Black Glass Advisors

Security leadership,
when you need it.

Black Glass is built for organizations that don't need a full-time security chief — but can't afford to operate without one. We're your senior security leader, part-time and high-impact, until the risk is under control and after. Including the part where your business now runs on AI and nobody's been put in charge of it.

The high desert forged obsidian — the sharpest edge in nature, with no grain, no layers, and nothing inside it to split along. We brought that to cybersecurity.

How the gap shows up

Most growing companies don't have a security problem they can name. They have a security gap, and it shows up like this:

A customer sent you a security questionnaire — pages of it — and you don't know how to answer half the questions, or who should.

You're growing fast, and security has been "whoever has time." Nobody owns it. You're not even sure what's been missed.

Security keeps landing on your desk — yours, the COO's, the founder's, the head of IT's — and it's not your expertise and not your time, but it's becoming your problem.

You don't have a security leader, and you're not sure you need a full-time one. But the gap is starting to keep you up at night.

Something happened — or nearly did — and now you need to know how exposed you are, and what to fix first.

Someone asked what AI tools you're using — a customer, an auditor, your board — and the honest answer is that you don't fully know.

More tools and more budget don't fix this on their own. Someone has to own it: decide what matters, what to buy, and what to do. That's what Black Glass does.

Most of what's sold as AI security isn't for you — it's built for companies shipping AI products. Your problem is the opposite: AI is already loose inside your business, in tools you approved and tools you didn't, and your customers' questionnaires have started to ask. Almost nobody is serving that. We do.

What you won't get

We cut through it. Specifically:

Not a 200-page assessment.

You'll get one page. We'll read it to you out loud, and you'll be able to act on it that week.

Not a maturity score.

Scores go up. Risk doesn't care. We'll tell you what would end your business, and in what order we handle it.

Not a fear pitch.

If your situation isn't as bad as you think, we'll say so and bill you for the hour instead of the program.

Not a recommendation you can't execute.

We've run the infrastructure we're asking you to change. The plan comes from someone who has had to be the one holding it.

Not a tool recommendation in the first sixty days.

Most companies we meet don't need to buy anything. They need someone to decide.

What you get instead is one page — what matters, distilled to something you can act on. Progress, not paperwork.

Where security actually fails

An advisor delivers a risk assessment. It goes to an IT team already underwater, or an MSP whose contract doesn't cover it, or a director who wasn't in the room when the priorities got set. Six months later the findings are still findings. Everybody did their job. Nothing got safer.

That handoff is the most expensive gap in security, and it exists because the people writing the recommendations and the people running the technology are almost never the same people.

Black Glass is built on both halves: decades running IT infrastructure and architecture, and decades in security leadership. We lead with security because that's usually what's on fire. But the fire started somewhere in the technology, and we can go to that room too.

What that changes

So we don't tell you to segment the network. We tell you which three segments matter, why your current topology fights you, what it costs, and what happens first. Then we stay accountable while it gets done.

Two ways to work with us
Ongoing

Black Glass Command

Part-time security leadership. A senior leader who owns your security, sets direction, and stays accountable until the risk is under control — and after.

See how it works → One-time

Black Glass Recon

A focused state & risk assessment. A clear picture of where you stand, the gaps that carry real risk, and a plan you can act on.

See what's covered →

Most growing companies have nobody who owns security. Not the IT team. They keep the lights on. Not the exec it landed on. It's not their job. So it drifts, until a customer, an incident, or an insurer forces the question.

Black Glass is that owner. A senior security leader engaged part-time: enough to set direction, fix what matters, and stand behind it, without the cost of a full-time hire.

The Path
See where you stand Get a plan Get it done
The Engagement

Black Glass Command

Your part-time security leader

Someone who owns security — so you don't have to.

Black Glass Command gives your company a senior security leader, engaged part-time. Not a report you file away, not a project with an end date — a person accountable for security: figuring out where you stand, deciding what to fix first, and making sure it gets done. As much or as little as your company needs, scaled to where you are.

How it works
Phase 1 Get the bearings.

We learn your business and map where you stand: what's exposed, what's fine, and what could hurt you. Not an audit you have to prepare for. Just your security leader getting up to speed.

Phase 2 Build the plan.

A clear, prioritized plan — what to fix, in what order, and why. Written in plain terms you can act on and explain to anyone who asks.

Phase 3 Run it.

We don't hand you the plan and leave. We own it: driving the work, handling vendors and audits, and being the security voice in the room whenever a decision needs one.

Who it's for

Growing companies, scale-ups, and well-established global organizations that need senior security leadership — but not a full-time hire to get it.

AI, from day one

AI isn't a separate product here. Command covers it as standard, from day one:

  • What's in use — the AI tools running in your business, including the ones nobody told you about, and what data they touch
  • A policy people will follow — short, specific, and written so your team doesn't route around it
  • Vendor exposure — which of your suppliers are feeding your data into a model, and what your contracts actually permit
  • Straight answers for questionnaires — so an AI section on a customer's security review is a form to complete, not a deal to lose
  • Governance sized to you — grounded in NIST's AI Risk Management Framework, translated out of framework language into decisions you can make
Also available — a one-time engagement

Black Glass Recon

A clear picture of where you stand

Straight answers, when the need is bounded.

Sometimes you don't need an ongoing security leader. You need an answer. A customer questionnaire to get through, an insurance renewal, an investor asking hard questions, or just a nagging "are we okay?" Black Glass Recon is a focused, one-time engagement that delivers a straight look at your security, a prioritized list of what to fix, and a plan you can act on or hand to whoever's asking. If it turns out you need ongoing help, Command is the natural next step. If not, you still walk away with a plan worth having.

What it covers
  • A current-state look at your security
  • The AI in use across your business, and what it's touching
  • The gaps that carry real risk
  • A prioritized fix list
  • A plan written in plain terms
What you walk away with

A clear picture of where you stand — and a plan you can act on or hand to whoever's asking.

About Black Glass

When you engage Black Glass Advisors, you bring in senior security leadership that understands the threats, the technology under them, and the business behind both.

Black Glass is built on decades of experience across IT and security — technology, software, telecommunications, healthcare, manufacturing, and the defense industrial base. Six industries with very different threats and rules, and a sense of when a situation calls for its own answer instead of a template.

The firm is built by operators, not just advisors. From cybersecurity startups to executive leadership across industries, Black Glass has built, run, and shipped the work. The plans Black Glass hands you are written by someone who has had to execute one.

That experience is paired with formal business training so security is framed in terms whoever's running the business can act on: cost, exposure, and what it's worth to fix. Guidance you can use, not a report you have to decode.

Senior operators only. No junior handoffs.

Black Glass is built to grow. Today, the person you'd work with is the person you'd talk to — no handoff to someone three years out of school once the contract is signed.

You don't need a security department. You need someone who owns the problem. That's the call to make.

Black Glass works with a limited number of organizations to ensure senior-level embedding. If you were referred or want to discuss a potential engagement, let's start with a brief conversation.