Fran Howarth

About Fran

Having stumbled into information security through a chance assignment more than 30 years ago consulting on public key infrastructures, security has become a passion. After initially learning the ropes of being an industry analyst with Aberdeen Group, Fran has continued on this journey and is currently the practice leader for security at Bloor Research, a renowned research and advisory firm. She also contributes to other publications and has recently become an expert contributor for CIO Watercooler, a network for CIOs and leading technologists to share their news and views, and to discuss the challenges facing the industry.

Professional Background

Her current areas of focus include gaining greater insight into security operations, digital identity from individuals to the IoT, GRC and digital transformation.

Fran’s other main areas of interest are new delivery models, such as cloud computing, information governance, web, network and application security, identity and access management, and encryption.

She focuses on the business needs for security technologies, looking at the benefits they gain from their use and how organisations can defend themselves against the threats that they face in an ever-changing landscape.

For more than 20 years, Fran has worked in an advisory capacity as an analyst, consultant and writer.

She writes regularly for a number of publications, including Silicon, Computer Weekly, Computer Reseller News, IT-Analysis and Computing Magazine. Fran is also a regular contributor to Security Management Practices of the Faulkner Information Services division of InfoToday.