AI adoption is outpacing governance at every level, and the cost of waiting is getting higher by the day. Guru Sethupathy, General Manager of AI Governance at Optro and former Founder of FairNow, breaks down what it really takes to build trust in AI systems before things go sideways. 

Guru lays out a simple but powerful 3 P’s Framework: policies, process, and people, connecting it to what teams are actually dealing with right now, from shadow AI to security threats that don’t look like anything we’ve seen before.

If 2026 is the year AI moves from experiments to real operations, this conversation is your blueprint for keeping it under control.

Impactful Moments

Learn more about Optro: https://optro.ai/

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What happens when attackers collaborate better than defenders? 

Recorded live from RSAC 2026, this solo episode with Ron breaks down the biggest themes shaping cybersecurity right now, from organized threat groups and massive data breaches to the growing tension between productivity and control inside modern organizations.

This conversation highlights a hard truth. The threat landscape is evolving through collaboration. From phishing-as-a-service platforms like Tycoon 2FA to supply chain breaches impacting entire ecosystems, attackers are sharing tools and moving faster than ever.

But there’s another side to the story. As AI becomes embedded in how work gets done, security teams are being pushed to rethink their role. Blocking tools is no longer enough. The real challenge is enabling the business while managing risk, and that requires trust, alignment, and a stronger sense of community across the industry.

This episode is a call to rethink how we approach security. Not as isolated teams enforcing policy, but as a connected community working together to adapt, respond, and move forward.

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What does it mean when your smart doorbell becomes an entry point for surveillance? What happens when a single hacker can jailbreak every major AI model within hours of its release? And why are the same tools being used by both nation-state attackers and the defenders trying to stop them?

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What does it look like when a cybersecurity founder who built a $2.5 billion company decides to level up, again? Dean Sysman, co-founder of Axonius, sits down with Ron Eddings to pull back the curtain on what it really took to go from zero to $100M ARR in four and a half years, and what came next.

Dean breaks down the founder mindset, the emotional weight of tying your identity to your company, and why he stepped into the Executive Chairman role while simultaneously pursuing a PhD in AI systems at Columbia University. He gets into how boxing taught him what solo performance reveals about leadership, why vulnerability is a non-negotiable skill at scale, and what it means to care about something bigger than yourself. This one hits differently if you're building, leading, or figuring out what your next chapter looks like.

Last episode, Ron and Marcus made predictions. This episode, they brought the receipts.

Impactful Moments

Read the articles we referenced in this episode:

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The CISO role isn’t the finish line, it’s a launchpad. 69% of security executives are eyeing the exit, and Anthony Johnson is proof that what comes next can be even bigger.

Your email gateway isn't enough anymore, attackers are already inside the workspace through OAuth apps, browser extensions, and account takeover. 

Impactful Moments

Links

Security doesn’t fail because you missed a tool, it fails because “secure today” tricks you into relaxing tomorrow. This episode exposes why the real fight isn’t compliance… it’s whether your defenses hold up once attackers hit you with machine-speed pressure.

Ron sits down with Sonali Shah, CEO of Cobalt, to talk about how human-led, AI-powered penetration testing is evolving into full-spectrum offensive security. Sonali shares how Cobalt can start a test in 24 hours, push findings directly into Slack/Teams and Jira, and use learnings from 5,000+ pentests a year to continuously sharpen what gets caught. The big takeaway: automation finds the easy stuff as humans find the business-logic traps and attack chains that actually break companies.

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Text threads made AI feel personal, then agents made it productive, and suddenly “success” turns into chaos you can’t even track.

Links

Phishing didn’t get smarter, it got better at looking normal. What used to be obvious scams now blend directly into the platforms, workflows, and security controls people trust every day.

Impactful Moments

00:00 - Introduction

Links

Connect with our guest, Yaamini Barathi Mohan, on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yaamini-mohan/

Check out our upcoming events: https://www.hackervalley.com/livestreams