To begin 2025, element14’s new interview series, “Top Tech Voices,” asks renowned cybersecurity expert Professor Victoria Baines: What are the most significant emerging cybersecurity threats that businesses should be aware of in 2025?
In addition to her notable security accomplishments, Baines has a long history in cybersecurity. She began her career in law enforcement and later worked as Facebook’s Trust & Safety Manager for EMEA, where she supported efforts to eradicate criminal activity online at both the policing and policy levels.
Victoria Baines is frequently listed as one of the top female cybersecurity experts and has contributed knowledge to global organizations like UNICEF and Interpol. Additionally, she oversaw the Strategy team at Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), where she supervised projects like Project 2020, which looked at cybersecurity’s future. She has also given important presentations to the European Commission, the Council of Europe, and the United Nations.
She regularly writes about cybercrime, digital ethics, and the abuse of cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence and extended reality for prominent broadcast media outlets. Her research focuses on the politics of security, cybercrime futures, and electronic surveillance. Victoria Baines has written about the politics of security, internet surveillance, cyberspace governance, and the future of cybercrime.
Hosted by award-winning AI Content and Prompt Engineering Strategist, Georgia Lewis Anderson, among the topics Victoria Baines covers in the latest episode are:
- The emerging cybersecurity threats that businesses should be looking out for in 2025 and how new technologies like AI and machine learning are being leveraged in attempts to thwart in-house and in-cloud security measures and how organizations as well as remote workers can defend against them.
- The risks associated with the adoption of IoT devices and the increasing number of specific cyberthreats that are facing them.
- The increase in ransomware attacks, including those from inside an organisation, and how businesses can prepare for and respond effectively.
- If the rapid gains in quantum computing will render current security practices obsolete.
- Connected devices raise questions of data privacy challenges, so how do regulations like GDPR influence IoT security practices and what can organisations do to enhance data privacy for IoT users?
- What are the future trends in IoT cybersecurity that industry professionals should be mindful of? And how will the expectations for heightened security, consumer and otherwise, be met as IoT becomes more prevalent, or will they?
Key Comments
element14 President, Rebeca Obregon, said, “Professor Baines is one of the world’s leading authorities in the field of online trust, safety and cybersecurity. Her extensive research in the field and the insights she gains from it are critically important to some many aspects of our professional, business and personal lives. We are delighted that she agreed to share her thoughts about 2025, and beyond, with our audience.”
“The potential global impact of the cybersecurity issues Victoria discusses cannot be overstated,” said Obregon, “Her impeccable credentials more than qualify her as a Top Tech Voice and I encourage everyone with a stake in data security, which is all of us, to listen to what she has to say. It could save your business.”
This second episode of Top Tech Voices can be viewed by clicking here.