MilCom Founders Podcast, Episode 45: From Police Officer to Fractional CISO with George Hyek

Join host Rod Loges and guest George Hyek as he traces the path from his early days as a police officer to founding TRINSEC 7. George explains why he walked away from responding to crime to spend a career preventing it, first as an Army intelligence officer and now as a Fractional CISO+ giving small businesses in regulated industries the kind of integrated security that used to be reserved for Fortune 500s and the government.

In this episode:

• How a Marine recruiting pull-up event and a roommate's conversation with a recruiter pulled George off the police force and into the Army as an intelligence officer.
• The 8 a.m. meetings at NATO Special Operations Headquarters where the commander, a Navy SEAL named Skip Vincenzo, banned all work talk so he could read where his people's heads and hearts were before the day started.
• What George took away from General John Kelly addressing a packed gymnasium at U.S. Southern Command during the rise of ISIS, and never once mentioning the son he had lost.
• Why George named his company TRINSEC 7, from Trinity to the biblical number seven for completeness, and how it captures his idea of holistic security.
• The problem with siloed security, why juggling 7 to 10 vendors leaves small businesses paying markups and getting finger-pointing instead of accountability.
• Why George turned down a security company as a client when they refused to let him run a vulnerability assessment.
• The VC who told George he doesn't run a software as a service company, he runs a service as a software company, and why that reframe stuck.
• George's work in rural healthcare and HIPAA, including a client visit in Oregon that reminded him the patient is the real person being protected.

Key takeaways:

• Strong teams are built on people, not just the mission. Knowing where someone's head and heart are tells you what kind of work they can do that day.
• Real leadership makes it about the people you lead, not yourself, even when you are carrying the heaviest loss in the room.
• Siloed security is one of the biggest vulnerabilities a small business has. One integrated program with one point of accountability beats a stack of disconnected vendors.
• Security only works when it supports the business. The moment it becomes an obstacle, people route around it and create a bigger hole.
• Coachability matters more than budget. A client who refuses to learn how exposed they are is not a client worth taking on.

Guest: George Hyek, Founder and Managing Partner, TRINSEC 7. Former U.S. Army intelligence officer and federal Senior Special Agent.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-hyek/
• Website: www.trinsec7.com

George Hyek is the founder and managing partner of TRINSEC 7, a security firm delivering enterprise-grade protection for small businesses without the enterprise budget. As a Fractional CISO+, George replaces the piecemeal, siloed approach to security with a single integrated program aligned to each client's business objectives, culture, and compliance requirements across frameworks like NIST, ISO, GLBA, and HIPAA.

George's career began in law enforcement as a police officer, where he quickly realized that responding to crime wasn't where he wanted to be. He wanted to prevent it. That realization led him into the Army, where he commissioned as an intelligence officer through the Pennsylvania National Guard's Officer Candidacy School. Over 14 years of service across the National Guard, Reserves, and active duty, George served in joint assignments at U.S. Southern Command, NATO Special Operations Headquarters in Belgium, and other high-level commands, leading 60+ overseas counterintelligence operations.

On the civilian side, George served as a Senior Special Agent investigating espionage, cyber intrusions, and national security threats, and managed security operations across seven airports and four nuclear plants, reducing critical incidents by 35%. He also teaches cyber threat intelligence and risk management at the graduate level, averaging a 4.9 out of 5 on student evaluations.

George is the author of Holistic Security Secrets, a practical framework for family security programs, and is currently writing a second book focused on small business security. His ideal clients are small businesses under 100 people in regulated industries, with a growing focus on rural healthcare and HIPAA 2.0 compliance.

Looking ahead: TRINSEC 7 is growing its client base and developing a proprietary software platform to complement its security services. George is also actively raising capital to bring that software to market.

The MilCom Founders Podcast champions and celebrates military community business owners. Each episode brings practical insights and lessons learned from veteran entrepreneurs.

Sponsored by One Degree Financial www.onedegreefinancial.com

Want to support veteran entrepreneurs? Donate to the Dick Loges Veteran Entrepreneur Scholarship Fund: https://bold.org/funds/dick-loges-veteran-entrepreneur-fund/