Podcast Summary: "How AI Is Transforming Cybersecurity with Sai Huda, CEO of CyberCatch"

Podcast: Becker Business
Host: Scott Becker
Guest: Sai Huda, CEO of CyberCatch
Date: October 9, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode delves into the rapidly evolving intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity. Host Scott Becker interviews Sai Huda, CEO of CyberCatch and author of the book Next Level Cybersecurity. Together, they discuss the persistent threat landscape, how AI is already transforming the defense against cyber attacks, leadership lessons, and emerging career opportunities in AI-driven cybersecurity. Sai Huda shares practical frameworks, industry insights, and advice for both investors and young professionals.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Sai Huda’s Background and Inspiration

• Sai describes his journey from founding Compliance Coach to launching CyberCatch after a government client’s data breach exposed his own sensitive information.

  “One of the large clients of ours was a government agency, and they had a data breach. And unfortunately, my security clearance information and a copy of my fingerprints were breached. And I was shocked. And so I left to write a book called Next Level Cybersecurity, which became an Amazon bestseller.” (00:48 - 01:17, Sai Huda)

The Cyber Attack Lifecycle & AI Opportunities

• Sai outlines the five-stage pattern every cyber attack follows:
  1. Reconnaissance
  2. Intrusion
  3. Lateral Movement
  4. Command and Control
  5. Exfiltration/Ransomware
• Each stage presents a unique opportunity for AI to prevent, detect, or respond more effectively than humans.
• Quote:

  “Every single cyber attack follows a pattern. First there's reconnaissance... then intrusion, then lateral movement, then command and control, communication, and finally exfiltration of the data and ransomware. So in each stage there's tremendous opportunity to use AI to either prevent, detect or respond more effectively...” (02:34 - 03:10, Sai Huda)

Use Cases of AI in Cybersecurity

• Data Analysis: AI excels at quickly analyzing vast datasets to catch subtle signals of attacks, reducing false positives and improving response times.
• Example:

  “AI can be used to analyze lots of data very quickly and really sift through the noise and eliminate false positives of potential lateral movement or command and control or exfiltration and then immediately detect it and stop it.” (06:36 - 07:10, Sai Huda)

Industry Relevance and Focus Areas

• CyberCatch works across industries but has a concentration in regulated sectors (defense, manufacturing, healthcare, NGOs).

  “We're really industry agnostic because just about every single business is digital these days...cyber risk is really a top risk and should be top of mind for every business.” (03:59 - 04:25, Sai Huda)

AI and Investment/Cyber Diligence

• Sai recommends investors ask three critical questions about portfolio companies:
  1. Are they compliant with cybersecurity standards? (NIST, CMMC, etc.)
  2. Do they have a written, tested incident response plan?
  3. Do they regularly perform penetration tests?
• Quote:

  “It's not a question of if, but when a cyber incident will happen. So they should have an incident response plan. Because what's the old saying, you know, failing to plan is planning to fail.” (09:12 - 09:33, Sai Huda)

Leadership Lessons at the Intersection of AI and Security

• AI is a "two-sided coin" with both exceptional benefits and significant risks, such as shadow risk, hallucination, and data poisoning.
• Leaders must set policies for "safe and responsible" AI use and educate teams.

  “One of the key ways is to set up a safe and responsible AI use policy in the company and then educate everyone so that everyone understands that the two sides to the coin and that everyone should practice safe and responsible use of AI.” (11:01 - 11:30, Sai Huda)

Advice for Young Professionals

• AI is “bigger than the internet”; professionals should experiment and become subject matter experts.
• New career paths will open for those who can manage AI agents in organizations.

  “AI agents, yes, will take up some of the tasks and some of the jobs, but they're going to need to be managed just like employees...we're going to need smarter humans to be able to oversee or to be able to manage these AI agents to do the job in a safe and responsible way.” (13:38 - 14:05, Sai Huda)

The Future: Can Cybersecurity Keep Up?

• The situation is “an epidemic,” especially in critical infrastructure sectors like healthcare.
• Success will mean using agentic (goal-driven) AI to significantly reduce cyber attack success.
• CyberCatch is developing patented solutions using agentic AI to continuously hunt and eliminate vulnerabilities.
• Quote:

  “Success will be when AI is fully maximized to diminish the success of these bad actors drastically. And Cyber Catch, we envision and see, will be a big part of the success by having created a unique solution using AI to solve for the root cause.” (15:39 - 16:10, Sai Huda)

The Book: Next Level Cybersecurity

• Sai’s book offers actionable frameworks, signals to detect, and patterns to watch for in cyber attacks.
• Quote:

  “It's a couple years old, but it's still valid because it shows those patterns that the attackers follow and still following. And there's about 15 signals that they'll always throw off. And if one can detect them in time, then one can stop the attack.” (17:09 - 17:27, Sai Huda)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the persistent risk:

  “It's a cyber attack epidemic, frankly. And that can lead to death...This is unacceptable.” (15:18 - 15:35, Sai Huda)

• On leadership philosophy:

  “The key is to identify a big problem, solve and then lead the team to create innovative solutions using AI to solve the problem better than anyone else.” (12:07 - 12:24, Sai Huda)

• On the future of AI in cyber:

  “We're all going to move from generative AI to agentic AI and Cyber Catch will be at the forefront.” (16:39 - 16:47, Sai Huda)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Sai Huda’s background and book: 00:48 – 01:57
• Role of AI in cybersecurity: 02:13 – 03:20
• Five stages of cyber attacks: 04:52 – 07:10
• Investment diligence and AI risk scoring: 07:48 – 10:20
• Leadership lessons on AI’s dual nature: 10:52 – 12:34
• Advice for young professionals: 12:54 – 14:14
• The future: agentic AI and the role of CyberCatch: 14:55 – 16:49
• Book plug and closing remarks: 17:02 – 17:57

Conclusion

Sai Huda delivers a comprehensive and urgent view of both the promise and peril at the crossroads of AI and cybersecurity. Listeners come away with a clear understanding of cyber attack patterns, actionable diligence strategies, the transformative potential (and risks) of AI, and essential leadership and career guidance for those entering the field. Sai’s emphasis on responsible AI and continuous innovation positions both his company and the audience for a pivotal, future-facing role in cybersecurity.