In this episode of Hash It Out podcast, Virtru CMO Matt Howard interviews Dave Brown, CISO and CIO at Andesite.ai, about making cybersecurity a true business advantage. Brown shares his journey from military cybersecurity to startup leadership and discusses his book ‘Bootstrapping Cybersecurity and Startup.’ The conversation covers the importance of aligning cybersecurity strategy with business priorities rather than just following frameworks like NIST. They explore data protection challenges, including the balance between securing sensitive information and enabling business operations through controlled data sharing. Brown explains Andesite’s approach to maintaining 18 compliance standards and over 500 controls with continuous monitoring. The discussion delves into AI security governance, data sovereignty requirements, and the evolving role of CISOs as business enablers rather than cost centers. Brown emphasizes the importance of partnerships between security teams and business units, especially as AI adoption increases the demand for accessible yet secure data. The episode concludes with Brown explaining Andesite’s human-in-the-loop approach to AI-powered security operations and his positive experience using Virtru for data protection and government compliance requirements.