In the inaugural episode of season 5 of the Future of Security Operations podcast, Mandy Andress, the Chief Information Security Officer at Elastic, shares insights from her extensive career in information security and risk management. With over 25 years of experience, Mandy discusses her transition from accounting to security, her attraction to Elastic's employee-centric culture, and the evolving focus on people over technology in security practices. She emphasizes the importance of authenticity at work, leveraging her legal background in interpreting regulations, and fostering a collaborative security culture. Mandy also highlights the significance of transparency and knowledge sharing within Elastic and the broader CISO community, as well as the challenges of balancing proactive and reactive security measures in high-growth organizations. Her reflections on security operations underscore the need for human-centric approaches and the potential of infrastructure-as-code to enhance documentation and repeatability in security processes.