Vivek Nair, PhD

Vivek Nair is Co-Founder and CEO of Multifactor, an applied cryptography startup building zero-trust identity security for the agentic era.

As our world becomes increasingly connected, everything from our bank accounts to our power grids is susceptible to hackers and cyberwarfare. Vivek has over a decade of experience researching applied cryptographic techniques to secure critical systems against these threats. He previously served as a Technical Lead within elite cyber units of the US Department of Defense (DOD) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), where he received the Directorate’s Exceptional Performance Award for advancing the frontiers of US cyber operations.

Nair first began researching cybersecurity in 2015 and has authored numerous patents and patent applications for secure user authentication technologies. Born in Phoenix, Arizona, to a nomadic family, he spent parts of his childhood in eight different cities, from San Jose to Singapore, while attending school online through Stanford University’s OHS program. He went on to become the youngest-ever recipient of bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (at the ages of 18 and 19, respectively). He completed his Ph.D. in Computer Science at UC Berkeley at the age of 22, supported by fellowships from the National Science Foundation, the National Physical Sciences Consortium, and the Hertz Foundation. His research has been prominently featured in The Washington Post, Forbes, Bloomberg, and more.

Nair takes a leadership role in the cybersecurity community by giving invited talks at conferences, leading global hackathon teams and delivering courses to over 1,000 students. He was also the recipient of the 2022 Tong Leong Lim Pre-Doctoral Prize at UC Berkeley, which is presented annually to the electrical engineering and computer science student who achieves the highest distinction in the pre-doctoral examination. Now, at Multifactor, Vivek aims to redefine “zero trust” by building provably secure authentication, authorization, and auditing technologies for AI agents.

Outside of work, Vivek is also a competitive virtual reality eSports player and was the captain of Berkeley’s “SSS” Beat Saber team, which he led to a U.S. national collegiate championship victory in 2021.