Ariana Mirian, PhD, is Co-Founder at BeeSafe AI, a Y Combinator-backed cybersecurity startup pioneering frontier AI defenses against social engineering and trust-based scams targeting financial institutions, telecoms, and government agencies.

Ariana earned her PhD in Computer Science and Engineering from UC San Diego in 2023, where her thesis focused on using large-scale measurement and analysis to better prioritize security processes, before joining Censys as a Senior Security Researcher.

With over ten years of experience as a security research and measurement scientist, Ariana has presented at premier security conferences including Black Hat and BSides Las Vegas, and co-authored research accepted to IEEE S&P 2025 on phishing training efficacy.

Prior to co-founding BeeSafe AI, Ariana conducted security research at Google Chrome and Censys, gaining unique perspectives into security at scale, and the BeeSafe team brings industry experience from Google, Microsoft, and major DoD-funded programs.

BeeSafe AI, a YC W26 company, pioneered the first AI system for engaging sophisticated trust-based scammers, won the DOD Cyber Competition, and serves financial institutions and law enforcement agencies tackling a $12B annual fraud problem.