Stephanie Balaouras

Vice President, Research Director Serving Security & Risk Professionals

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Stephanie serves Security & Risk Professionals. She leads a team of analysts who provide research and advisory services on topics like IT security frameworks; governance, risk, and compliance (GRC); identity and access management (IAM); application security; data security; and IT infrastructure security. She also provides Forrester's coverage of specific risk topics including business continuity, IT continuity/disaster recovery, and backup and recovery.

Previous Work Experience

Stephanie has more than 12 years of experience in BC/DR, backup and recovery, and information storage industries. Prior to joining the Security & Risk team, Stephanie was a principal analyst on Forrester's Infrastructure & Operations team, where she was instrumental in the development of Forrester's research and offerings in continuity, availability, and information storage and protection.

Prior to joining Forrester, Stephanie was a senior analyst with Yankee Group, where she provided insight on technology trends to key system, storage, and information protection vendors and consultative advice on strategic and tactical initiatives. Before 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 for business and practice managers in EMC's Technology Solutions Group. 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 from Babson College.

Print Bio

Stephanie Balaouras

Vice President, Research 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 from Babson College.

Research Coverage

Stephanie Balaouras's Research

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For Security & Risk Professionals

REPORT: Craft Zero Trust Security Metrics That Matter To Your Business

Performance Management: The Security Architecture And Operations Playbook

March 27, 2018Stephanie Balaouras

Forrester's Zero Trust (ZT) Model of information security demands that security teams eliminate the dangerous trust assumptions underpinning perimeter-based security architectures. When you embrace a ZT mindset, you assume that malicious actors have already infiltrated your environment and are stealing your valuable data. ZT metrics answer two questions for business and security and risk (S&R) leaders: 1) Do we have a breach; and 2) What sensitive data have criminals exfiltrated? This report reviews the ZT metrics that help answer these critical questions. This is an update of a previously published report; Forrester reviews and updates it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy.
For Security & Risk Professionals

REPORT: Best Practices: Recruiting And Retaining Women In Cybersecurity

Address Skill Shortages With A More Inclusive Culture

February 22, 2018Stephanie Balaouras, Claire O'Malley

Despite its urgent and ever-growing importance, the cybersecurity industry is projecting a staffing shortage of 1.8 million unfilled jobs globally by 2022. Meanwhile, women represent just 11% of cybersecurity professionals worldwide. If chief information security officers (CISOs) hope to address their staff and skill shortage, they will need to actively recruit, retain, and promote women. In this report, we share best practices for security leaders to create a more welcoming culture for women in cybersecurity.
For Security & Risk Professionals

REPORT: Protect Your Executives From Cybercriminals, Fraudsters, And Themselves

Key Steps To Shield Business Leaders From Cyberattacks, Social Engineering, And Virtual Imposters

February 6, 2018Stephanie Balaouras, Claire O'Malley, Heidi Shey

Business executives are frequent, easy, and attractive targets for cybercriminals. In this report, we explain how cybercriminals and fraudsters target business leaders and how those executives' own activities can magnify the risk and the damage. Next, we outline best practices that security and risk (S&R) teams can use to educate and protect executives against these attacks and scams.
For Security & Risk Professionals

REPORT: Five Steps To A Zero Trust Network

Road Map: The Security Architecture And Operations Playbook

December 14, 2017Stephanie Balaouras, Chase Cunningham, Peter Cerrato

A Zero Trust (ZT) architecture abolishes the idea of a trusted network inside a defined corporate perimeter. Zero Trust mandates the creation of microperimeters of control around an enterprise's sensitive data assets and provides visibility into how it uses data across its ecosystem to win, serve, and retain customers. This report provides security leaders with best practices and a five-step process to realize the benefits of a Zero Trust strategy more quickly. This is an update of a previously published report; Forrester reviews and updates it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy.
For Security & Risk Professionals

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

Road Map: The Data Security And Privacy Playbook

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.

For Security & Risk Professionals

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

Executive Overview: The Data Security And Privacy Playbook

July 12, 2017Stephanie Balaouras

Data is the lifeblood of today's digital businesses, and sophisticated cybercriminals are determined to steal it. Forrester's data security and privacy playbook shows S&R pros how to navigate the complex market for data security and privacy solutions and take a holistic approach. Our Data Security And Control Framework, integrated with our Zero Trust Model, guides you through major changes to your processes for defining, dissecting, and defending data. This playbook arms you with an arsenal of technologies and services that help you design and implement effective data security. 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: Defend Your Digital Business From Cyberattacks Using Forrester's Zero Trust Model

Executive Overview: The Security Architecture And Operations Playbook

September 19, 2017Stephanie Balaouras, Heidi Shey

In today's threat landscape, skilled, well-funded, organized 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. In our security architecture and operations playbook, we show you how to defend your customers with the Zero Trust Model. This is an update of a previously published report; Forrester reviews and updates it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy.
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: Five Steps To A Zero Trust Network

Road Map: The Security Architecture And Operations Playbook

December 14, 2017Stephanie Balaouras, Chase Cunningham, Peter Cerrato

A Zero Trust (ZT) architecture abolishes the idea of a trusted network inside a defined corporate perimeter. Zero Trust mandates the creation of microperimeters of control around an enterprise's sensitive data assets and provides visibility into how it uses data across its ecosystem to win, serve, and retain customers. This report provides security leaders with best practices and a five-step process to realize the benefits of a Zero Trust strategy more quickly. This is an update of a previously published report; Forrester reviews and updates it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy.
For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

REPORT: 2008 Trends In Backup And Data Protection

April 2, 2008Stephanie Balaouras

Backup remains as problematic as ever, but there are several emerging trends in technology and functional convergence that should address some of the biggest challenges: increasing capacities, shrinking backup windows, increasing recovery point requirements, and limited budgets. This report takes a look at the trends that are changing traditional backup and that will affect purchasing decisions over the next 12 months.