In this episode of Cyber Security District podcast, we speak with Marco Ramilli, a cybersecurity visionaire, TEDx speaker, and founder of IdentifAI, a deepfake detection company working at the intersection of AI, trust, and digital identity. From writing early sandboxing papers to leading cyber defense teams and selling his previous startup to VirusTotal (Google), Marco has spent the last two decades safeguarding digital borders.

At IdentifAI, he’s now taking on one of the biggest threats of the AI era: manipulated content. Whether it’s fake insurance claims, fraud in football scouting, or synthetic identities onboarding to banks, his platform uses AI to detect AI: verifying whether images, voices, or videos were generated by humans or machines.

In this episode, Marco shares his founder story, why he believes the shift from deterministic to probabilistic computing will reshape cybersecurity, and how his latest startup scaled to enterprise use cases within a year.

• Marco’s hacking origin story and first run-in with his university
• Researching malware and voting systems at UC Davis
• Founding his first cybersecurity company in Italy when the market wasn’t ready
• Bootstrapping a business through 3+ years of break-even before momentum hit
• Early ransomware response and reverse-engineering threats
• Getting acquired by Tinexta and integrating into VirusTotal
• Building IdentifAI to detect deepfakes using AI-powered forensics
• From onboarding fraud to football scouting scams, real use cases
• The rise of “digital performers” and the ethics of synthetic content
• Why deterministic cybersecurity tools are no longer enough
• The philosophical shift security teams must make to handle probabilistic models
• Advice for scaling startups, hiring A-players, and letting go as a founder
• His signal message to CISOs: curiosity will save us

00:00 – Intro 00:14 – Meet Marco Ramilli 01:00 – Hacking the campus network (with a for loop!) 02:15 – Getting caught, and hired for cyber research 03:10 – Reverse engineering malware at UC Davis 04:30 – Cybersecurity in Italy: too early, too expensive 05:45 – Why compliance was seen as a cost 06:20 – Building a company just to be the “owner of his time” 07:00 – Early business struggles & staying focused 08:30 – Why saying “no” saved his startup 10:10 – On embracing failure and learning from loss 11:30 – Curiosity, discomfort, and moving to the U.S. 13:00 – Sleeping on floors and working without backup 14:00 – Founding Yoroi, growing from 4 to hundreds of employees 15:30 – The ransomware era and massive inbound traction 16:45 – Sandboxing: research, papers, and real-world applications 18:00 – Joining Google via acquisition 19:30 – Startup phases and letting go as a founder 21:00 – Hiring advice: don’t save money on great people 23:00 – Launching IdentifAI: how a fake Pope jacket sparked a real mission 25:00 – Building AI to detect AI: early model design 27:00 – From 80% to 96% accuracy in deepfake detection 28:00 – Why images are more dangerous than text 29:45 – The weaponization of synthetic media 31:20 – How IdentifAI detects voice, image, and video manipulation 32:45 – Use cases: banking KYC, insurance fraud, and football scouting 35:00 – API-first strategy and enterprise readiness 36:30 – “Digital Performers” and the ethics of representation 37:30 – Real-time meeting detection via agents 39:00 – Why probabilistic AI is changing the rules 40:00 – How cybersecurity must evolve to deal with uncertainty 43:20 – Deployment flexibility: on-prem or private cloud 46:20 – The philosophical challenge of non-deterministic systems 49:30 – Final message to CISOs: stay curious

Connect with the guests:

• Marco Ramilli: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcoramilli/
• Website: https://identifai.net/

Follow Cybersecurity District:

• Laurens Jagt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurensjagt/
• Website: https://www.cybersecuritydistrict.com/
• All channels & newsletter: https://beacons.ai/cybersecuritydistrict

In this episode of Cyber Security District, we sit down with Kim van Lavieren, co-founder and CTO of Dawnguard, a cybersecurity startup that raised millions in funding before registering a company or launching a product. Kim’s story is anything but ordinary, from leading Marines on no-sleep missions to building offensive hacking tools for the Dutch military, to managing massive security teams at Amazon in the U.S., his path combines discipline, vision, and deep technical mastery.

Together with co-founder Madi Abdurazak, Kim is now on a mission to completely rethink how cybersecurity should be done, by starting not with alerts or vulnerabilities, but with architecture, policy, and real business risk. Dawnguard is building a platform that automates secure-by-design architecture using AI, aiming to replace an entire category of cloud security tools before most companies even realize there’s a better way.

