Hello, everyone! This January, I joined Forrester as an analyst on the security and risk team. I’ll be covering topics such as network analysis and visibility, Zero Trust architecture, and the Zero Trust eXtended ecosystem. I am extremely excited to join the team and make Zero Trust more accessible for organizations to understand and implement.

Zero Trust has been in the collective security consciousness for a little over a decade. It’s been a challenge for a lot of organizations to understand what the term even means, why it’s needed, and, ultimately, how to implement it. My research will focus on making Zero Trust much more approachable by addressing these different pain points and making practical recommendations.

Beyond my research coverage, I’d like to share my background and what landed me here in the first place. Prior to joining Forrester, my career has been all about bleeding blue as a practitioner in the information security space. (Go, blue teamers!)

I spent the last four years in the financial space, leading the modernization of and evolving my employer’s core cyberdefense capabilities. Working there was an extremely eye-opening experience, where I got to dive right in and empower the company to securely help people achieve their financial goals.

In my role there, I was very fortunate to be able to push the boundaries of both security and risk while improving the overall cyberdefense program. As I learned more, I wanted to share my learnings with the broader information security community. This led to me presenting at the SANS Institute’s forums, not once but twice. After seeing me opine about security on Twitter and seeing those presentations, someone from Forrester reached out to see if I’d be interested in becoming an analyst. (See, spending hours on social media can be a good thing!) After learning more about the role and how it impacts clients, vendors, and the industry, I got excited about the opportunity to have a broader positive impact on the security community.

Outside of work, I am usually tinkering with my home lab, building a new gaming PC, or just crawling infosec Twitter to see how I can contribute back to a community that has given me so much. When not knee-deep in reading or researching security topics, I enjoy mountain biking and getting out to various parks to de-stress.

Connect with me at Forrester for briefings, inquiries, and advisory on all things Zero Trust. I look forward to hearing from you!