CISOs wear three hats in 2025: Operator, Strategist, Storyteller.

In this ClearTech Loop episode, Jo Peterson sits down with Mark Lynd — Head of Executive Advisory & Strategy at Netsync, globally ranked AI & Security Thought Leader, and author of Cyber War One Scenario.

Mark shares a practical field guide for CISOs navigating the complexity of AI adoption:

• Operator: Shift SOCs from alert-chasing to question-asking. Measure time-to-decision, not tool count.
• Strategist: Stop reinventing governance. Use paved roads with guardrails (NIST, ISO, vendor frameworks).
• Storyteller: Boards don’t want tool inventories — they want proof you can protect the business. Translate cyber chaos into ROI and resilience.

If you’ve been wondering how to brief the board, govern shadow AI, or actually augment your SOC with AI (without burning out your team), this is your episode.

👉 Watch the full conversation + subscribe to our LinkedIn newsletter here: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7346174860760416256/

Key Quotes (good for scanners + SEO)

• “Stop buying blinky boxes. Start buying better questions.”
• “AI is both a control surface and a risk surface.”
• “Make AI a copilot layer.”

Episode Notes

🎧 Listen: [Buzzsprout embed auto-fills]

📺 Watch on YouTube: [insert link]

📰 Subscribe to ClearTech Loop Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7346174860760416256/

📘 Mark Lynd’s book Cyber War One Scenario: https://www.amazon.com/Cyber-War-Scenario-Mark-Lynd/dp/B0FH41GRHS

🔗 Resources mentioned:

• NIST AI RMF
• Gartner SOC Efficiency
• PwC Digital Trust Insights 2025

Rules don’t scale. Architecture does. F5’s Lori MacVittie makes the case for putting security policy in the infrastructure—not the app—and for treating AI as its own threat surface. If your program is still chasing strings with rules, you’re already behind.

If your “AI security” strategy is a pile of brittle rules, you’re governing yesterday’s system. In this no-fluff conversation, Lori MacVittie argues for a structural fix: move policy and enforcement into the architecture where they can evolve without redeploys—then govern AI as a distinct threat surface (prompts, context, responses, completions, agents), not just another API.

She also shows how to use LLMs for what humans are bad at: fast pattern discovery. Her real-world example? A packet capture fed to an LLM surfaced a noisy IoT device in minutes—compressing mean-time-to-repair by skipping the rule-writing slog.

Reality check: AI adoption is outrunning AI security. If you’re still reactive, you’re late.

Quick explainer for non-practitioners: Regex (regular expressions) = rule-based string pattern matching; useful for forms, brittle against attackers who mutate text. Lori’s point: shift to semantic signals (meaning/behavior), not just string matches.

In This Episode

• From rules to semantics: why regex won’t save you—and how AI helps detect semantic patterns of abuse.
• Put controls in the architecture: keep secure coding by default, but move policy/enforcement/governance out of the app to avoid security debt and dev drag.
• Govern the AI loop: prompts, context windows, responses, completions, agents—the surface is broader than APIs or the network stack.
• Adoption vs. security: the Road Runner problem—AI is sprinting ahead of the controls.
• Practical win: use LLMs to accelerate discovery in telemetry (e.g., packet captures) and cut MTTR.

Guest Bio

Lori MacVittie is a Distinguished Engineer & Chief Evangelist in F5’s Office of the CTO. She writes and speaks extensively on modern app delivery, AI-driven operations, and security governance.

Think your security strategy is airtight? Think again.

In this episode, Brad Moldenhauer — VP and CISO-in-Residence at Zscaler — lays out the brutal truth: most companies are underestimating the financial and existential risks lurking in their systems.

He’s not pulling punches.

From AI that predicts attacks before they happen to material risks that could bankrupt you overnight, Brad explains how the old-school view of cyber is blinding businesses to what really matters — and how to fix it before it's too late.

In This Episode:

• Why your “cyber strategy” could trigger an extinction-level event
• The business risk mistake even seasoned CISOs still make
• How to stop spending $100 to fix a $5 problem
• Why ignoring AI governance might be your last mistake
• The one shift that turns CISOs into true executives

Why You Should Listen:
If you’re a CISO still talking controls instead of customers — you’re already behind.
This isn’t just another tech talk. It’s a wake-up call from one of the most strategic minds in cybersecurity.

ClearTech Loop Ep. 8 with Rob Bair, CISO-in-Residence at Zscaler

Episode Summary
Cybercriminals are running fake AI startups — and users are downloading ransomware straight from what looks like “innovation.” In this episode, Rob Bair (Zscaler) breaks down how ransomware has gone corporate: polished websites, SEO poisoning, even English-speaking help desks guiding victims through payments.

This isn’t a hoodie-in-the-basement threat anymore. It’s a professionalized extortion business — and it’s moving at machine speed. Rob explains why defenders can’t win at human speed, why AI must be in the loop, and what CISOs should expect in the next 12–18 months.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• How ransomware crews are turning fake AI startups into bait
• Why ransomware is now a professionalized industry with customer support
• Why manual patching is dead — and what CISOs must do about it
• The 12–18 month horizon for AI-driven cyber threats

About the Guest
Rob Bair is CISO-in-Residence at Zscaler, advising on emerging threats and resilience strategies. He also serves as an investor and advisor at Autonomous Cyber, a board member at Rebel Space Technologies, and advisory board member at ISARA Corporation and BOSS Controls.

