Katherine Forrester has been in the Information Technology industry for over thirty years – the last twenty as Senior Vice President and Senior Partner of Management Information Systems at FleishmanHillard, a global public relations firm. Her day-to-day responsibilities were to oversee the management of the global wide area data network, which included desktop support, server support, circuit management, mobile device management, development and management of global capital computer budgets and data security. In addition to her day-to-day responsibilities, Forrester performed several digital forensic tasks including e-Discovery, Browser Forensics, Data Collection, Legal Hold coordination and Expert Witness Testimony. Forrester was also responsible for maintenance of security and infrastructure policies and responding to clienty security questionnaires and was the main contact for infrastructure security control audits conducted by outside auditors (annual Sarbanes-Oxley IT audit) and client security audits.
After completing an intensive four-month computer forensics course through the SANS Institute, Forrester obtained a Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC) as a Certified Forensic Examiner (GCFE), Analyst Number 3578. The certification focuses on core skills required to collect and analyze data from Microsoft Windows systems. The GCFE certifies that the holder has the knowledge, skills and ability to conduct typical incident investigations including e-Discovery, forensic analysis and reporting, evidence acquisition, browser forensics and tracing user and application activities on Windows computer systems. In 2019, she took the SANS FOR508 course: Advanced Incident response & Threat Hunting and obtained a GIAC Certified Forensic Analyst (GCFA) certification.
Forrester’s experience in a global corporate environment provides her with unique insights into cyber security best practices, from both a technical perspective and from the perspective of policies applied across multiple countries. She works on a contract basis only.