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Join us for our second Tech Safety Summit, a virtual event dedicated to tackling technology-facilitated abuse and economic abuse. .
Building on the success of last year’s inaugural event, which brought together experts, policymakers and advocates, this year’s Summit continues to be the only event in the UK dedicated solely to addressing technology-facilitated abuse. As the UK’s largest single provider of domestic abuse services and leading expert in technology-facilitated abuse, Refuge is at the forefront of this critical issue, driving systemic change and empowering survivors
This year’s theme focuses on showcasing innovative responses to tackling technology-facilitated abuse and economic abuse, with a comprehensive programme covering topics such as:
The Tech Safety Summit is ideal for a diverse audience of professionals, policymakers, and advocates interested in combating technology-facilitated abuse and promoting economic empowerment. Attendees include:
Supported by the Aviva Foundation
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If you or your organisation would like to enquire about sponsoring the event, please email us at techsafetysummit@refuge.org.uk.
We are now looking for proposals for the Refuge Tech Safety Summit 2025!
If you are interested, follow this link for more information and to submit your proposal.
Emma Pickering
Head of Technology-Facilitated Abuse and Economic Empowerment Team at Refuge
Victoria Derbyshire
Journalist and Broadcaster
A survivor advocate panel to help agencies understand the link between technology-facilitated abuse and its direct impact on survivors.
Emma Pickering
Head of Technology-Facilitated Abuse and Economic Empowerment Team at Refuge
Diana Freed
Assistant Professor of Computer and Data Science at Brown University
Julio Poveda
Ph.D. student in Computer Science at the University of Maryland
Leonie Tanczer
Associate Professor at University College London (UCL)
Session exploring our findings from our 2-year partnership with our by and led partners. Inviting panel members across the sector to share insights into how we can safely engage with survivors.
Djenne Kamara
Technology Abuse Project Manager at Refuge
Vicki Trapps
Service Manager at SignHealth
Session exploring how technology-facilitated abuse and economic abuse can impact older people. From an increase in monitoring via technology, isolation and controlling access to health care, to increased risks of economic exploitation. We shared trends and insights with an expert panel, identifying solutions for working with survivors.
Emma Pickering
Head of Technology-Facilitated Abuse and Economic Empowerment Team at Refuge
Carrie Bower
Safeguarding Policy and Training Lead at Hourglass
Session exploring how society, designers, tech platforms, legislators and organisations all have a role in creating products and technologies that prioritise security, wellbeing and autonomy over profits.
Adele Zeynep Walton
Journalist, Author and Campaigner
Review of our accessibility tools, how we are focusing on accessibility and why this work is vital to reach more survivors.
Djenne Kamara
Technology Abuse Project Manager at Refuge
Laura Parkes
Digital Lead at Refuge
This session will delve into the real-life challenges survivors face relating to economic abuse, including financial control and sabotage. through powerful survivor case studies, first-person accounts, and testimonies, the session will highlight the complex barriers that stand in the way of survivors rebuilding their lives and achieving financial independence. we will showcase examples of best practice, highlighting what works in supporting survivors and how detailed casework can transform the outcomes for survivors. The session will also reflect on the significant progress made by the financial sector in improving responses to economic abuse, while identifying remaining gaps and the critical areas where further action and resources are needed.
Fran Ferrier
Economic Empowerment Partnership Manager at Refuge
Justina Mickute
Domestic and Economic Abuse Lead at Refuge
Session will look at some of the practical challenges in disbursing welfare payments and showcase how an innovative new solution is enabling councils and charities to send payments via SMS text messages that allow instant fund collection from local ATMs nationwide - without the need for a bank account/card.
Gareth Evans
Founder of Cash Perks
Joint financial products, like a joint account or joint mortgage are common in relationships, but what we have seen in our casework is how these accounts get misused to gain and retain power and control over a survivor’s life. Financial separation can be a complex, traumatic and an expensive process in relationship breakdown, let alone when someone is experiencing abuse. When firms have a responsibility to both their customers, how can survivors manage these accounts safely?
