This interview is part of GovInsider’s inaugural Cybersecurity Champions report featuring public sector cybersecurity officials around the world.
Please give a brief description of your job function as a cybersecurity professional, as well as what your organisation does.
I serve as a Policy Analyst at INTERPOL’s Cybercrime Directorate, where I support strategic initiatives that guide global efforts to combat both cyber-dependent and cyber-enabled crime.
My role blends operational coordination, institutional strategy, and multilateral engagement. I contribute to shaping INTERPOL’s global narrative on cybercrime, advising on international frameworks, and building cross-sectoral partnerships.
For those less familiar with INTERPOL, we are the world’s largest international police organisation, connecting law enforcement agencies from 196 member countries through secure channels to share intelligence, coordinate operations, and combat transnational crime.
As we mark our 102nd anniversary, we look forward to continuing this mission for many years to come.
What kind of cyber threats does your organisation face on a regular basis?
We work with a vast array of threats ranging from cyber-dependent crimes – like malware campaigns, DDoS attacks, and ransomware – to cyber-enabled crimes, including human trafficking, financial fraud, and environmental crimes facilitated through digital means.
INTERPOL regularly detects and addresses coordinated cyber operations focused on the most pressing cyberthreats targeting member countries.
We respond to these challenges by mobilising intelligence through the I-24/7 network, coordinating multi-country operations, and collaborating with partners across law enforcement, the private sector, and international organizations.
Our work is grounded in trusted, sustained collaboration with industry actors – who provide essential threat information as well as technical insight – and multilateral partners, civil society, and academia, helping to turn critical cyber intelligence into operational impact.
In your view, what are the biggest threats and challenges (be it in the network layer, and/or in areas such as scams, phishing and identity theft) in the public sector cybersecurity scene globally?
Phishing and Business Email Compromise continue to be top entry points for attacks, now amplified by AI.
The emergence of Phishing-as-a-Service and deepfake-driven scams make it harder for public institutions to defend against deception at scale.
Cyberattacks on public infrastructure also remain a major concern, especially in regions with low cyber resilience. The real challenge lies in turning threat intelligence into action and bridging the trust gap – both across sectors and between countries with varying levels of cyber maturity.
This is where partnerships like those fostered through mechanisms like the Cyber Atlas and the Open-ended Working Group on the security and use of ICTs play a crucial role in building shared situational awareness and collective response.
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Many say that we are entering an age of AI-driven cyberwarfare where both hackers and cybersecurity professionals use AI tools for attack and defence. What is your view?
AI is not a new battlefield – it is a magnifier. It enhances the precision, scale, and efficiency of cyber attacks, but also equips defenders with predictive tools.
At INTERPOL, we focus on how AI is enabling known threats to evolve: sextortion scams are growing through synthetic images; ransomware variants are spreading faster; and phishing campaigns are more tailored than ever.
We are developing new projects to address AI-driven threats, with an emphasis on crimes that disproportionately affect vulnerable populations. This includes efforts to embed gender-responsive approaches and human rights safeguards into prevention and enforcement.
Cybersecurity is often described as a team sport whereby a network’s vulnerability is often defined by its weakest link. In this context, how important is having a whole-of-government or whole-of-country cybersecurity posture?
The cyber threat landscape is inherently transnational, requiring a whole-of-globe approach.
INTERPOL promotes this through secure communication tools like the I-24/7 network, international legal frameworks such as the Budapest Convention and the UN Convention against Cybercrime, and strong alliances between law enforcement and the private sector.
At the same time, we recognize the importance of regional identities and how they shape cooperation and policing practices. That’s why we operate through a desk model—embedding local officers who serve as vital connectors between global strategy and regional realities.
Public-private cooperation is indispensable. Partnerships with cybersecurity firms, infrastructure operators, platform providers, and policy networks like the World Economic Forum and the Paris Peace Forum offer not only technical knowledge but also early warning capabilities and broader visibility into emerging threats.
True resilience requires inclusive, interoperable, and sustained partnerships across borders and sectors.
An often-repeated point in the cybersecurity sector is what your Plan B is after your network is breached. Can you share your point of view on this aspect?
Resilience begins before a breach. A robust Plan B means investing in segmentation, preserving critical functions, and planning communications. It also means being able to quickly engage with trusted partners – national and international – for technical support, legal guidance, and public messaging.
Through INTERPOL-coordinated operations, we’ve seen that the speed of response and strength of cross-border collaboration often determine whether a breach is swiftly contained or spirals into a broader crisis.
In this context, our partnerships under the Gateway Initiative play a vital role, improving the effectiveness of cyber operations and investigations.
If your organisation gave you an unlimited budget for cyber defence, what would you spend it on?
I would prioritise capacity building in underserved regions, ensuring equitable access not only to forensic tools and intelligence-sharing platforms but, critically, to sustained cyber training.
Providing tools without the training to use them effectively has repeatedly proven insufficient—skills development must be at the core of any long-term strategy.
I would also expand the scope of public–private partnerships to develop real-time detection systems and invest in secure-by-design infrastructure that anticipates both cyber-dependent and cyber-enabled threats.
We welcome collaboration with partners who share these goals and are interested in co-developing impactful, forward-looking projects with us. If you’re one of them, reach us out to CD.FIND@interpol.int
What brought you to this profession and what do you love the most in your job and what would you like to improve?
With a foundation in political science, law, and international security, I was drawn to cybercrime because it is where global governance, human rights, and law enforcement intersect in real time.
What I love most is the collaborative spirit: working with cyber investigators one day and advising multilateral negotiations the next.
I would like to see more integration of environmental lenses into cyber policy work, and stronger recognition of how digital threats intersect with broader public safety and development agendas.
As future conflicts are increasingly shaped by access to natural resources, and as we rely more heavily on technology to monitor and secure them, the potential impact of cyberattacks on environmental systems and human security becomes even more critical.
The lack of qualified cybersecurity professionals is a global problem, how do you think this can be overcome?
We must redefine what a cybersecurity professional looks like. This means opening the field to diverse disciplines, breaking down stereotypes, and removing structural barriers for women and marginalized communities.
Initiatives that combine education, mentorship, and international cooperation – like those supported under the INTERPOL Global Cybercrime Expert Group – are key to expanding the talent pipeline in meaningful, inclusive ways.
If you had a chance to restart your career from scratch, would you still want to be cybersecurity professional and why?
Yes – because cybersecurity today is about more than technology. It’s about diplomacy, justice, and protecting fundamental rights in an increasingly digital society. It’s about understanding risk, building resilience, and shaping the future of safety in ways that matter for people and planet alike.
That said, my plan B would probably involve becoming a yoga instructor on an eco-conscious farm in rural Iceland. Still focused on peace and balance, just through a different kind of firewall.
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