about what I'm working on, you can check out my projects, writing, telos, ideas, and predictions. And if you want to reach out, you can find me on X, BlueSky, LinkedIn, or email.

Either way, thanks for visiting, and I hope you find something useful here. 🙏

-Daniel