Growth Cyber

Growth Cyber helps AI startups with security and compliance. Its documented offerings include virtual chief information security officer (vCISO) services for SOC 2 preparation and foundational security programs. In its 2025 newsletter, it also offered AI Security Gap Assessments, combining codebase vulnerability scanning with manual review against OWASP guidance for agentic threats and large language models.

Founder Allie Howe brings a software engineering background and a master’s degree in cybersecurity. Her work extends to community security guidance: a 2025 biography identifies her as co-lead for Code Samples & Developer Engagement in the OWASP Agentic AI Security project. Growth Cyber’s technical newsletter explains outside research on prompt-injection defenses, including separating an agent that handles untrusted data from another that drafts responses.

Scout provides a concrete example of the consulting work. It identifies Howe as its vCISO and credits her with helping it achieve SOC 2 certification while strengthening its security posture. The relationship illustrates Growth Cyber’s combination of security leadership and compliance support for startups, alongside its assessments of AI-specific vulnerabilities.