What would happen if every business ran a threat model based on how domestic abusers misuse their products? In Australia, that’s exactly what’s happening.
Social entrepreneur and former bank senior executive Catherine Fitzpatrick takes us inside a movement where more than 60 companies - from banks to telcos - have rewritten their terms and conditions to prohibit financial abuse. With 20 million customers between them, they’ve made it clear they won’t be a safe haven for abusers.
Drawing parallels with the tech industry’s red teaming approach to deter cyber criminals and new laws in Australia to ban children from harmful social media platforms, Catherine makes the case for safety by design to prevent the weaponisation of everyday products and services.
Indy Bal
NDAH Economic Abuse Lead at Refuge
Catherine Fitzpatrick
Founder and Director of Flequity Ventures
Nicola Sharp-Jeffs
Chief Executive Officer at Surviving Economic Abuse
As technology continues to play an increasingly significant role in our daily lives, nearly every action we undertake generates some form of digital footprint. Digital evidence holds substantial value in crime investigation, public safety, locating vulnerable missing individuals, preventing criminal activities, and identifying witnesses, suspects, crime scenes, and other pertinent evidence. This type of evidence is essential for detecting, preventing, and protecting survivors of technology-facilitated abuse and economic exploitation.
Digital evidence encompasses a wide range of sources, including social media platforms, video doorbells, connected vehicles, personal fitness trackers, smart home devices, emails, GPS data, Wi-Fi data, mobile phone call records, CCTV footage, and more. While all these sources leave a trace, the digital landscape is ephemeral, making it susceptible to loss, alteration, or deletion within moments.
Detective Sergeant Bryan Field has proposed a new strategy for investigators to capitalize on digital opportunities during the critical initial hours of a missing person's investigation. Additionally, Bryan has developed guidance and policies for Metropolitan Police Service officers addressing responses to online abuse and harassment, thereby enhancing the preservation of the digital scene.
Emma Pickering
Head of Technology-Facilitated Abuse and Economic Empowerment Team at Refuge
Bryan Field
Detective Sergeant at the Metropolitan Police Service
This session will explore what the Online Safety Act means for survivors of technology-facilitated abuse. The session will explore how the landscape has evolved since the Bill was first drafted through to it's implementation. Reflecting on what has changed, what we have learned, and how insights from Ofcom are shaping responses to improve support and protections for survivors.
Ellie Butt
Head of Policy and Public Affairs at Refuge
Melanie Dawes
Chief Executive Officer at Ofcom
An opportunity for reflections, asking any questions and summary of the day.
Emma Pickering
Head of Technology-Facilitated Abuse and Economic Empowerment Team at Refuge
Session led by experts from Interpol AI Innovation Centre, sharing insights into their AI toolkit which was developed in 2023 to respond to the growing threat of crimes committed via AI generated tools. Hearing from expert speakers how we can utilise technology to identify perpetrators both in the UK and internationally and ensure we have processes and legislation in place to hold them accountable, with appropriate sharing of information and resources.
Session overview exploring how Police forces can utilise Operation Atlas to improve police response for survivors of harassment and stalking. Joined by an expert speaker from the Metropolitan Police who leads the work of Operation Atlas to share insights into how the project has reduced investigation time scales and improved convictions and charges.
As digital technologies evolve, so too do the methods used to perpetrate abuse online. Madelaine Thomas will lead this session exploring innovative technological responses to technology-facilitated abuse (TFA), focusing on tools that prioritise privacy, agency, and survivor-led design. You'll look at real-world examples that are available, and the broader implications for the future of tech-based safety and justice.
Madelaine Thomas
Founder of Image Angel
Online harms are no longer confined to social media platforms — they are woven into the fabric of our homes, schools, and safe spaces. From stalkerware and grooming, to CSAM, digital threats, and coercive control, the dangers facing vulnerable women, children, and families are growing more complex and more embedded in everyday digital access.
This is not a problem one sector can solve alone. It demands urgent collaboration between families, parents, designated safeguarding leads, refuge providers, local authorities, policymakers, ISPs, and big tech. Without shared responsibility, the most vulnerable are left navigating invisible risks with little protection.
In this session, Gigabit IQ will explore how we’re redefining broadband as a tool for safety, not just access — and how managed connectivity can protect those at greatest risk. Online safety must be built-in, not bolted on. This talk shares real, deployable solutions — and a roadmap to make the digital world safer from the ground up.
Mashood Ahmad
Chief Executive Officer at Gigabit IQ
This year Chayn is launching its new feminist AI tool, our Survivor AI, a letter generator to support survivors in getting content taken down from the internet. Many survivors who have come to seek help from Chayn have been struggling to get content taken down from tech platforms after experiencing image-based abuse. As we spoke to survivors and experts alike we realised the current systems were failing to provide survivors with the support they needed. We then turned to AI and wondered what a feminist AI built by us would look like and how it could help address this very problem.
In this talk we will walk you through the process of building our Survivor AI: what our challenges have been, how we built it, what we heard from survivors who took part in consultations and what the outcomes have been so far.
Eva Blum-Dumontet
Head of Movement Building and Policy at Chayn
With the advancements in technology – in particular with AI, a session exploring the challenges we as a service now face when supporting survivors of technology-facilitated abuse, identifying ways perpetrators can use technology to quickly locate a survivor and ways we can mitigate the risks.
Becky Read
NDAH Technology-Facilitated Abuse Lead at Refuge
Alan Owen
Expert Consultant
A day in the life of a member of the Technology-Facilitated Abuse and Economic Empowerment Team, providing insight into their work, challenges and impact. An opportunity for attendees to meet the team and ask questions.
As AI becomes increasingly embedded in children's digital experiences, this session seeks to explore how children perceive and engage with these technologies: How do children understand these AI companions? How do they form trust, relationships, or expectations from them? We will delve into their cognitive and emotional interpretations of AI, and the ways in which AI companions shape children’s understanding of social interaction and the world around them. The discussion will explore both opportunities and risks associated with AI companionship—particularly in providing emotional support and personalised education. What benefits might AI bring in supporting learning and well-being? What are the unintended consequences or psychological impacts of over-reliance on emotionally responsive machines?
Larome Hyde
Youth Technology-Facilitated Abuse Lead at Refuge
Colette Collins-Walsh
Head of UK Affairs at 5Rights Foundation
Jay Jones
Youth Voice and Influence Officer at National Youth Agency
Across Africa, survivors of Technology Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV) often face limited access to justice, fragmented support systems, and a lack of safe, accessible reporting mechanisms. In Nigeria, TechHer is addressing this urgent gap through KURAM, a digital platform designed to provide survivors with a secure space to report violations, access legal aid, and find resources.
TechHer's session aims to spotlight KURAM and its functionalities. Participants will be introduced to the platform's key features, including how survivors can seamlessly report TFGBV cases, how they are connected to legal practitioners, and how the built-in system controls enable efficient and secure case management.
Chioma Agwuegbo
Executive Director of TechHerNG
Amina Salaudeen
Women’s Rights & Safety Officer at TechHerNG
This session addresses the urgent need to improve online safety awareness among children, focusing particularly on the risks of sextortion and the dangers posed by the dark web. As technology evolves, so do the threats facing our youth. Despite ongoing efforts, there remains a significant gap in children's understanding of online safety which threat actors exploit. This presentation will explore educational strategies and monitoring techniques that adults—parents, educators, and guardians—can employ to protect children from these evolving cyber threats.
Rebecca Taylor
Threat Intelligence Knowledge Manager (Counter Threat Unit) at Secureworks
The Government has announced that they are making tackling technology-facilitated abuse a priority, but what does this mean for survivors? Where are the gaps and what is needed to help ensure all agencies are equipped to identify and respond to survivors of technology-facilitated abuse.
Ellie Butt
Head of Policy and Public Affairs at Refuge
An opportunity for reflections, asking any questions and summary of the Summit.
