Stephanie Balaouras

VP, Group Director Serving Security & Risk Professionals

Read Stephanie's blog posts

Stephanie leads the research organization that serves Infrastructure & Operations Professionals and Security & Risk Professionals. Her team's research agenda encompasses designing, building, and automating resilient systems, technologies, and processes that firms need to drive innovation, accelerate time-to-market, prepare employees for the future of work, engage and secure customers, reduce risk, and protect the brand.

Previous Work Experience

Stephanie has more than 20 years of experience in enterprise risk, information security, and IT infrastructure and operations. Previously at Forrester, Stephanie served as the research director of Forrester’s security and risk research team for nearly a decade, helping drive research in key areas such as governance, risk, and compliance; identity and fraud; application security; data security and privacy; and security architecture and operations. Prior to joining the security and risk team, Stephanie was a principal analyst on Forrester's infrastructure and operations team, where she was instrumental in the development of research and offerings in business continuity, IT availability, and information storage and protection.

Prior to joining Forrester, Stephanie was a senior analyst with the Yankee Group, where she provided insight and consultative advice to technology vendors on industry trends in information storage and protection. Before the Yankee Group, Stephanie worked at EMC, first as a technical architect and then as a senior education and productivity consultant. As a technical architect, she articulated EMC's value to partners and customers and designed solutions to meet customer and new market opportunities. As an education and productivity consultant, she managed and supported complex technical training programs. Prior to EMC, Stephanie worked at Accenture as a consultant, focusing on the implementation of business applications (SAP, PeopleSoft) for global businesses.

Education

Stephanie holds a bachelor's degree in business administration and finance and investments with a minor in ethics from Babson College.

Print Bio

Stephanie Balaouras

VP, Group Director Serving Security & Risk Professionals

Read Stephanie's blog posts

Previous Work Experience

Education

Stephanie holds a bachelor's degree in business administration and finance and investments with a minor in ethics from Babson College.

Research Coverage

Stephanie Balaouras's Research

Most RecentMost Popular

For Security & Risk Professionals

REPORT: Defend Your Digital Business From Advanced Cyberattacks Using Forrester's Zero Trust Model

Executive Overview: The Zero Trust Security Playbook

June 4, 2019Stephanie Balaouras, Heidi Shey

In today's threat landscape, skilled, organized, well-funded cybercriminals are working to steal your data — the lifeblood of your digital business — in pursuit of economic, political, or military gain. To combat this, security leaders need Forrester's Zero Trust Model of information security. With Zero Trust, you can develop robust detection and incident response capabilities to protect your company's vital digital business ecosystem. Our security architecture and operations playbook shows you how to use the Zero Trust Model to defend your customers.
For Security & Risk Professionals

REPORT: Protect Your Intellectual Property And Customer Data From Theft And Abuse

Executive Overview: The Data Security And Privacy Playbook

April 16, 2019Stephanie Balaouras

Data is the lifeblood of today's digital businesses. Sophisticated cybercriminals are determined to steal it, and employees can abuse it. IP theft erases competitive advantage, and privacy violations undermine customer trust. Forrester's data security and privacy playbook guides security and risk pros through major changes to processes for data policy development, inventory, classification, and protection, and identifies the technologies and services that will help you design and implement effective data security while enforcing privacy policy. This is an update of a previously published report; Forrester reviews and updates it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy. We revised this edition to factor in new events and data.
For Security & Risk Professionals

REPORT: The State Of Business Continuity, 2018

Risk Pros Are Expanding BC To Include Most Operational Risks

February 11, 2019Stephanie Balaouras, Salvatore Schiano

As 100-year floods and cyberattacks grow more frequent, and as organizations become completely dependent on complex technology, business continuity (BC) preparedness must be a cornerstone of a resilient organization. A resilient firm can absorb the impact of any unexpected event without failing to deliver on its brand promise. In this report, the first in a series highlighting the current state of BC, Forrester examines today's shifts in mission, priorities, organizational structure, and funding.
For CIO Professionals

