How Lenin Alevski Built a Cybersecurity Survival Game in a Week and Got 12,000 Players
Episode Summary:
Lenin Alevski is an AI Security Engineer at Google who spent a week building a text-based cybersecurity survival game in his spare time. Accidental CISO puts you in the seat of the first security hire at a company where everything is on fire, and every fraught and heart-pounding decision leads to one of eight endings.
He sat down with Gianna to talk about how the game came together, why spec-driven development matters more than vibe coding alone, and what 12,000 players and zero marketing budget taught him about building indie cyber games.
About Lenin:
Lenin Alevski is an AI Security Engineer at Google, where he focuses on threat modeling and security for AI systems and integrations. Before Google, he held security engineering roles at MinIO, OneLogin, and Websec México, where he worked across application security, cloud security, penetration testing, and identity and access management. In his spare time, he is an open-source contributor and the creator of Accidental CISO, a free text-based cybersecurity survival game.
Links & Resources:
- Lenin Alevski on LinkedIn
- Lenin's website
- Lenin's GitHub
- Accidental CISO game
- Recon Village: where Lenin's DEF CON talks are published
- Malware Village: DEF CON village where Lenin presented
- AppSec Village: DEF CON village where Lenin presented
- Superpowers: spec-driven development plugin Lenin recommended
- Playwright: testing tool mentioned
Cyber Innovation Conference:
The Cyber Innovation Conference is happening October 26th and 27th in Washington, D.C. CISOs, founders, and active investors in one room, with sponsor slots purposefully capped. Society members get 10% off your sponsorship when you mention Cybersecurity Marketing Society or CMS at sign-up.
👉 https://www.cyberinnovationconference.com/sponsors
CyberMarketing Con 2026:
CyberMarketing Con is back November 15th through 18th in Austin, Texas, and virtually. 700+ cybersecurity marketers, 4 days of sessions, workshops, and networking built for go-to-market teams in cybersecurity. Tracks for product marketing, field marketing, CMOs, and founders and CEOs. Get your ticket before prices go up on October 1st.
👉 cybermarketingconference.com
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- Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn
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