Blog Author

Karen Laughton

EVP, Advisory Services, Coalfire

Karen Laughton is Executive Vice President of Advisory Services. Throughout her extensive experience in IT security and compliance leadership roles, she has worked closely with government agencies as they shift towards cloud adoption and with cloud service providers as they endeavor to meet federal, state, and local government requirements.

Ms. Laughton has compliance experience across the public and private sector, including within financial services, healthcare, and international markets.

Ms. Laughton partners with leaders in the technology industry to build their federal go-to-market strategy, determining the best and most cost-effective path for achieving their business goals. She and her team of dedicated cybersecurity professionals strive to improve the overall security posture of clients and navigate compliance with various standards such as FedRAMP, FISMA, Department of Defense (DoD) Cloud Computing Security Requirements Guide (SRG), NIST 800-171/CMMC, NIST CSF, HITRUST, ISO, SOC, and PCI.

Ms. Laughton earned her Bachelor of Science degree from Virginia Tech and serves on their Business Information Technology Advisory Board. She is active in our community through her work with the National Charity League and Young Men's Service League and served a five-year term on the board of the Isabella Santos Foundation, a pediatric cancer non-profit. Ms. Laughton holds industry certifications including Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA).