Unlock data where it lies.
Make it useful for AI.
Hardshell makes your most valuable data safe to use in your AI platforms.
Where does your enterprise AI leak data?
Models memorize sensitive content from training data, and AI knowledge bases surface documents users were never cleared to see. Pick an attack scenario to watch each pathway leak, and see what changes when Hardshell sits between your data and the model.
The secure foundation between your data and your AI
Your data stays in your environment. AI knowledge bases, model training, and fine-tuning run on top of a secure data foundation, and every workflow inherits the same measurement, monitoring, and hardening. Findings and detections are mapped to MITRE ATLAS techniques and cross-referenced to the OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications, NIST AI RMF, ISO/IEC 42001 and the EU AI Act, so the output reads as evidence in the frameworks your security and compliance teams already report against.
Live-Fire Exposure Testing
Hardshell's platform gives you vulnerability scores backed by demonstrated attacks and the evidence behind each one. Point it at any system that puts your data behind a model: a chatbot, a support agent, internal search. Every finding carries the MITRE ATLAS technique IDs it demonstrates, so it lands in the threat model and reporting your security team already uses.
Knowledge Base Telemetry and Detection
Add one package to your retrieval path and Hardshell sees how your AI knowledge base is actually being used. Which chunks each query returned, for whom, and whether the pattern looks like extraction. Classic RAG, agentic retrieval, GraphRAG and connector-based assistants all instrument the same way. Detection runs across requests, so distributed exfiltration surfaces too, and each detection is tagged to the MITRE ATLAS technique it matches. Telemetry is keyed to opaque IDs, so document content and PII never leave your environment.
Dataset Hardening
When testing finds exposure, Hardshell hardens the data itself before any model touches it. Build-time transformations reduce what an attacker can extract, and runtime defenses prevent access when anomalous behavior is flagged.
Utility Verification
Hardening only counts if the system still works. Hardshell continuously evaluates answer quality against your own benchmarks and flags regressions as your corpus grows, so security never quietly costs you performance.
Works Where Your Data Lives
Native integration for major AI platforms plus a standard interface for self-hosted and open-weight models. Built on OpenTelemetry, so the same telemetry stream mirrors into the observability stack you already run. Beyond retrieval, the same foundation secures tabular model training with attack-tested hardening.
Frontier models, without handing over your data.
Sensitive, confidential and regulated information is never shared with the model provider. Your team works in the tools they already use, and gets real answers back.
Securing the Foundation of AI
Hardshell's mission is to advance data security and utility where trust matters most for AI and beyond.
Our Team
Hunter Moore, PhD
CTO
Hunter Moore, PhD
CTO & Founder
Hunter holds a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia and spent over five years advising the Department of Defense on AI security at the Joint AI Center and the CDAO. He taught a graduate AI security course at UVA and is a Senior Member of IEEE.
LinkedIn ↗
Andrew Schoka
CEO
Andrew Schoka
CEO & Co-Founder
Andrew is a former U.S. Army Cyber Warfare Officer with assignments across U.S. Cyber Command, the Cyber National Mission Force, ARCYBER, and USSOCOM. He holds an MBA from UVA Darden, an M.S. in Cybersecurity from Georgia Tech, and an M.E. in Systems Engineering from UVA.
LinkedIn ↗
Ben Cutter
Head of Engineering
Ben Cutter
Founding Staff Software Engineer
Ben spent nearly twelve years at Indeed, one of the world's largest hiring platforms, across operations, quality engineering, and software development. He holds a UVA M.E. and joined at founding in November 2025.
LinkedIn ↗
Sami Saliba
Founding AI Security Engineer
Sami Saliba
Founding AI Security Engineer
Sami leads Hardshell's data-layer and adversarial-ML work. Formerly an AI researcher at Virginia Tech's Hume Center, he has published on trusted AI in high-risk settings and joined Hardshell at founding in November 2025.
LinkedIn ↗
Andrew Stephens
Founding AI Security Scientist
Andrew Stephens
Founding AI Security Scientist
Andrew builds the statistics behind Hardshell's detection methods and joined at founding in November 2025. Previously at Generac and Rotunda Solutions, he holds a master's in Applied Statistics and Data Science from Cornell.
