Northwoods Security Notes
Latest thoughts on startup security, vCISO leadership, and risk.
The Snakes Didn't Choose the Mall
An autonomous system picks its own actions. Somebody else picked the place it is allowed to run in, and decided the safeguards around it were good enough.
8/13/2026Read on Substack →
Hugging Face got the hard part of incident response right
Hugging Face detected, contained, and disclosed the OpenAI agent breach before OpenAI made contact. An incident-response teardown for small security teams.
8/6/2026Read on Substack →
A Good Result Can Still Be a Failed Security Test
The OpenAI/Hugging Face incident shows why scope, authorization and stopping rules matter as much as the findings.
7/31/2026Read on Substack →
An OpenAI agent breached Hugging Face. The failure modes were familiar.
The attacker was an AI agent, but the failures were familiar - weak containment, over-scoped credentials, and unanswered supervision questions.
7/24/2026Read on Substack →
Your Certificate Got You in the Room. Now They Start Asking.
About a third of breaches arrive through a vendor, so a SOC 2 or ISO 27001 badge only gets you in the room. Here is what buyers ask next.
7/16/2026Read on Substack →
Your Patch Window Is Now Your Attack Window
Exploits now hit in hours while the median fix still takes 43 days. A CISO's read for founders who can't out-patch the internet.
7/9/2026Read on Substack →
The Vendor Who Disappears
Anthropic's Fable lockout proved a closed AI model can be switched off by a government overnight - for who you are, not what you did. It's a sovereignty risk, not a vendor one.
6/25/2026Read on Substack →
Are You Writing Job Descriptions for People Who Don't Exist?
Startup security postings stack three careers into one role - then sit open for months. Staff the dominant third, buy or rent the rest.
6/18/2026Read on Substack →
You Have ISO 27001. Do You Still Need SOC 2?
Where ISO 27001 maps cleanly to SOC 2, where it doesn't, and how to bridge the gap without rebuilding your security program.
6/11/2026Read on Substack →
Resilience is Key to Startup Survival
So treat recovery measures like your business life depends on them - because it does.
6/4/2026Read on Substack →
The Credentials Nobody's Managing
Non-human identities outnumber employees 82-to-1, and 91% survive off-boarding. A four-step audit to find the ghost credentials in your stack.
5/28/2026Read on Substack →
The Biggest Breach Study of the Year Has a Startup Problem
Verizon's annual breach study analyzed 22,000 incidents. Three findings hit startups harder - and the commentary skips them.
5/21/2026Read on Substack →
Fractional CISO vs. Full-Time CISO: Which Does Your Startup Need?
Small/midmarket CISOs average $415K in total comp. Fractional runs $5K-$15K/month. But the real question isn't cost - it's stage.
5/18/2026Read on Substack →
Put Away Your Hammer - That AI Vendor is Not a Nail
Your SOC 2 checklist was built for something entirely different. If you don't want to wind up like the 97% of AI breach victims who lacked proper AI controls, here are the tools you need.
5/7/2026Read on Substack →
What Your Board Will Ask About AI Security
AI moved from pilot to board agenda faster than most founders expected. Three questions are coming - and the answers reveal more than you think.
4/23/2026Read on Substack →
Why Your Incident Response Plan Doesn't Work (Yet)
Tabletop exercises cut breach timelines by 76 days. Here's how to run one that actually changes your security posture.
4/16/2026Read on Substack →
The Plan You Hope You Never Use
Most startup IR plans are compliance artifacts, not decision-making tools. Five pre-made decisions matter more than forty pages of procedures.
4/13/2026Read on Substack →
The SOC 2 Survival Guide: What Founders Get Wrong
SOC 2 engagements grew 49% in three years - but most startup guidance skips the hard parts. Five mistakes from the CISO side of the table.
3/19/2026Read on Substack →
What Enterprise Customers Actually Check in Security Reviews
Most startups treat the 300-question security questionnaire as a compliance exam. It's a risk triage -- and only 20% of those questions decide the deal.
3/13/2026Read on Substack →
When to Hire Your First Full-Time Security Person
In 2019, security was a cost center. In 2026, it's a revenue gate. Five business triggers that tell you when to hire — none involve headcount.
3/9/2026Read on Substack →