Emma Pickering
Head of Technology-Facilitated Abuse and Economic Empowerment Team at Refuge
This Ceremony will announce the winners of this year's Tech Safety Awards, celebrating their impact, while recognising their outstanding contributions to safety, advocacy and change.
At Refuge we believe in recognising the efforts of organisations and changemakers who are leading the way in the fight against technology-facilitated and economic abuse. The Tech Safety Awards are dedicated to celebrating those making a significant impact and contribution on safety, advocacy and change. The winners will be revealed during our virtual award ceremony on the 24th of September.
Adele Zeynep Walton is a British-Turkish journalist and online safety campaigner specialising in the human impacts of digital technology and social media. Her debut book Logging Off: The Human Cost of Our Digital World published in 2025. She has bylines in the i, Metro, Big Issue, Dazed, Vice, The Independent, The New Arab, Tribune, Jacobin, Refinery 29, Open Democracy and more.
With 34 years of Charity experience as both consultant and trustee, Alan has been working as a consultant to Refuge since 2008. Alan is a Fellow of the British Computer Society and a Charted IT Professional, with experience in GDPR, data collection and technology facilitated abuse. Alan designed the National Domestic Violence helpline and case management systems in use by Domestic Violence organisations.
Now semi-retired, Alan provides consultancy services to the Tech Support team.
Amina works at the intersection of women, technology, and policy. As the Women’s Rights & Safety Officer at TechHerNG, she leads the organisation’s efforts on technology-facilitated abuse and digital safety for young women and girls in Nigeria. For almost four years, Amina has trained thousands of women and girls on TFGBV, digital rights and safety, equipping them with the knowledge and tools to navigate digital spaces securely. She oversees and manages KURAM, TechHer’s OGBV reporting and resourcing platform, ensuring survivors can access safe, responsive, and rights-respecting reporting mechanisms.
Introducing Detective Sergeant Bryan Field, with a 29-year career in the Metropolitan Police Service. Currently, Bryan plays a pivotal role in improving digital investigation in Serious and complex Crime.
He has written guidance and policy for officer’s response to Online Abuse and Harassment, securing the digital scene during the golden hour of Domestic abuse, Missing Person Investigations and Homicide Investigations.
He is currently leading in the training for PIP3 senior investigating officers and the digital media investigations within the MPS. With a passion for enhancing investigative practices and a wealth of knowledge in identifying and securing digital evidence during the golden hour of an investigation.
Bryan has extensive experience as a detective, specialised in homicide and serious complex investigations, with training and skills in identifying digital evidence, investigation interviewing, family liaison and victimology, particularly in complex cases involving homicide and high risk missing person investigations. Notably, Bryan spent the first four years on the investigation into the tragic Grenfell Tower fire, managing the major incident room and writing the investigation strategy for engaging with people involved in the tower's construction and refurbishment, including securing digital evidence.
Carrie Bower is Hourglass’s Safeguarding Policy and Training Lead. Hourglass is the only charity dedicated to ending the abuse, harm and exploitation of people aged 60+ across the UK.
Carrie is a registered social worker and accredited trauma informed trainer. She has previously worked as a Safeguarding Manager and Domestic Abuse Lead in the charity sector and has held a variety of roles dedicated to older people in the statutory sector.
Chioma Agwuegbo works at the intersection of women's issues, media, politics, and technology. As the Executive Director of TechHerNG, Chioma focuses on making technology accessible to women and utilising tech solutions to address societal problems, particularly those affecting women. TechHerNG oversees KURAM, a web-based platform that aggregates incidents of online gender-based violence and assists survivors in accessing justice. TechHer also co-manages a GBV Emergency Response Fund in partnership with Education as a Vaccine (EVA), providing rapid funding to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence within a 24-hour window.
Colette Collins-Walsh is Head of UK Affairs at 5Rights Foundation, an international NGO advocating for the consideration of children’s rights and needs in the development and deployment of AI technologies. Her background is in political communications and children’s policy, having previously worked at the Department for Education, the Labour Party’s policy unit, the House of Commons, and the strategic advisory firm Hanbury Strategy.
