Welcome back to the show! Hacker Valley Studio podcast features Host Ron Eddings, as he explores the world of cybersecurity through the eyes of professionals in the industry. We cover everything from inspirational real-life stories in tech, to highlighting influential cybersecurity companies, and we do so in a fun and enthusiastic way. We’re making cybersecurity accessible, creating a whole new form of entertainment: cybertainment.
Episodes
Thursday Feb 12, 2026
Thursday Feb 12, 2026
Security doesn’t fail because you missed a tool, it fails because “secure today” tricks you into relaxing tomorrow. This episode exposes why the real fight isn’t compliance… it’s whether your defenses hold up once attackers hit you with machine-speed pressure.
Ron sits down with Sonali Shah, CEO of Cobalt, to talk about how human-led, AI-powered penetration testing is evolving into full-spectrum offensive security. Sonali shares how Cobalt can start a test in 24 hours, push findings directly into Slack/Teams and Jira, and use learnings from 5,000+ pentests a year to continuously sharpen what gets caught. The big takeaway: automation finds the easy stuff as humans find the business-logic traps and attack chains that actually break companies.
Impactful Moments
00:00 - Introduction
02:21- Sonali’s unexpected CEO path
06:10 - Compliance isn’t real security
10:19 - PTaaS: start in 24 hours
12:33- 5,000 pentests yearly scale
17:01 - Humans beat automation limits
20:16 - AI behavior vulnerabilities emerge
27:54 - Indirect prompt injection explained
30:51 - Why juniors + AI is risky
38:27 - 2026 becomes AI battleground
Links
Connect with Sonali on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonalinshah/
Check out Cobalt: https://www.cobalt.io
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