Ekaterina Safonova is an Associate Professor with 20 years of experience in technical sciences research and lecturing, 10+ years of experience in cyber security, combining deep technical expertise with vital business and leadership skills.
She joined Cybertonica to lead the Cybersecurity segment as a Board Technical Advisor as well as Director for Partnerships and Training.
She founded her own company – CS Consulting and Advisory, supporting companies on questions of cybersecurity and payment fraud, new products, authentication methods and biometrics.
In 2018 Ekaterina joined Imperial College Business School FinTech Center as a Technical Advisor at cyber security, Financial fraud and its prevention, new authentication methods and future of biometrics.
Ekaterina Safonova has developed and launched a specialized Cybersecurity course for the payments industry – Fraud and Fraud Prevention that was certified by CPD Certification Service at Emerging Payments Association, where she works as invited professor.
She has also organised highly successful Cybersecurity and GDPR evenings at Level39 that professionals described as “the best GDPR event for the last year”. Ekaterina Safonova led the fireside chat at Mobile 360 in Hague in 2018 discussing GDPR and cyber security issues; she moderates and chairs technical panels and events internationally.
In 2019 she wrote a chapter for The PAYTECH Book “The financial arms race – the “game” with no rules” and a chapter for The LegalTech book “Smart home or spy home: cyber threats and security solutions” published by Wiley. She is creating the online course “Future of the Fraud and Authentication”, “IoT – smart world of new challenges, cyber threats and security solutions”, and preparing her own courses on Fintech for MBA executives.
Meanwhile, Ekaterina has successfully finished the course on “Business strategy and Fintech” at Said Business School Oxford University and won Fintech/Payments leader of the year award at EWPN in Amsterdam.
Her strong technical background includes a PhD and 37 publications, including 7 books. Ekaterina has adjunct teaching experience in the UK, where she resides, and has spoken at global conferences. She is passionate about her topic and international in her approach, loves learning new things, solving brain-boiling tasks and opening unexplored horizons.