Enterprise-Grade Cybersecurity, Made Personal
Countervail is a veteran-owned cybersecurity and licensed investigative agency focused on the intersection of cyber threats, human behavior, and investigative response. We help organizations anticipate, withstand, and respond to cybercrime, fraud, and digital exploitation through fractional CISO services, cybercrime investigations, incident readiness, and adversary-informed training.
Well-designed emerging technologies and effective security software are essential, but motivated threat actors rarely attack mature security controls directly. Instead, they exploit people by leveraging trust, authority, urgency, routine, and pressure. Countervail helps organizations reduce that risk before incidents occur through strategic guidance, readiness, and training, while also providing licensed investigative services when cybercrime, fraud, or online harm requires an experienced response.
Countervail’s work is led by Joanna Wiggum, whose background spans military operations, enterprise security, licensed investigations, and victim advocacy.
About Joanna Wiggum
Joanna Wiggum founded Countervail LLC after a career shaped by military operations, enterprise cybersecurity, incident response, and licensed cybercrime investigations. As Countervail’s agency principal and a licensed cybercrime investigator, she brings an operational understanding of how threat actors move from technical opportunity to human exploitation. She also serves as president of Operation Child Shield, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to combating child trafficking and exploitation through community education and victim advocacy.
Her work is grounded in more than two decades of service across military leadership, enterprise security, Big Tech incident response, red-team operations, and cybercrime investigations. During a twelve-year career in the U.S. Air Force, Joanna served in multiple global operational roles, including as a data link subject matter expert supporting Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom and as a dual-qualified combat systems officer on strategic messaging missions aboard the B-52.
After her military service, Joanna moved into enterprise cybersecurity, where she built programs that helped large organizations understand and respond to adversarial behavior. Her work includes delivering Starbucks’ first red-team program and strengthening its application security and vulnerability management programs. Before assuming an executive leadership role at Starbucks, she led Oracle red-team operations, built Oracle Cloud’s anti-abuse program, and pioneered Microsoft security incident response across air-gapped cloud and AI environments.
Across these roles, Joanna has focused on the point where security controls, human behavior, and real-world harm intersect. Through Countervail and Operation Child Shield, she helps communities, organizations, and individuals recognize cybercriminal exploitation earlier, respond with greater confidence, and protect vulnerable populations before harm escalates. She holds a B.A. in International Security Studies and an M.A. in Human Relations from the University of Oklahoma, along with SANS training in incident handling and OSINT.
Speaking and Workshops
Joanna speaks on emerging threats in cybersecurity, cybercrime, and artificial intelligence, translating complex adversary behavior into clear, practical insight for organizations, conferences, and professional associations.
Her workshops examine cybersecurity through the lens of the attacker, showing how threat actors exploit trust, authority, urgency, routine, and public exposure long before technical controls are tested. Participants learn to recognize manipulation, question high-pressure requests, and identify the human decision points that determine whether an incident is prevented, contained, escalated, or exploited.
Each session is tailored to the audience and built around how real-world attacks unfold. Participants examine how adversaries develop convincing pretexts, manipulate workflows, exploit authority, and create the pressure that drives costly decisions. Grounded in enterprise red-team operations, OSINT, incident response, and behavioral science, each workshop gives participants practical techniques they can immediately apply to strengthen judgment, escalation, and organizational resilience.
Upcoming engagements:
- DEF CON 34, Red Team Village, workshop leader (Las Vegas, August 2026)
- NAIFA Washington State Conference, featured speaker (September 2026)
- Washington State Crime Prevention Association, featured speaker (October 2026)
- Rotary Club of Chelan, returning speaker (Fall 2026)
Past engagements include ISSA Puget Sound and the Rotary Club of Chelan. Joanna has been regularly featured on KOZI community radio.
Agency Information
Countervail LLC is a veteran-owned, Washington State licensed, bonded, and insured private investigation agency.
Agency Principal: Joanna Wiggum
PI License #26010541
UBI 606107463