Diana Freed is an Assistant Professor of Computer and Data Science at Brown University. She is also a visiting scholar at the Petrie-Flom Center at Harvard Law School, a Faculty Associate at the Harvard Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society and a Research Affiliate at the Hire Aspirations Institute at the Harvard SEAS. Dr. Freed’s research focuses on the intersection of technology and society to improve computer security, privacy, safety and wellbeing for vulnerable and marginalized populations. Her research has received awards at top-tier conferences and has been featured in media outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and NPR.
Ellie has been Refuge's Head of Policy and Public Affairs for the last 7 years. Prior to joining Refuge she worked in criminal justice policy. Ellie is a 2020 Clore Emerging Leaders Fellow and a 2015 Churchill Fellow.
Emma Pickering is a dedicated professional, with extensive experience in the VAWG sector. Her career at Refuge began in 2017 when she joined as a MARAC coordinator within the Warwickshire service. Emma joined the Tech Abuse team in January 2018 at the beginning of the project. Currently the Head of Tech & Economic Abuse, Emma plays a pivotal role at Refuge.
Emma's commitment to preventing technology-facilitated domestic abuse is evident in her pursuit of specialised training. She received Tech Abuse training from SafetyNet, and trained as an IRIS Advocate Educator. Her academic background, including a BA Honours degree in Working with Young People and Services from De Montfort University, and a Masters Degree in Understanding the Dynamics of Domestic and Sexual Violence from the University of Worcester, has equipped her with extensive knowledge of the complex issues surrounding domestic abuse. Emma is further exploring the subject, in ongoing PhD studies at Birmingham City University, titled "Evaluating the role of domestic homicide Technology-Facilitated Abuse and Domestic Homicide."
As a Churchill Fellow, Emma is an advocate for survivors of technology-facilitated domestic abuse. Her expertise in the intersection of tech and economic abuse has equipped Emma in leading a team, who provide direct support to women and children facing these challenges. Emma manages external partnerships and stakeholders, collaborating closely with Refuge's policy and fundraising teams to generate income and foster growth within her team. Additionally, Emma plays a crucial role in shaping legislative asks to improve responses for survivors of technology-facilitated abuse, leading to more positive outcomes within the VAWG sector.
Eva Blum-Dumontet is a tech and human rights policy expert specializing on the intersection of gender and technology.
She is Head of Movement Building and Policy at Chayn, an organisation providing online resources to survivors of gender-based violence. She is currently leading on the launch of a feminist AI tool, helping survivors with content takedown requests, and promoting the use of encryption as a feminist issue.
Prior to her role at Chayn, Eva held the position of Senior Policy Adviser at the Royal Society, the UK's national academy of sciences, where she worked on the role of AI in scientific research. She also spent eight years at Privacy International as a Senior Researcher and Project Manager. Notably, her work on the data-sharing practices of menstruation apps led to significant changes in privacy protections for millions of users.
Fran Ferrier is the Economic Empowerment Partnership Manager within the Technology-Facilitated Abuse and Economic Empowerment team at Refuge. Fran works with professionals across sectors, with VAWG (Violence Against Women and Girls) services and the financial sector, to shine a light on the experiences of survivors, and bring awareness to the ways in which organisations can support survivors experiencing economic abuse. This work ranges from consultancy on policies and procedures, support with complex case work, managing partnerships and working with Refuge’s policy and communications team to push for best practice and raise awareness of economic abuse.
Fran has worked for Refuge for over 7 years and prior to that was working in safeguarding and family support within both charity and local authority settings and has a degree in Psychology. More recently Fran’s work has focussed on partnerships with some of the biggest financial providers in the UK and with regulators to push for wider change within the sector, with the goal of not only providing the best support but also finding ways to prevent current systems being misused by perpetrators of economic abuse. Fran is passionate about empowering survivors to regain control and live their lives free from this complex and devastating form of abuse.
