Yanya Viskovich

Attorney-at-Law, Cybersecurity, Data Protection & Ethics Specialist Senior Manager, Security Consulting, Accenture ASG, Switzerland Chair, Swiss Cyber Institute - Cyber Law & Governance WG Advisory Board Member, IDC Europe CISO Summits,

Yanya Viskovich is a cybersecurity specialist who helps organisations strengthen their cybersecurity culture and resilience, with a particular focus on the human factor. Currently, Yanya is a Senior Manager in Security Consulting at Accenture where she advises and consults organisations on the human factors in cyber. She is also Chair of Cyber Risk & Governance at the Swiss Cyber Institute, a CISO Summit Advisory Board member of IDC, a WomenTech Global Ambassador, and a keynote and TEDx speaker. Her expertise spans industry, government, international organisations including the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and International Committee of the Red Cross, and academic institutions - over 17 years on 5 continents, in conflict zones, and at all scales.

Yanya began her career in Australia as a prosecutor where her portfolio included cybercrime and privacy offences, and advising and capacity building law enforcement agencies and regulators. She has strategized UN crisis contingency plans for Lebanon during the height of the Syria crisis, developed and led global data protection programs for large multinationals, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (for whom she helped draft and operationalize the UN's first data protection policy).  She has advised and trained large global organisations, Boards and C-Suites on cyber strategy, incident response, security awareness and GRC, and cyber and data protection risks and legal requirements. She has advised deep-tech startups, and is an independent data protection ethics expert appointed by the European Commission to assist with the evaluation of Horizon2020/Horizon Europe research funding proposals. She is actively involved with the Atlantic Council's Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge - the world’s only multidisciplinary cyber simulation competition - as a Judge and as a coach. She is regularly invited to guest lecture on data protection and cybersecurity at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, and at the European Centre on Privacy and Cybersecurity at Maastricht University.  She is a published thought leader in her field and has contributed to and edited a number of professional standards publications on cyber and data protection.

Yanya is an Australian Bar-admitted attorney and Certified Data Protection Officer. She holds a Bachelor of Laws, a Bachelor of International Relations, and a Master of Laws from the Australian National University; a Data Protection Officer certification from the European Centre on Privacy and Cybersecurity at Maastricht University; and executive certificates in cybersecurity management from MIT Sloan School and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, and in applied computer science from EPFL.