June 17, 2025
Yinglian Xie, CEO – DataVisor
Catch Me If You Can: The Fraud Wave Coming To A Device Near You, Yinglian Xie – CEO DataVisor
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These days, it’s not a matter of “if”, but when you or your organization will get hit with cybercrime. AI compounds the problem, arming lone attackers and organized gangs with cheap and easy tools to commit their misdeeds. It’s one thing when you know what might be coming, and quite another to defend against new exploits, the “unknown unknowns” that can tie your team up in knots and cause massive damage.
This episode connects two topics we’ve been talking about on the show: AI, with all its hype, and cybercrime, which is becoming more and more of a threat in line with our ever-expanding digital footprints. Between phishing links, deepfakes, and scam calls, more than a trillion dollars were lost globally last year alone, and today’s guest on the Reboot Chronicles, DataVisor CEO Yinglian Xie, is combating the surge.
Yinglian is a former Microsoft Researcher that turned tech entrepreneur with a new mission in mind; to stay as many steps ahead of cybercriminals as possible. At the cutting-edge intersection of AI, cybersecurity, and fintech, she has built a company that isn’t just fighting fraud, it’s redefining how the world protects itself in real time. And for those of us who continue to get sketchy emails in our inboxes—this is good news!
The Rise Of A Fraud Buster
During her time at Microsoft, Yinglian began seeing a shift in the digital landscape that anticipated the rise of digital fraud. Waves upon waves of fake accounts and phishing schemes were starting to target social media sites and tech startups, and something had to be done. This is why Yinglian and her Co-founder Fang Yu started DataVisor: to find better ways of combating online fraud. As Yinglian says, “Our goal is to redefine the industry and try to build something that protects all of us.” But not only were they looking to solve the problem at that point in time, they were devising ways to detect and mitigate future exploits.
Fighting AI With AI
One of the reasons that cybersecurity is such a fragmented and evolving industry is because cybercriminals are often ahead of the curve, constantly finding new ways to fool and harm us. It doesn’t make it any easier that they have easy access to AI that can be used to penetrate most defenses. To top it all off, cybercriminals “don’t have review committees. They don’t have regulatory governance. The just move as fast as they can.” To counter these threats, DataVisor leverages “all kinds of machine learning, advanced learning and AI” to effectively combat cybercriminals and beat them at their own game.
Changing The Corporate Mindset
One of the biggest challenges that Yinglian has faced isn’t the tech aspect of all this security– it’s convincing executives that they need it before they get attacked. Yinglian and her team often hear that “We wish maybe last year we had moved forward” with their services. It is doubly important to get ahead of these criminals because they are targeting businesses more and more, and it is better to be proactive. If you are justreacting, millions of dollars of fraud damage could already be happening.
