Dr. Victoria Baines

Victoria Baines is a leading authority in the field of online trust, safety and cybersecurity. She frequently contributes to major broadcast media outlets on digital ethics, cybercrime and the misuse of emerging technologies, including Extended Reality and Artificial Intelligence.

Her areas of research include electronic surveillance, cybercrime futures, and the politics of security. She also provides research expertise to a number of international organisations, including Interpol, UNICEF and the Council of Europe.

For several years Victoria was Facebook’s Trust & Safety Manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa. Her work focused on operational support to law enforcement, and strategic engagement with policy makers on criminal activity online.

Before joining Facebook, Victoria led the Strategy team at Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), where she was responsible for the EU’s cyber threat analysis. She designed and developed the iOCTA, Europe’s flagship threat assessment on cybercrime, and authored Projects 2020 and 2030, scenarios for the future of cybersecurity that were the bases for successful short film series of the same name. Prior to this, Victoria was Principal Analyst at the UK Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).

She began her career in law enforcement in 2005 as a Higher Intelligence Analyst for Surrey Police. In 2008, the International Association for Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts recognised Victoria’s work with a global award for outstanding achievement.

Victoria is co-host of the award-nominated Cyber Warrior Princess podcast, demystifying cybersecurity for a popular audience. She regularly addresses both specialist and non-specialist audiences, and has been named as one of the top 25 women in cybersecurity (IT Guru & SC Magazine). She is also a Freeman of the City of London and Chair of the Security Panel of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists. She serves on the Advisory Boards of cybersecurity provider Reliance ACSN and the International Association of Internet Hotlines (INHOPE), and is a trustee of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.

She is a graduate of Trinity College, Oxford and holds a doctorate from the University of Nottingham, UK. She is a Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University’s School of Computing, a former Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University, and was a guest lecturer at Stanford University in 2019 and 2020.

Management Track

Cybersecurity's image problem, and what we can all do about it

Those of us who work in cybersecurity have become immune to the ways we tend to represent threats: military and fantasy imagery, acronyms, and fancy animals among them. How do these representations play out for so-called 'ordinary' people who don't share our specialist knowledge?

Based on new research into the rhetoric of cybersecurity, this talk combines a light-hearted critique of security jargon with serious analysis of its impact on protection from threats, and even who gets to work in cybersecurity. It doesn't have to be this way, and Victoria has ideas for how we might empower people to protect themselves and help solve our recruitment issues.