Gareth is leading authority on financial inclusion, community finance and local welfare provision, with over 20 years’ experience. He is Co-Director of the not-for-profit Financial Inclusion Centre, and also recently sat on the HM Treasury Financial Inclusion Policy Forum.
In 2020, Gareth founded Cash Perks – a multi award-winning cash payment facility addressing the challenge of getting welfare funds to struggling households facing financial crisis. This innovative solution allows the recipient to collect their funds for free 24/7 at local ATMs nationwide – without the need for a bank card.
Hello! My name is Jay Jones, and I'm a Youth Voice and Influence Officer working at the National Youth Agency. I've been in the youth work sector for almost four years, specialising in digital youth work. I have a keen interest in digital technology and have helped many youth organisations navigate how to utilise digital within their provision.
Julio Poveda is a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at the University of Maryland. He does cybersecurity and privacy research, and he is a volunteer at Cornell University's Clinic to End Technology Abuse (CETA), where he helps survivors of intimate partner violence with their tech-related concerns. His work has been featured by the Washington Post, New Scientist magazine, Krebs on Security, WUSA9, and he has co-led digital safety trainings for multiple domestic violence advocacy groups, including the U.S. National Network to End Domestic Violence and Rights & Security International.
Larome is the Youth Tech Abuse Lead at Refuge, where she provides specialist support as well as upskill the children’s support workers and frontline staff to ensure that children, young people, and protective parents in refuges are using technology safely and positively.
She plays a key role in developing and delivering tech empowerment workshops, offering guidance on online safety, digital resilience, and emotional well-being.
Through a series of empowerment workshops, Larome supports young people to build confidence and understanding of the online world—covering everything from managing privacy settings and recognising online abuse to understanding the impact of a digital footprint. Her work also supports parents, helping them feel more confident and equipped to guide their children through the digital landscape.
Larome brings a strong background in inclusive support for minority communities, with specialist experience in the SEN, disability, and mental health sectors. Her current practice is deeply shaped by her experience mentoring vulnerable young people, working with children with care needs, and promoting trauma-informed approaches.
With a passion for safeguarding, inclusion, and the long-term impact of trauma, Larome’s work is focused on creating safer online and digital spaces. She is committed to building a generation of tech-savvy young people who are empowered to use technology positively and safely.
With a diverse background including marketing, film & television, and special needs education, Laura brings a person-centred approach to the digital space. Currently Digital Lead within the Tech Safety team at Refuge, Laura is passionate about accessibility and dedicated to ensuring that digital content is inclusive and reaches those most vulnerable, facing additional barriers. Laura’s cross-industry experience informs a deep commitment to creating safe, equitable online environments for all.
Leonie Maria Tanczer is an Associate Professor in International Security and Emerging Technologies at University College London’s (UCL) Department of Computer Science (CS) and grant holder of the prestigious UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (FLF). She is part of UCL's Information Security Research Group (ISec) and initiated and heads the “Gender and Tech” research efforts at UCL. Tanczer is also a member of the Advisory Council of the Open Rights Group (ORG), a Steering Committee member for the Offensive Cyber Working Group, and a voting member of the IEEE Working Group P2987 “Recommended Practice for Principles for Design and Operation Addressing Technology-Facilitated Inter-personal Control”. She was formerly an Association of British Science Writers (ABSW) Media Fellow at The Economist and a Fellow at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) in Berlin. Her research focuses on question related to technology, gender, and cybersecurity.
Madelaine Thomas is the founder of Image Angel, a company dedicated to combating non-consensual intimate image (NCII) abuse online. In response to the prevalence of such abuses, Image Angel developed invisible watermarking technology that embeds unique, unremovable fingerprints into images. This innovation allows platforms to trace unauthorised sharing back to the perpetrator, enhancing user safety and platform accountability. This survivor-led deterrent has been recommended as best practice by the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
Mashood Ahmad is the CEO and founder of Gigabit IQ, an award-winning UK broadband provider dedicated to delivering safer, smarter, and faster internet through fully managed Wi-Fi and industry-leading online safety tools. A recognised voice in digital inclusion and child online protection, Mashood is a Council Member at ISPA UK and a vocal advocate for stronger ISP accountability in protecting families online.