• What the Dutch Marine Corps taught Kim about discipline and decision-making
• How a military comms officer became a cybersecurity architect
• Building secure systems after discovering flaws in weapons room access
• Writing offensive tools for the cyber division of the Dutch Armed Forces
• Why cyber soldiers may be more impactful than boots on the ground
• Kim’s journey to Amazon and running third-party security at massive scale
• The mindset shift from “no” to “how” in security engineering
• The origin story behind Dawnguard and raising millions pre-product
• How Dawnguard is building a new category for architecture-led security
• Using AI to design, verify, deploy, and enforce security from day zero
• Advice for cybersecurity newcomers, and why the industry must rebrand
• How Dutch risk aversion is holding back innovation — and how to break through

00:00:00 – Intro 00:00:47 – Kim's Background: From Marines to Cybersecurity 00:03:29 – Training Under Extreme Pressure 00:06:28 – Becoming a Communications Officer & Discovering Security Gaps 00:08:18 – First Lines of Code at Age 10 00:10:19 – When Tech & Physical Endurance Collide 00:11:04 – Offensive Cyber Capabilities in the Military 00:14:22 – Why Cyber Soldiers Now Matter More Than Physical Ones 00:17:05 – Consulting, CISO Roles & Joining Amazon 00:18:49 – The Scale & Speed of Security at Amazon 00:21:00 – The Origin of Dawnguard 00:23:00 – Automating Architecture Compliance with AI 00:25:08 – Using Threat Intel & Policy as a Starting Point 00:28:02 – Building the Engine: 5 AIs and a Moonshot 00:30:46 – Meeting Madi & Finding the Perfect Co-Founder Match 00:33:29 – Raising Millions with No Product — and Building a Dream Team 00:36:37 – Rise Into Resilience: What the Dawnguard Slogan Really Means 00:38:08 – Rebranding Cyber: Why the Industry Needs a Makeover 00:39:44 – Advice for People Trying to Break Into Security 00:41:03 – Advice for Aspiring Cyber Entrepreneurs 00:44:42 – Certifications, Labs & Reality Checks 00:47:25 – Going Big Means Accepting Uncertainty 00:49:00 – The 5-Year Vision: Replace Entire Security Categories 00:50:30 – Final Signal Message to CISOs: Security Is Balance, Not Absolutes

Connect with the guests:

Kim van Lavieren: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-v-0645931b4/

Learn more about Dawnguard: https://dawnguard.ai/

Follow Cyber Security District: Laurens Jagt (Host): https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurensjagt/ Website: https://www.cybersecuritydistrict.com All channels & newsletter: https://beacons.ai/cybersecuritydistrict

In this episode of Cyber Security District, we sit down with Niek Waarbroek (Founder & CTO) and Tycho Klessens (CEO) of Florbs, a Dutch startup transforming file security inside Google Workspace. What started as a simple set of admin scripts has evolved into a powerful SaaS platform, used by global enterprises to automate onboarding, offboarding, and prevent accidental (or malicious) data leaks.

Niek shares how his frustrations with error-prone onboarding flows inspired him to build smarter tools, and how a lack of visibility into shared files became a real security threat for many organizations. After bootstrapping Florbs for three years, he crossed paths with Tycho, then a VC investor, who not only became the commercial co-founder, but helped raise €1 million to scale the team.

Together, they discuss the power of building with product-led growth, how they’re scaling without wasting capital, and why real file security goes beyond Google’s default settings. They also explain why early-stage cybersecurity startups need more than funding, including focus, clarity, and the right partner chemistry.

In this episode, we cover:

• The original problem Florbs set out to solve inside Google Workspace
• Why offboarding is one of the biggest overlooked security gaps
• How ex-employees still access company data without detection
• From custom scripts to a full-fledged SaaS product
• Product-led growth without a sales team or marketing budget
• Raising €1 million from angel investors and CISOs
• Going from solo founder to building a complementary co-founder team
• How they’re building safe, reversible file actions with real-time insights
• Expanding into AI-powered detection and cross-platform collaboration security
• Lessons learned transitioning from VC investor to cybersecurity CEO

Whether you're a CISO, founder, or operator working in Google Workspace or building a startup yourself, this episode shows how automation and visibility can finally close one of the biggest blind spots in modern file security.

Timestamps: 00:00 – Intro 01:15 – What Inspired Florbs: The Google Workspace Problem 03:40 – Why Onboarding & Offboarding Create Risk 06:00 – Real-World Cases: Ex-Employees Accessing Confidential Docs 08:45 – Building from Admin Scripts to Full Product 11:30 – Why Google Alone Doesn’t Cut It for File Security 14:50 – The Origins of the Name “Florbs” 18:10 – Google Developer Expert Status & Product-Led Growth 21:00 – Meeting Tycho: From VC Investor to Co-Founder 25:30 – The First Pitch, the Missed Investment & The Unexpected Partnership 30:40 – Raising Smart Capital (Not Just Any Capital) 34:00 – Scaling Carefully: Where the €1M Will Go 37:20 – Building Automated Security Workflows 40:15 – Preventing AI-Fueled Phishing & Lookalike Domain Attacks 44:00 – Hiring Philosophy, Co-Founder Chemistry & Startup Reality 49:00 – Final Advice for Entrepreneurs & First-Time CISOs 52:30 – One Signal Message to CISOs: Don’t Block Everything

Connect with the guests:

Niek Waarbroek: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niekwaarbroek/

Tycho Klessens:https://www.linkedin.com/in/tycho-klessens-a215abb7/

Learn more about Florbs: https://florbs.io

Follow Cyber Security District: Laurens Jagt (Host): https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurensjagt/ Website: https://www.cybersecuritydistrict.com All channels & newsletter: https://beacons.ai/cybersecuritydistrict