Professor Victoria Baines

Victoria is an Intellectual Forum Senior Research Associate.

Victoria Baines is a leading authority in the field of digital trust, safety, and cybersecurity. She is the IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology at Gresham College, London’s oldest higher education institution, where she is responsible for delivering public lectures that demystify world-changing technologies for ‘ordinary’ people.

Her current series of lectures puts citizens back at the heart of decision-making on the future direction of IT, tackling questions such as how the Internet should be governed, how best to fight fake news, what life in the Metaverse might really be like, whether we can expect our private communications to stay private, how we can protect ourselves and others from digital infection, and why making IT more inclusive will make all of us safer.

Victoria has published on cyberspace governance, online surveillance, the future of cybercrime, and the politics of security. Drawing on her Classical education, her book Rhetoric of Insecurity (Routledge, 2021) sheds light on 2000 years of security speak and is a toolkit for understanding why security issues always seem to be so novel, urgent, and divisive. She also provides research expertise and futures insight to a number of international organisations.

For several years Victoria was Facebook’s Trust & Safety Manager for Europe, Middle East, and Africa, providing support to law enforcement and engaging with ministers and heads of state on key policy issues. Prior to this, 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 Europe’s flagship assessment of cybercrime, and authored scenarios for the future of cybersecurity that were the bases for award-winning movies.

Victoria is a Liveryman of the City of London and chairs the Security Panel of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, the voice of the IT industry in the City. She frequently contributes to major broadcast media outlets on digital ethics, cybercrime, and the misuse of emerging technologies. Her most memorable media appearance to date was a live face-off with Piers Morgan, which she maintains she won.

Victoria is a graduate of Trinity College, Oxford and holds a doctorate in Roman Rhetoric from the University of Nottingham. 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 on Stanford University’s inaugural Trust and Safety Engineering course in 2019 and 2020.

What are you working on now?

I’m fascinated by the extent to which digital technology has already changed us as humans, and where this might lead in the future. Despite my best efforts, all my public lectures end up pondering tough choices on how we use tech, and ethical questions that suggest our moral codes are challenged by our digital lives. I’m currently writing a popular science book on the topic, which I hope will provide some possible answers for me and others.

How has your career led to this?

I’ve made several choices in my career that at the time felt rather lateral, but make perfect sense in hindsight, as things often do. I started out with every intention of going to drama school after getting an Oxford Classics degree under my belt. But I fell in love with Roman Satire and spent the best part of a decade researching ancient representations of misbehaviour, immorality, and foolishness. The next decade found me in law enforcement, analysing and advising on present tense criminality. I then retrained as a futurist, and now assist organisations of all sizes, including governments, in anticipating the safety and security impacts of tech change. Even my extra-curricular activity is centred on badness: I am a passable folk singer and songwriter, and am inevitably drawn to the more problematic side of life. Folk music loves a good murder ballad.

What one thing would you most want someone to learn from what you've done or are doing right now?

My research so far suggests that while governments and Big Tech both presume to speak for the world’s citizens when it comes to how digital spaces should be regulated, in practice people are very rarely asked for their opinions on this. The assumption is that technology is too complicated for them to understand. Polls I have run suggest that UK citizens, and especially Sun readers, are well aware of the ethical issues surrounding online safety and cybersecurity, and are keen to have their say. I’m keen to ensure that citizens have opportunities to have their voices heard, and are empowered to protect themselves, their loved ones, and their communities.

What do you think of Jesus College and the Intellectual Forum?

Even though I left my heart in the Other Place (Oxford), I’m already finding that Jesus and the Intellectual Forum are incredible spaces for innovative thought, particularly on global, systemic challenges that require creative answers and agile, multi-disciplinary approaches. I feel as if I have joined the perfect group of people to generate new ideas that might just work.

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