“Protecting the Underdogs”: A Conversation with TRINSEC 7 Founder George Hyek
Exclusive USANews Interview
By
Dec 10, 2025
When you speak with George Hyek, founder of TRINSEC 7, you quickly realize you’re not talking to any regular cybersecurity executive. His approach is calmer, more deliberate—and deeply personal. He’s spent a career chasing threats and protecting secrets: across corporate environments, inside federal law enforcement, and in counterintelligence roles supporting U.S. special operations and the intelligence community. But what changed the course of his life wasn’t what he did for the government.
It was a passion for what he saw happening to small businesses.
In this conversation with USANews, Hyek opens up about his mission, the failures that drove him to build TRINSEC 7, and why he believes the security industry needs a major reboot.
George, before TRINSEC 7, you had a very different career. What did that journey look like?
George Hyek:
I’ve spent my entire adult life in security—just not the kind most people see. I started in local law enforcement, where you get a front-row seat to how crime really works. You see how burglars study routines, how robbers smell weakness, and how opportunities intersect with vulnerabilities. That early experience showed me that cops are not security experts, as they only show up after the damage and that sparked my passion for prevention.
I moved through some corporate roles, but really made my bones in counterintelligence supporting special operations and the intelligence community, which I loved. Eventually, I found myself in federal law enforcement. Regardless of any specific title, my job was always to protect our most sensitive people, places, and information—or hunt the people who hunted us. Foreign spies, cyber adversaries, insider threats—the whole spectrum.
I am blessed to have seen firsthand how advanced the threats were becoming, how ruthless they were, and how devastating their impact could be.
But what struck me the most was what I saw happening in our local communities. The underdogs were getting hit day after day and they had no chance. They were facing the same types of threats as Fortune 100s—just without the teams, the budgets, or the intelligence big organizations had. And that never sat right with me, so I felt called to fix it.
You’ve said before that you “got tired of showing up after the damage.” What do you mean by that?
Hyek:
In law enforcement, you arrive after something bad happens, after the hack, or after the insider has already walked off with the data. You’re piecing together what happened and trying to stop it from spiraling. But by then, victims’ lives are already changed. Businesses are already crippled. Employees are already scared about whether there will be a job next week.
It wears on you and I knew everything I was seeing could have been prevented with better security.
So in your mind, the security industry isn’t keeping up?
Hyek:
Correct. Security has really fallen behind. It’s still siloed, outdated, and tool-driven. You have one company for cameras, another for IT, another for cyber, and maybe a consultant handling compliance. None of them talked to each other, and none of them saw the full picture. Frankly, most SMBs are fortunate to even have that. Most just put up a camera and rely on their free antivirus to save the day.
Meanwhile, attackers are evolving faster than we can imagine and they know small businesses are easy targets.
And that’s what led to TRINSEC 7?
Hyek:
Exactly. TRINSEC 7 was born out of two things: frustration and passion. Frustration because I was tired of seeing preventable damage ruin good businesses. And passion because someone needed to step up for the people who don’t have billion-dollar budgets or a 50-person security team.
We created TRINSEC 7 to break the cycle—to fuse cyber, physical, intelligence, compliance, and leadership into one affordable, accessible security program. No silos. No finger-pointing. No guessing who’s responsible.
Just one partner who handles everything for small businesses so they can focus on running and growing their business. Now that I’m a business owner, I love seeing my clients grow their businesses–that’s very important to me.
What makes your approach different from other companies offering security services?
Hyek:
Most security companies focus on a slice of the problem—cameras, IT, penetration testing, monitoring software. They’re just selling pieces of the security puzzle, but that’s not real security.
What small businesses need is a true security department, not another vendor.
We give them that. We integrate all the parts—cybersecurity, physical security, threat intelligence, compliance, AI, risk leadership—under a single umbrella. And we do it at a price they can actually afford.
Clients don’t have to manage anything. They don’t need multiple numbers to call. They don’t need to figure out who’s right and who’s responsible. They trust us to become a true extension of their team that keeps them going. With that, I care about preventing an active shooter just as much as I care about stopping a hacker, or even an insider. Can your camera company say that?
That’s the difference.
You’ve used the phrase “protecting the underdogs” more than once. Why does that matter so much to you?
Hyek:
Because small businesses are the backbone of America that make up our communities, and it’s not fair that they’re increasingly targeted by the most advanced threats the world has ever seen. They’re run by the parents of the kids I coach in soccer and they didn’t choose to be in this fight–but they are. Consider a Soldier who goes to war. That’s literally what they signed up for. Yet, small businesses are in a war they didn’t sign up for.
Most people don’t realize it, but China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran actively target small businesses every day—not because those businesses are valuable individually, but because they’re part of the larger American ecosystem.
In some cases, the motivation is geopolitical. Take China, for example. They’re quietly gaining access to as many U.S. networks as possible—not necessarily to steal anything today, but to create leverage if tensions escalate over Taiwan. Their strategy is simple: hold enough of our civilian infrastructure at risk that America hesitates to intervene. The more systems they compromise now, the more pain they can cause later, which decreases the likelihood of our intervention.
Then you have the cyber criminal groups. In most cases, it’s like modern stage coach robbery because small businesses are that easy.
That’s what drives me every day. When someone signs with TRINSEC 7, I don’t see a client—I see an underdog that I want to fight for.
What would you say to CEOs who still think they’re “too small” to be targeted?
Hyek:
Honestly? That mindset is exactly why they get hit.
Hackers are relentlessly hunting SMBs—automatically, viciously, and at scale. They know small businesses can’t defend themselves. They know they don’t have a security team. They know a single mistake can take them offline and impact their livelihoods.
Attackers target small businesses because it’s easy money to them and they don’t care about you or your family; or your employees’ families.
So my message to CEOs is simple:
You’re not too small to be targeted. You’re too small to take the hit.
That’s why preventative protection matters.
Last question—what do you want CEOs to understand about the role security plays in the business itself?
Hyek:
I’d like CEOs to stop thinking about security as a cost and start seeing it as a business asset—one that pays dividends in ways they don’t expect. When security is done right, it doesn’t slow the business down—it strengthens it. We’ve seen clients lower their insurance costs, meet compliance requirements they’d been struggling with for years, and finally align their security program with their actual business objectives.
It keeps operations stable, protects revenue, and gives leaders room to grow without fear of a single incident closing them down. At the end of the day, security isn’t just about stopping threats—it’s about keeping the business in business.
To learn more about how TRINSEC 7 can protect your business from modern threats, visit TRINSEC 7. Don’t wait for a breach to happen, take control of your security today.
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