When AI Experts Face AI Scams

Knexus AI is a premier Google Partner specializing in mission-focused AI innovation for high-stakes government and enterprise operations. Named the 2025 Google Partner of the Year for Business Applications, they hold expertise badges in AI/ML and Data Analytics. What sets them apart is their ability to deliver explainable, secure, and transparent AI solutions to the government.

With two decades of experience, 4 patents, and over 100 peer-reviewed publications, Knexus has proven they can transition cutting-edge AI research into deployed systems that handle sensitive data at scale. Their contracts span 10+ years showing their dedication to bringing AI to national security in the right way.

The wake up call (or text)

When Knexus brought on new executive leadership, they immediately got hit with a barrage of spam. But that was just the beginning. Within days, employees across the company started receiving highly targeted text messages and emails claiming to be from the new CEO. The messages looked legitimate enough to fool busy engineers and researchers. Some asked employees to click on phishing links. Others requested gift cards for "urgent" matters. Attackers had scraped information LinkedIn and other publicly available sources about the leadership change and exploited it.

For a company building AI systems, it was a vulnerability to address as quickly as possible. The irony wasn't lost on the team, they were experiencing the same AI-powered threats they helped their clients defend against. "We see how fast AI can fuel impersonation and scams targeted at small research groups like us," says Adam Lurie, CEO of Knexus. "Kanary is a no brainer for us to offer as a benefit to our entire team of researchers, admins, and executives." In addition to the automated service, Kanary also shares helpful tips and trick for businesses looking to network, but limit data leaks on platforms like LinkedIn.

Personal data security as an employee benefit

For tech companies, especially those working on sensitive AI projects, traditional benefits like healthcare and 401(k)s are table stakes. But what about digital safety? Knexus decided to treat personal data security with the same importance. In 2023, Knexus began offering Kanary as part of their employee benefits package. Just like selecting health insurance during open enrollment, employees could opt into Kanary protection every year when they picked their benefits.

For technical employees who understand threat models and attack vectors, this wasn't a hard sell. Many had first hand experience manually opting out of data brokers or sending suppression requests to Google. They've actually been on the other side, training AI to synthesize public records, social media, and leaked databases.

How Kanary improved their experience

The adoption numbers speak for themselves. Out of the team, 50 employees opted in to Kanary protection. As Adam notes: "Almost the entire team opted in. They were excited to try out Copilot, the first of its kind on-device privacy automation framework, through the mobile apps."

For a technical team that builds AI systems, Kanary Copilot's architecture was particularly interesting: an on-device privacy automation framework that handles sensitive operations locally rather than sending everything to the cloud. This aligned perfectly with Knexus's own zero-trust principles and their work on secure AI systems.

The results were immediate. In the first quarter after implementation, Kanary removed 275 data broker records exposing Knexus employees' personal information. In subsequent quarters, ongoing monitoring removed between 35 and 150 records each quarter as new exposures appeared and employees continued to onboard.

But the real value went beyond just removing records. The Knexus team became active participants in improving the product itself. "They've been sharing feedback directly with Kanary engineers through the Discord beta," Adam says. For a team that builds cutting-edge AI products, being able to engage directly with engineers developing privacy automation tools created a natural feedback loop. Technical employees understood the architecture, appreciated the approach, and contributed to making it better.

This is the kind of partnership that works for technical organizations: not just a vendor relationship, but a collaborative approach where both teams benefit from shared expertise.

Personal security for mission-critical work

For Knexus employees, Kanary runs in the background while they focus on building explainable AI systems. When you're publishing peer-reviewed research, your name is necessarily public. When you're presenting at AI conferences or working with Google on cutting-edge projects, your professional presence is visible. The goal with Kanary isn't to disappear, it's to ensure that sensitive information like home addresses, phone numbers, and family information is kept private and attackers cannot weaponize it.

The mobile apps provide ongoing monitoring and automated privacy fixes, catching new exposures before they become problems and allowing convenient alerts and 1-tap escalations from your phone. Every 30 days, scans run automatically. New exposures get flagged and removed. Employees can check their dashboard to see what's been protected without having to manually search dozens of sites or file removal requests themselves.

Measuring what matters

For Knexus, success is measured in both security posture and team adoption:

• 50 employees protected across engineering, research, and leadership teams

• 1,000+ data broker records removed since 2023

• Near-complete adoption among eligible employees

• Active engagement with Kanary Copilot beta program

• Continuous protection that scales with the team

When your team builds AI for national security or Google’s partner network, you can't afford to have employees' personal information used as an attack vector. Researchers at Knexus are on the frontlines of model capabilities, so investing in their own personal privacy amidst next-level data harvesting is a no brainer. Kanary provides an AI-Scale solution to an AI-Scale problem. For a team that thinks in terms of threat models and attack surfaces, this makes perfect sense.

How you can get Kanary for your team

If your organization deals with sensitive technical work, AI development, government contracts, or simply has employees who are visible targets for social engineering, you can set up Kanary for your entire team in less than 5 minutes.

Visit kanary.com/enterprise to learn more about our premium and executive tiers. Offer it as an employee benefit during open enrollment, or roll it out immediately for high-risk roles. We'll handle the data removal, the monitoring, and the ongoing protection. You handle building cutting-edge technology.