Virtual Reality Brings Real Risks: Are We Ready?

Well known as the "Cyber Guardian", Kavya Pearlman is an Award-winning cybersecurity professional with a deep interest in immersive and emerging technologies. Kavya is the founder of non-profit, XR Safety Initiative (XRSI). XRSI is the very first global effort that promotes privacy, security, ethics and develops standards and guidelines for Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality (VR/AR/MR) collectively known as XR.

Kavya has advised Facebook on third party security risks during 2016 US presidential elections. She currently advises Wallarm, a global security company that protects hundreds of customers across e-commerce, fintech, health-tech, and SaaS for their artificial intelligence powered application security platform as a Global Cybersecurity Strategist.

Kavya is constantly exploring new technologies to solve current cybersecurity challenges. She has been named one of the Top Cybersecurity influencers for two consecutive years (2018–2019) by IFSEC Global. Kavya has won many awards for her work and contribution to the security community including 40 under 40 Top Business Executives 2019 by San Francisco Business Times, Rising Star of the year 2019 by Women in IT Award Series and Minority CISO of the Year 2018 by ICMCP. For her work with XR Safety Initiative, Middle East CISO Council recently awarded her the CISO 100 Women Security Leader award in Dubai.

Kavya holds a master's degree in network security from DePaul University, Chicago, and holds many prestigious Information Security certifications, including CISM (Certified Information Security Manager) from ISACA, PCI-DSS-ISA (Internal Security Assessor) and PCIP for Payment Card Industry Security Standard Council. Kavya is truly passionate about her work and inspires many around the world, including women and underrepresented communities in security and emerging technologies. Kavya gives back to the tech community by mentoring women through the "Million Women Mentor" program and is a board of director for the non-profit "Minorities in Cybersecurity," as well as an advisory board member for "CISO Council North America."