About CipherNorth
CipherNorth is a cybersecurity advisory firm headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. We exist because most organizations don’t need another vendor — they need someone who’s done this before, who will sit beside them, and who will tell them the truth about what matters and what doesn’t.
We were founded by Andrew Alaniz, a cybersecurity and risk leader with 18+ years of experience leading security programs at Fortune 500 companies, global banks, and high-growth startups. Andrew has built programs from zero, matured teams through regulatory exams, led incident response under pressure, and helped executives translate security risk into business decisions. That experience — the pattern recognition that comes from doing this across industries, scales, and crises — is what CipherNorth delivers.
What We Actually Do
We provide fractional CISO services, incident response planning, tabletop exercises, penetration testing (through our partnership with STACKTITAN), GenAI governance, compliance readiness, and go-to-market advisory for cybersecurity and technology companies trying to close enterprise deals.
Some of our clients are startups building their first security program to pass a customer’s security review. Some are community banks preparing for FFIEC exams. Some are mid-size companies that know they need security leadership but aren’t ready to hire a $250K+ CISO. We meet each of them where they are.
How We Work
When you hire CipherNorth, you get Andrew — not a rotating bench of junior analysts reading from a script. We embed alongside your team as a working partner, not a consultant who drops off a report and disappears. We attend your board meetings, respond to your customers’ security questionnaires, help you make vendor decisions, and build a security program that’s proportionate to your actual risk — not one designed to maximize a vendor’s revenue.
We don’t sell fear. The cybersecurity industry thrives on making every vulnerability sound catastrophic. Our approach is to help you understand your real risk, make informed decisions about where to invest, and build confidence that your program can withstand scrutiny — from regulators, customers, investors, or attackers.
Community
We’re based in Birmingham and invested in the community. Andrew presents regularly at ISACA Birmingham, the Southeast Cyber Summit, ISSA, and Banking Dive events. CipherNorth sponsors events with Agape of Central Alabama and participates in initiatives like Elevate & Empower Birmingham. We’re not a national firm parachuting in — we live here and we’re building here.
Work With Us
Whether you need ongoing security leadership, a one-time assessment, help preparing for an audit, or someone to pressure-test your incident response plan, we’d like to hear about your situation.
Schedule a free consultation or reach us at info@ciphernorth.com.
