David Levine

VP, Executive Partner

Forrester Bio

Author Insights

Blog

Relationships, Leadership, And Communication: Advancing Cybersecurity Via Soft Skills

David Levine March 7, 2024
Toxic leadership and poor or inadequate communication can fuel frustration, confusion, burnout, and a lack of trust in the cybersecurity organization. Learn the value of soft skills in this blog post.
Blog

A Divine Presentation

David Levine December 7, 2023
Learn six key points to help CISOs develop more engaging presentations to communicate their security priorities and goals.
Blog

Influence, The Memo, And Good Old Project Management

David Levine October 18, 2023
Learn a few of the most impactful takeaways from a full year of working with security and risk leaders as an executive partner at Forrester.
Blog

Seize The Opportunity: The Security & Risk Enterprise Leadership Award 2023

David Levine August 22, 2023
Last month, Forrester announced its inaugural Security & Risk Enterprise Leadership Award. As former CISOs, my Forrester colleague Brian Wrozek and I are sharing our thoughts about why you should apply. There are tangible benefits to you, your team, your organization, and the greater security community. You should apply — and apply now — for […]
Blog

Vulnerability Management Strategies: Avoiding A Cyber Root Canal

David Levine August 8, 2023
Vulnerability management, like flossing, is not fun, exciting, or sexy, but we know that it’s a necessary component of good hygiene. There’s a ton of evidence and research to strongly substantiate its benefits, and yet we frequently struggle to do it despite clearly understanding the consequences — we certainly don’t want a root canal! Yet, […]
Blog

CISO Influence Gone Awry: When Buy-In Goes Wrong

David Levine June 7, 2023
When Buy-In Goes Wrong — Perspectives From A Former CISO/CSO In my last blog, I talked about how “it takes a village” from the perspective of the job being bigger than any one person and the many benefits of being involved in the CISO community to leverage the collective power of a broad support base. […]
Blog

Harnessing CISO Collective Power

David Levine May 2, 2023
Lone Wolf Or Wolf Pack? Perspectives From A Former CISO/CSO One of the most valuable, important, and rewarding things I did during my tenure as a CISO/CSO was becoming involved in the CISO community. There are plenty of leaders who choose to go down the CISO path primarily on their own, and perhaps for some, […]
Blog

The Third-Party Risk Questionnaire Equation Doesn’t Add Up: Right Intention, Wrong Execution

David Levine February 23, 2023
Perspectives From A Former CISO/CSO For my second blog in this series, I wanted to share my thoughts on one of my favorite subjects: third-party risk management (TPRM). More specifically, I’m going to primarily focus on the receiving side of the equation — i.e., responding to and dealing with external inquiries about your organization as […]
Blog

We Need To Talk More About Burnout In Cybersecurity

Jinan Budge February 14, 2023
Forrester predicted that in 2023, a Global 500 firm will be exposed for burning out its cybersecurity employees. In 2022, we saw at a very practical level in Australia that weaknesses in our cyberdefenses can impact society at mass levels. Impacts of breaches at Optus, Medibank, EnergyAustralia, and MyDeal include fines, exposure of millions of […]
Blog

Leadership: Don’t Make It Harder Than It Is — Perspectives From A Former CISO/CSO

David Levine January 9, 2023
I’m kicking off my blog series, “Perspectives From A Former CISO,” with my thoughts on leadership. The series will pull from my experiences as a CISO and those of my peers. To be clear, I don’t purport to have the all the answers but did learn a thing to two during my tenure leading teams […]
Blog

Meet The New Executive Partner Covering Security And Risk: David Levine

David Levine November 28, 2022
I am excited to join Forrester as the newest executive partner (EP) working with our security and risk clients and bringing my experiences over the past almost-three decades to the table! The CISO continues to play an ever-increasing critical function within organizations not only charted to protect the company, and its clients, but as a […]