You think AI is protecting you.
It might actually be helping hackers.

V-CISO Danny Pastrana has seen it first-hand — AI tools deployed without guardrails can turn into a compliance nightmare, a data leak machine, and your fastest path to a breach.

In this episode, Danny rips the lid off AI hype and shows you where the real danger lives — and how to keep it from wrecking your business.

In This Episode:

• The cyber insurance trap that could cost you millions
• How hackers use AI to scale phishing and deepfakes
• Why “human-in-the-loop” isn’t optional
• The one mistake that turns AI from asset to liability

Why You Should Listen:

If your board is pushing for more AI without asking the right questions, this could be the most important 10 minutes you hear all year.

Because AI won’t just make you faster — it’ll make your mistakes faster too.

In this sixth episode of ClearTech Loop, Jo Peterson is joined by Robert Uno, Global CISO and Founder of Triden Group, to unpack what modern cybersecurity leadership really looks like—from AI governance to financial risk quantification.

This 10-minute episode continues The CISO Slant—a 10-part series that explores how today’s security leaders are navigating AI disruption, boardroom expectations, and digital transformation.

What we cover in this episode:

• Why CISOs must evolve into business risk managers
• The real business value of quantifying cyber risk
• How governance, not just tooling, drives safe AI adoption

Guest: Robert Uno, Global Chief Information Security Officer, Triden Group
Host: Jo Peterson, Chief Analyst, ClearTech Research

Full episode page with transcript and takeaways: https://cleartechresearch.com/project/episode-6-the-ciso-slant-robert-uno-global-ciso-at-triden-group/

Subscribe to the newsletter:
https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7346174860760416256/

Topics:
cybersecurity, risk quantification, AI governance, business strategy, CISO, ClearTech Loop, Jo Peterson, Robert Uno

Tags/Keywords:
CISO, cybersecurity, AI risk, business leadership, cyber strategy, Robert Uno, ClearTech Loop, Jo Peterson, Triden Group

Episode Type:
Full Episode

Season & Episode Number:
Season 1, Episode 6

Custom Episode Webpage:
https://cleartechresearch.com/Cleartech-loop-podcast/episode-6-robert-uno

In this fifth episode of ClearTech Loop, Jo Peterson sits down with Stan Lowe, CISO at the U.S. Department of the Interior, to explore how federal-scale cybersecurity transformation offers a blueprint for all modern enterprises.

This 10-minute conversation continues The CISO Slant—a 10-episode series on how security leaders are navigating AI risk, operational complexity, and leadership in the digital era.

What we cover in this episode:

• Deploying Zero Trust architecture at scale
• Why centralized security operations matter more than ever
• How to rethink security in the age of AI and cloud complexity

Guest: Stanley Lowe, Chief Information Security Officer, U.S. Department of the Interior
Host: Jo Peterson, Chief Analyst, ClearTech Research

Full episode page with transcript and takeaways:
https://cleartechresearch.com/project/cleartech-loop-episode-5-stan-lowe/Subscribe to the newsletter:
https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7346174860760416256/

Topics:
cybersecurity, zero trust, AI security, federal cybersecurity, digital transformation, ClearTech Loop, Jo Peterson, Stan Lowe

Tags/Keywords
CISO, cybersecurity, zero trust, AI, federal IT, risk strategy, Jo Peterson, ClearTech Loop, Stan Lowe, U.S. Department of the Interior

Episode Type
Full Episode

Season & Episode Number
Season 1, Episode 5

Custom Episode Webpage
https://cleartechresearch.com/project/cleartech-loop-episode-5-stan-lowe/

Episode Description / Show Notes
In this fourth episode of ClearTech Loop, Jo Peterson sits down with Mike Britton, CIO at Abnormal Security, to unpack the real-world challenges of governing AI, protecting cloud-native platforms, and building trust in fast-growth environments.

This 10-minute conversation continues The CISO Slant—a 10-episode series exploring how today’s security leaders balance innovation and risk.

What we cover in this episode:

• How to implement secure, compliant AI programs
• What CIOs must prioritize in high-growth cybersecurity teams
• Why trust and privacy are central to platform security

Guest: Mike Britton, Chief Information Officer, Abnormal Security
Host: Jo Peterson, Chief Analyst, ClearTech Research

Full episode page with transcript and takeaways:
https://cleartechresearch.com/project/cleartech-loop-podcast-episode-4-mike-britton/

Subscribe to the newsletter:
https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7346174860760416256/

Topics:
cybersecurity, AI strategy, privacy, enterprise security, scale, ClearTech Loop, Jo Peterson, Mike Britton

Tags/Keywords
CISO, CIO, AI security, cloud security, privacy, risk, digital growth, Jo Peterson, ClearTech Loop, Mike Britton, Abnormal Security

Episode Type
Full Episode

Season & Episode Number
Season 1, Episode 4

Custom Episode Webpage
https://cleartechresearch.com/Cleartech-loop-podcast/episode-4-mike-britton