Well known as the “Cyber Guardian”, founder of the XR Safety Initiative (XRSI), Kavya Pearlman is an award-winning cybersecurity professional with a deep interest in immersive and emerging technologies. Kavya is constantly exploring new technologies to solve current cybersecurity challenges. She is one of the Top 50 speakers in the cybersecurity industry and named Top 20 Cybersecurity influencers for three consecutive years 2018-2019-2020 by IFSEC Global. Kavya has won many awards for her work and contribution to the security community including:
- Cybersecurity Woman of the Year 2020 by Cybersecurity Excellence Award Series
- Cybersecurity Professional of the Year 2020 by Cybersecurity Excellence Award Series
- Most Influential Cyber Security Leader 2020 by Acquisition International
- 40 under 40 Top Business Executives 2019 by San Francisco Business Times
- Rising Star of the year 2019 by Women in IT Award Series
- CISO Women Security Leader award from Middle East CISO Council
- Minority CISO of the Year 2018 by International Consortium of Minorities Cybersecurity Professional (ICMCP)
Kavya has previously advised Facebook on third party security risks during the 2016 US presidential elections and worked as the head of security for the oldest existing virtual world “Second Life” by Linden Lab. Kavya constantly shares knowledge via webinars, conference talks and blog posts around Application Security, Cloud-native technologies, Machine Learning and immersive technologies such as XR.
Kavya holds a master’s degree network security from DePaul University, Chicago and many prestigious Information Security certifications including CISM (Certified Information Security Manager) from ISACA, 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 is a board of directors for EM360, non-profit “Minorities in Cybersecurity”, an advisory board member for “CISO Council North America”, Spark Mindset LLC, and cybersecurity advisory board member for the University of New Haven.