REPORT: Benchmark Your Cybersecurity And Privacy Maturity, 2019

The Benchmark Report In The Cybersecurity And Privacy Playbook

January 30, 2019Christopher McClean, Trevor Lyness, Stephanie Balaouras

This data-driven report examines the maturity of security and privacy programs at companies around the world. It then goes further to examine how and why firms that are mature look different from those that are not. CIOs can use this report to benchmark their cybersecurity and privacy programs against their peers, as well as learn the first steps necessary to improving their posture.
For CIO Professionals

REPORT: Optimize Your Cybersecurity And Privacy Process To Maximize Business Success

Advanced Level: Process For Cybersecurity And Privacy

January 10, 2019Stephanie Balaouras

CIOs who pursue cybersecurity and privacy excellence not only reduce risk and protect the brand, they help their firms drive growth and long-term success. This report — the third of three in the process competency of the cybersecurity and privacy playbook — helps CIOs at firms in the advanced phase continue to optimize their cybersecurity and privacy processes and maximize business performance.

For Security & Risk Professionals

REPORT: Defend Your Digital Business From Advanced Cyberattacks Using Forrester's Zero Trust Model

Executive Overview: The Zero Trust Security Playbook

June 4, 2019Stephanie Balaouras, Heidi Shey

In today's threat landscape, skilled, organized, well-funded cybercriminals are working to steal your data — the lifeblood of your digital business — in pursuit of economic, political, or military gain. To combat this, security leaders need Forrester's Zero Trust Model of information security. With Zero Trust, you can develop robust detection and incident response capabilities to protect your company's vital digital business ecosystem. Our security architecture and operations playbook shows you how to use the Zero Trust Model to defend your customers.
For Security & Risk Professionals

REPORT: Protect Your Intellectual Property And Customer Data From Theft And Abuse

Executive Overview: The Data Security And Privacy Playbook

April 16, 2019Stephanie Balaouras

Data is the lifeblood of today's digital businesses. Sophisticated cybercriminals are determined to steal it, and employees can abuse it. IP theft erases competitive advantage, and privacy violations undermine customer trust. Forrester's data security and privacy playbook guides security and risk pros through major changes to processes for data policy development, inventory, classification, and protection, and identifies the technologies and services that will help you design and implement effective data security while enforcing privacy policy. This is an update of a previously published report; Forrester reviews and updates it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy. We revised this edition to factor in new events and data.
For Security & Risk Professionals

REPORT: Five Steps To A Zero Trust Network

Zero Trust Is The Blueprint For Your Security Architecture

October 1, 2018Stephanie Balaouras, Chase Cunningham, Peter Cerrato

A Zero Trust (ZT) architecture abolishes the idea of a trusted network inside a defined corporate perimeter. ZT mandates that enterprises create microperimeters of control around their sensitive data assets to gain visibility into how they use data across their ecosystem to win, serve, and retain customers. This report gives security and risk (S&R) leaders best practices and a five-step road map to realize the benefits of a Zero Trust strategy more quickly.
For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

REPORT: Justifying The Business Case For Business Technology Resiliency

June 11, 2012Rachel A. Dines, Stephanie Balaouras

This report outlines Forrester's guidance for a business technology resiliency (BTR) business case. This is a critical step when securing funding because management is often reluctant to fund investments in BTR — including backup, high availability, and disaster recovery — because they represent cost avoidance, rather than a return on investment. But in today's age of 24x7x365 global operations and unrelenting customer demand, downtime can threaten your competitive advantage and erode market share. To help infrastructure and operations (I&O) professionals overcome dangerous and outdated thinking, this report builds the business case for BTR and outlines seven steps that I&O professionals must take to successfully secure funding for BTR initiatives.
For Security & Risk Professionals

REPORT: TechRadar™: Data Security And Privacy, Q4 2017

October 4, 2017 Heidi Shey, Enza Iannopollo, Stephanie Balaouras, Alexander Spiliotes

As data volumes explode, it's becoming a Herculean task to protect sensitive data from cybercriminals and malicious actors while preventing privacy infringements and abuses — intentional and unintentional. Every day, vendors introduce a new product or service that claims to be the silver bullet for data security and privacy challenges. This TechRadar assesses 20 of the key traditional and emerging data security and privacy technologies that security and privacy leaders and their staffs can use to underpin a holistic strategy.