LinkedIn ↗
Reed Cutter
Senior Software Engineer
Reed Cutter
Senior Software Engineer
Reed focuses on platform reliability and test automation after nearly nine years at Indeed across software development and quality automation roles. He holds a bachelor's from RIT and joined Hardshell in February 2026.
LinkedIn ↗
Evan Plumley
Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Evan Plumley
Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Evan spent eight years as a U.S. Army Cyber officer, including company command, before engineering roles at Black Cape and Booz Allen. He holds an M.S. from the Air Force Institute of Technology and joined Hardshell in September 2026.
LinkedIn ↗
Lauren Cappa
Chief of Staff
Lauren Cappa
Chief of Staff
Lauren spent four years in federal technology sales and data and AI strategy at GovSmart and Paragon Micro, supporting Department of Energy and DOD customers. She is VP of Publicity for AFCEA Central Virginia and joined Hardshell in September 2026.
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Hunter Oakey
AI Security Engineer
Hunter Oakey
AI Security Engineer
Hunter was a Rodman Scholar at UVA, where he studied Systems Engineering and Computer Science and pursued an M.E. through UVAccelerate. He built ML forecasting models at Pula Capital Management and joined Hardshell in September 2026.
LinkedIn ↗
Thomas Van Pelt
AI Security Data Engineering Intern
Thomas Van Pelt
AI Security Data Engineering Intern
Thomas is pursuing degrees in Systems Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Virginia. He co-founded and built Catch, a mobile app accepted into UVA Darden's i.Lab incubator, and joined Hardshell in May 2026.
LinkedIn ↗
Rohan Singh
Software Engineering Intern
Rohan Singh
Software Engineering Intern
Rohan studies Computer and Data Science at the University of Virginia. He interned at Expedia Group and Freddie Mac, was an AI/ML research assistant at UVA's Biocomplexity Institute, and joined Hardshell in September 2026.
LinkedIn ↗Our Advisors
Uday Gupta
CFO & COO, Adovate
Uday Gupta
Board of Directors
Uday is CFO and COO of Adovate, a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company, and a Professor of Practice at the University of Virginia, teaching innovation and entrepreneurship at Darden and in Systems Engineering. Over three decades he has co-founded and led ventures in biotech, agtech, and financial services and held leadership roles at Centerline Biomedical and Capital One. He holds a Darden MBA and joined Hardshell's board in September 2026.
LinkedIn ↗
John Elder, PhD
Founder, Elder Research
John Elder, PhD
Advisory Board
John founded Elder Research in 1995 and built it into one of the nation's most experienced data science consultancies. He is now Vice President and Technical Fellow for Data Science at ManTech. A pioneer of ensemble modeling, he co-authored three books on data mining, ensemble methods, and text mining, two named book of the year, holds engineering degrees from Rice and UVA, and was appointed by President George W. Bush to a national panel on technology for national security.
LinkedIn ↗
Matt Burkett, PhD
Assistant Professor, UVA Systems Engineering
Matt Burkett, PhD
Advisory Board
Matt is an Assistant Professor in UVA's Department of Systems and Information Engineering, where he directs the Accelerated Master's Program and researches AI, financial engineering, and decision-making under uncertainty. He spent two decades applying quantitative methods to high-stakes problems at Ankura, LOC Investment Advisers, and the CFTC, where he studied the 2010 Flash Crash. He holds a Ph.D., M.S., and B.S. from the same department.
LinkedIn ↗
Steven Lee
Founder, Rotunda Solutions
Steven Lee
Advisory Board
Steven founded Rotunda Solutions and led it as CEO before joining McKinsey & Company, where he established its U.S. Government Analytics practice and now designs adaptive decision systems for federal clients. He is an Executive Fellow for AI and Algorithmic Warfare with Air Forces Central Command, a Senior Executive Fellow at George Mason University, and a serial founder and early-stage investor. He holds an M.Eng. from UVA, where he is pursuing a Ph.D.
LinkedIn ↗Our Values
Integrity
We are transparent and principled
Trust
We invest in relationships
Respect
We are good teammates and partners
Innovation
We push the edge of what's possible
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