Allie Mellen

New York

Principal Analyst at Forrester Research

Principal analyst @Forrester bringing cyberattacks into the context of today's biggest global events infosec, opinionated human - tweets = mine

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Articles

Protecting your privacy goes hand in hand with protecting encryption

1 month ago | hackerxbella.substack.com | Allie Mellen

What happened: Last week, the Florida Social Media Use by Minors (SB 868) legislative proposal failed to pass the Florida legislature; it was indefinitely postponed and withdrawn from consideration. On the surface, the bill appeared promising: it aimed to protect minors online. However, there is an important issue with this bill and others like it.
Government Leaders: Prioritize Cyber Efficiency Amid Federal Volatility

2 months ago | forrester.com | Cody Scott |Allie Mellen |Julie Mohr

Government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels must prepare for a future where they experience uncertainty, headcount reductions, contract cancellations, and budget cuts. This is gut-wrenchingly difficult to process; yet remaining leaders must figure out how to move forward to serve the mission. For cybersecurity leaders, this is even more paramount. The threat landscape is rapidly evolving with the onset of AI-related innovation, regulatory disruption, and job loss radicalization.
“Still Federating After All These Years”: The Realities Of EA Maturation

2 months ago | forrester.com | Charles Betz |Julie Mohr |Allie Mellen

Another day, another LinkedIn hot take on enterprise architecture. They fall into various camps: those confusing EA with a Marvel villain, others who think that the ten-year-old religious war between “business” and “enterprise” architects has any actual meaning.
Atlassian's AI Offensive Is Changing Work Forever

2 months ago | forrester.com | Julie Mohr |Charles Betz |Diego Giudice |Allie Mellen

Atlassian has launched a sweeping upgrade to its platform—and the message is crystal clear: AI isn’t just a feature; it’s the foundation. If you’re working in tech, managing teams, or even just part of a business using Jira or Confluence, this isn’t a subtle shift. It’s a tectonic one. Atlassian dropped a full suite of AI-integrated upgrades on April 9, 2025. The centerpiece?
Forrester’s Top Threats For 2025

2 months ago | forrester.com | Allie Mellen |Stephanie Balaouras

2025 started with a bang! Technology and geopolitics are changing faster than many can keep track. There’s an announcement of a new, benchmark-shattering generative AI seemingly every week. Planned job cuts across US employers are at their highest levels since 2020. We are on the brink of a global trade war, and geopolitical tensions are high. On the plus side, there was a reported 35% year-over-year decrease in ransomware payments from 2024.
Stand up and protect fellow Americans

2 months ago | hackerxbella.substack.com | Allie Mellen

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is a part of the Department of Homeland Security responsible for cybersecurity and infrastructure protection across all levels of the government. It was officially formed six years ago as an expansion of the DHS National Protection and Programs Directorate. CISAs mission is, “to lead the national effort to understand, manage, and reduce risk to our cyber and physical infrastructure”.
So There Won’t Be A Wiz IPO; What Does That Mean For Cyber IPOs In 2025?

2 months ago | forrester.com | Merritt Maxim |Allie Mellen |Joseph Blankenship

Last week’s mega deal of Google acquiring CNAPP provider Wiz for $32B has some lamenting the future of IPOs in the cybersecurity space. Wiz was on a high growth trajectory and given Wiz had previously rebuffed Google’s interest in summer of 2024, many assumed Wiz was on target for a 2025 IPO, the success of which was meant to serve as a bellwether for the overall health of cybersecurity market. With Wiz no longer an IPO candidate, has the momentum for cybersecurity IPOs stalled?
OCBC’s Journey To Becoming A Generative AI Pioneer

2 months ago | forrester.com | Leslie Joseph |Allie Mellen |Nikhil Lai

OCBC has emerged as a leader in enterprise AI adoption, seamlessly integrating generative AI across its operations. I recently spoke with Donald MacDonald, Head of OCBC’s Group Data Office, about the bank’s AI journey. Q: Donald, OCBC’s success with AI seems to stem from a long-term vision rather than a sudden pivot. How did this foundation come about?
Generative AI Innovation In Security Tools Is Finally Getting Interesting

2 months ago | forrester.com | Allie Mellen |Nikhil Lai |Joseph Blankenship

Last week, I spoke at the C2 conference in London. The C2 conference is an invite-only threat intelligence conference run by the team at SE Labs. The core themes of the event were timely and provoked interesting discussion: artificial intelligence, supply chain security, and cyber hygiene. All three of these dominated the conversations surprisingly equally and were – unsurprisingly – very interlinked. Below are a few thoughts on each coming out of the conference.
TikTok is about to get banned...again?

2 months ago | hackerxbella.substack.com | Allie Mellen

What happened: As of April 5, TikTok may be banned in the US again. Maybe. The TikTok ban from January is still in place, it was merely given a temporary reprieve through executive order so that parent company ByteDance could negotiate TikTok’s divestiture. President Trump has stated he may extend the halt on the ban if ByteDance is not able to find a solution in time. However, he also recently stated he believes they are close to a deal.