Remedio CEO Tal Kollender: Thinking Like a Hacker to Defeat Cyber Threats
January 5, 2026
According to Remedio CEO Tal Kollender, the key to staying ahead of malicious hackers is to adopt their mindset—"think like a hacker." Recognizing that not everyone can be a teenage hacker turned cybersecurity expert, Kollender has developed an AI that mimics hacker tactics to bolster defenses.
"My thought was: if I have a hacker mindset, why not adapt it into defense?" Kollender told The Register. "Because if you don't think like a hacker, you won't be able to beat them, right?"
We had a virtual discussion with Kollender about her early days hacking video games and how that passion led her to establish Remedio (formerly Gytpol). The startup recently secured $65 million in its initial funding round, pushing its valuation to $300 million. Its clientele includes household brands like Colgate-Palmolive and Kraft Heinz.
"Curiosity is the name of the game," Kollender explained. "I was always curious. What brought me to what I do now is solving some problems from a different angle."
Her approach to problem-solving often involves exploring alternative solutions. She illustrated this with the example: one plus one equals two. "But to reach two, you don't need one plus one; you can do two plus zero minus two plus four," she said, emphasizing flexible thinking.
Her first hacking experience was during her childhood, playing an Israeli online game that resembled Tetris combined with Icy Tower. She was ranked No. 1 but was overtaken overnight by an unknown player. Driven by competitive spirit, she hacked into the game’s database to create her own unbeatable score. This curiosity eventually expanded to hacking Sony PlayStation games, chat apps, and phones.
Kollender’s tech journey continued during her service in the Israeli Air Force, where she was reassigned from fighter pilot training to the IT Corps Cyber Security-Systems Division.
From Spy to Startup Leader: The Rise of AI in Cybersecurity
Before founding her company, Kollender worked as a system security architect at Dell EMC. She co-founded Remedio in 2019 with Gilad Raz and Yakov Kogan. Their mission: revolutionize cybersecurity operations by preventing disruptions while fixing vulnerabilities.
"We wanted to change the way companies fix things, without any business disruption," she said.
Remedio uses AI to automatically detect and remediate security issues like vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and compliance gaps across corporate devices. As cybercriminals harness AI for malicious purposes—scanning for weaknesses and exploiting vulnerabilities—the industry faces an AI-driven race.
Historically, intruders spent months infiltrating networks, but AI has compressed this timeline to weeks or days. Kollender warns that if defenders don’t escalate their use of AI, they risk falling behind.
"Now, they do it in weeks or days. That’s how fast AI has made things," she explained. "And if defenders don't keep up the pace and grow their own usage of the technology, then the attackers might beat us."
Her early hacking experiences as a teenager instilled a relentless competitive spirit. Kollender is committed to not letting her adversaries win, whether in video games or cyber defense.