What does a 25-year cybersecurity career actually look like — and what does the CISO role require today when AI, regulatory pressure, and economic uncertainty all collide at once?Daniel Ayala is the Founder and Managing Partner of Secratic, a fractional CISO and Chief Privacy Officer consultancy. He's served as CISO at ProQuest, Interim CISO at Michigan State University, and today advises multiple SMBs simultaneously on security strategy, AI risk, and data privacy.In this episode, we talk about what it really takes to step into a CISO role, how the fractional CISO model works as a career path, why insider threat programs need a serious update in the AI era, and what practitioners pivoting into security leadership actually need to know.---**⏱ TIMESTAMPS**- 00:00 — Intro- 02:00 — Daniel's background and the 25-year journey- 08:00 — How Secratic was born: the fractional CISO model- 14:00 — Serving multiple organizations simultaneously- 19:00 — AI risk: what CISOs actually need to be doing right now- 25:00 — Insider threat in the age of workforce disruption- 30:00 — Privacy engineering vs. compliance thinking- 35:00 — CMMC, SEC disclosure, and what they mean for practitioners- 40:00 — How to position yourself for a CISO or vCISO role- 44:00 — Mentorcore: formalizing mentorship in cybersecurity- 47:00 — Advice for career changers breaking into cyber---**🔗 CONNECT WITH DANIEL**- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielaayala/- Secratic: https://secratic.com- The Great Security Podcast: https://greatsecuritydebate.net- Mentorcore: https://mentorcore.biz- Blog: https://danielayala.com**📚 BOOKS FROM OUR HOSTS**- Develop Your Cybersecurity Career Path: https://amzn.to/3443AUI- Hack the Cybersecurity Interview: https://www.amazon.com/Hack-Cybersecurity-Interview-Interviews-Entry-level/dp/1835461298/- Hacker Inc.: https://www.amazon.com/Hacker-Inc-Mindset-Your-Career/dp/B0DKTK1R93/- Magnetic Hiring (Renee): https://magnetichiring.com/book**🎤 BREAKING INTO CYBERSECURITY**Real conversations about pivoting into cyber — what you did before, how you got in, and how to keep growing.- 🌐 Website: https://breakingintocybersecurity.org- 📬 Newsletter: https://newsletter.breakingintocybersecurity.org- 🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/16hs6zYtLa4iS4RTcyNF71- 🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/breaking-into-cybersecurity/id1463136698- 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/breaking-into-cybersecurity/#CyberSecurity #CISO #AIRisk #FractionalCISO #CareerChange #BreakingIntoCybersecurity #CyberLeadership #Privacy #InfoSec #CyberCareer