# Santhosh Purathepparambil

> Santhosh Purathepparambil is Co-Founder and Chief AI Scientist at Discern Security, an AI-native security policy management platform he co-founded in 2023 alongside Sai Venkataraman and Rohan Puri. A Stanford School of Engineering alumnus, he previously served as Sr. Director of Engineering at McAfee, co-founded SecurityAdvisor (acquired by KnowBe4 in 2021 - the company that created the Human Detection and Response category), and was VP of Product Strategy at KnowBe4. At Discern, he architects AI agents that help Fortune 500 companies continuously monitor, assess, and optimize their security posture at machine speed, backed by $3M in seed funding from BoldCap, WestWave Capital, Cyber Mentor Fund, and Security Syndicate.

- **Role:** Co-Founder and Chief AI Scientist at Discern Security
- **Organizations:** Discern Security, SecurityAdvisor, KnowBe4, McAfee, Beagle Security
- **Nationality:** Indian-American
- **Education:** Engineering (School of Engineering), Stanford University
- **Known for:** Co-founded SecurityAdvisor and created the Human Detection and Response (HDR) category - a new cybersecurity discipline, Secured acquisition of SecurityAdvisor by KnowBe4 in 2021, Co-founded Discern Security, raising $3M seed round in September 2023

## Career timeline

- **pre-2018** — Sr. Director of Engineering at McAfee, one of the world's largest cybersecurity companies
- **2018** — Co-founded SecurityAdvisor, pioneering the Human Detection and Response (HDR) category
- **2021** — SecurityAdvisor acquired by KnowBe4 on October 21, 2021
- **2021-2022** — VP of Product Strategy at KnowBe4 post-acquisition
- **2022** — Worked with Beagle Security
- **2023** — Co-founded Discern Security with Sai Venkataraman and Rohan Puri in January 2023
- **2023-09** — Discern Security raised $3M seed round from BoldCap, WestWave Capital, Cyber Mentor Fund, Security Syndicate
- **2023** — Discern Security launched Policy Intelligence Hub - world's first AI-powered security policy management platform
- **2024-2025** — Discern Security expanded to serve Fortune 500 companies and major cybersecurity firms; pivoted to AI-native agentic platform

## Achievements

- Co-founded SecurityAdvisor and created the Human Detection and Response (HDR) category - a new cybersecurity discipline
- Secured acquisition of SecurityAdvisor by KnowBe4 in 2021
- Co-founded Discern Security, raising $3M seed round in September 2023
- Built AI agent suite (Atlas, Oracle, Pathfinder, Resolve, Mesh) for enterprise security automation
- Achieved SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certifications for Discern Security
- Grew Discern Security to serve Fortune 500 corporations and leading cybersecurity firms
- Stanford University School of Engineering graduate with career spanning major enterprise security companies

## Latest updates

- **2025-05** — Discern Security named Evgeniy Kharam as Chief Strategy Officer, expanding leadership team
- **2025-01** — Discern Security featured at ChannelNext West 2025 as an emerging AI security platform
- **2024** — Discern Security evolved from Policy Intelligence Hub to full AI-native agentic platform with named agents: Atlas, Oracle, Pathfinder, Resolve, Mesh

## Links

- Website: https://discernsecurity.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/santhoshpurathepparmbil

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/santhosh-purathepparambil
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-06