Céline Gravelines

With nearly 9 years of experience in cybersecurity consulting and advisory, I specialize in data classification & protection, incident response management, security policy development & governance, security strategy, and more. Holding a Master's degree in Computer Science and named Global InfoSec Top Women in Cybersecurity, I'm an excited to advance my career and continue contributing to the cybersecurity industry. 

I have nearly 9 years of experience in cybersecurity consulting and advisory. I’ve developed a true passion for cybersecurity consulting and assisting small to large enterprises safeguard their data and environments. While working as a Senior Manager at an IT advisory firm on the Security, Risk & Compliance team, I had the opportunity to lead our data security sub-practice, specifically around data discovery, classification, and protection. Considering the entire lifecycle of data from creation through disposition, I’m well-versed in the strategic and practical approaches to data protection as I worked with hundreds of security professionals (including CIOs, CISOs, Security Managers, and more) across various industries to address their issues. I gained extensive familiarity with various security and privacy standards and regulations, including NIST, ISO, PCI DSS, GDPR, PIPEDA, and other US regulations. In writing many publications and conducting countless virtual and on-site engagements with clients, I was responsible for improving and optimizing their cyber programs. Beyond data protection, I lead our incident management/response offering, leading clients in the development of their incident response plans (aligned primarily with NIST), including runbooks, communication plans, and tabletop exercises for potential incidents, such as ransomware/malware, phishing, data breaches, and more. One of my longest-running offerings was security policy development and review, where I had the opportunity to work with clients to define comprehensive and actionable policies, procedures, and related documents. Additional areas of subject matter expertise and extensive experience include security strategy, risk management, security metrics, threat intelligence, network security, and security operations.

For the past 3.5 years, I’ve been working for a cutting-edge data security software company that is attempting to revolutionize the data protection landscape by creating “self-protecting data” – essentially encrypting data with multiple layers of AES and infusing policies into the data to define factors which permit access. As the Director of Professional Services, I’m responsible for client advisory, technical deployments & implementation, training, and more. Understanding all aspects that go into data protection has been critical in my roles, allowing me to develop skills and knowledge pertaining to encryption (algorithms, PKI, digital signatures, etc.), data loss prevention (DLP), policies, digital rights management (DRM), and implementing logging and forensic investigations. I lead advisory sessions with clients to assess and mitigate risks and vulnerabilities in their environments, including insider threat, malware, double/triple-extortion ransomware, data protection across borders, remote work, and more. Additionally, I work with accreditation third-parties for certification on regulations such as FIPS and CMMC, and keep abreast of the competitive security market to best serve our clients when considering their data’s confidentiality, integrity, and availability. I also contribute heavily to the internal security team, where I developed the security incident management program, data classification standards, and developed and maintain security policies. Furthermore, I work closely with the sales team as the main technical resource to support the pre-sales process, where I demo the technology, set-up and manage proof-of-concept engagements, and drive the closure of sales. 

In my roles, I work in management positions where I’m responsible for the performance, project management, and career development of other consultants and analysts. I strongly promote team bonding and collaboration, accountability, and ensuring client satisfaction. While leading countless engagements, I’ve successfully been responsible for keeping time and materials on track, managing expectations, and driving revenue, while fostering relationships and considering additional business opportunities. 

I hold a Master of Science degree in Computer Science where I developed a machine learning algorithm to automatically delineate functional brain regions of fMRI data (Thesis Publication: “Deep Learning via Stacked Sparse Autoencoders for Automated Voxel-Wise Brain Parcellation Based on Functional Connectivity” (programmed in Python). I also have a Bachelor of Science degree, double major in Computer Science and Physics.