HCSK is a nonprofit built on a simple conviction: as AI makes deception cheaper and more convincing, ordinary people deserve protection that is just as accessible. Not a product, not a subscription, not a warning that only arrives after the damage is done. A clear, tested habit that anyone can learn and anyone can teach. That habit is Think First, Verify Always.
HCSK Inc. is a nonprofit registered in Delaware (Delaware State File Number 10600106). Its stated purpose is Human-Empowered AI Cybersecurity and Protecting Seniors From AI Scams: the two halves of one mission, carried out here and on our companion site for seniors.
The founder.
Think First, Verify Always was created by Yuksel Aydin, an AI-security researcher and the founder of HCSK. He is the author of the randomized controlled study behind the protocol and of the article that introduced it in MIT Sloan Management Review, “A Three-Minute Protocol to Reduce AI Manipulation Risk” (2026). His work sits where the threat actually lives, at the meeting point of AI capability and human judgment, and where a few seconds of clarity can be the difference between safety and loss.
What HCSK does.
We turn research into protection people can actually use. We study how AI is used to manipulate people, we test what genuinely helps them resist it, and we publish the results in plain language a first-time reader can put to work the same day. Think First, Verify Always is the flagship of that work: three minutes to learn, a lifetime to use, and open for anyone to teach.
Why you can trust it.
Published where it counts. Think First, Verify Always was published in MIT Sloan Management Review, one of the most respected names in management thinking.
Tested, not asserted. In a randomized controlled trial, one short session improved people’s resistance to AI-driven manipulation by 7.87 percentage points over a control group (n=151).
Adopted in the field. It is referenced and recommended by companies and media around the world, including DevDiscourse, ZDNet Korea, Global Learning Systems, and CybeReady.
Independent and open by design.
HCSK is independent, and Think First, Verify Always is released under a CC-BY 4.0 license. Anyone can read it, use it, translate it, and build on it, at no cost and with no permission required. That openness is deliberate. Protection that only works when one company owns it is not protection for everyone. We measure our success one way: by how far the protocol travels and how many people it protects. The best outcome is that it stops looking like ours and starts looking like common sense.