Under Mashood’s leadership, Gigabit IQ has pioneered services like FamilyGuard+, a network-level parental control solution designed to meet the real-world needs of modern families. He has spearheaded initiatives supporting vulnerable communities, including children in care, refugees, and low-income households, through fair access broadband and safety education.
Mashood is the author of the white paper “Beyond the Act: The Hidden Layer of Online Harm No One’s Regulating”, which challenges current UK online safety legislation and proposes a new national ISP Safety Rating System, akin to NCAP for cars or Ofsted for schools.
A frequent speaker on digital safety, Mashood is leading an Online Safety & ISP Accountabilitysession at the UK Internet Parliament Conference with ISPA, and continues to work with regulators, MPs, and safety groups to shape a safer digital future for all.
Prior to joining Ofcom, Melanie was Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (2015-2020) and held senior roles across the Civil Service, working in partnership across the public and private sectors.
She started her career as an economist and spent 15 years at the Treasury, including as Europe Director. She was Director General of the Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat at the Cabinet Office between 2011 and 2015, and prior to that she served on the Board of HMRC as Head of Business Tax and as a Tax Commissioner.
Melanie has held non-executive roles including with the consumer body Which?. She is a Patron of the Patchwork Foundation, which promotes the participation of under-represented young people in democracy.
Rebecca joined Secureworks in 2014, where she developed an immediate passion for cybersecurity. Rebecca quickly expanded her cyber acumen, working across a variety of roles including Business Operations and Incident Command, finally moving into her Threat Intelligence Knowledge Manager role in 2022. Rebecca is focused on the implementation of knowledge management processes and procedures for the Counter Threat Unit, the ingestion and management of threat intelligence, and its associated quality, storage and maintenance. She is also a Human Intelligence Researcher spending time on the darkweb and on underground forums, with a focus on data dumps, access brokerage and emerging threats.
Rebecca has been acknowledged in industry for her contributions, most recently winning ‘Cybersecurity Woman of the Year 2025’ at the Cybersecurity awards. She is also an active member of the cybersecurity community as a mentor, coach, public speaker, TEDx speaker and as of May 2025, author to ‘Securely Yours – An Agony Aunts Guide to Surviving Cyber’.
Sophie Inkster serves as the Technology-Facilitated Abuse Lead for Lambeth at Refuge, the UK’s largest domestic abuse charity, where she offers specialist support to survivors facing complex forms of tech-facilitated and economic abuse. With a focus on survivor-centred solutions, Sophie collaborates across policy, research, and advocacy spaces to ensure that the experiences of survivors remain central to addressing these evolving challenges.
As part of Refuge’s pioneering Technology-Facilitated Abuse and Economic Empowerment Team, Sophie plays a crucial role in advancing the fight against abuse enabled by technology. This team leads the UK’s only specialist service in this area, and recently hosted the first-ever UK Tech Safety Summit, where experts from the tech industry and other sectors gathered to explore innovative responses to this growing issue. Sophie empowers survivors to reclaim control over their lives, providing vital support during or after the abuse they’ve endured.
An advocate for inclusivity, Sophie is also the Co-Chair of Refuge’s LGBTQ+ network and works on designing training that ensures best practices in supporting LGBTQ+ survivors. She is dedicated to examining how technology-facilitated abuse disproportionately impacts marginalised communities, particularly within the LGBTQ+ community.
With an academic background in Politics and Spanish from the University of Bath and a Master’s in Human Rights from the London School of Economics, Sophie combines her extensive experience with a passion for education and advocacy. She remains committed to improving awareness around tech-facilitated abuse for both adults and young people. At this conference, Sophie will represent her team’s mission to evolve responses to domestic abuse as it continues to take new forms in an increasingly digital world.
Vicki Trapps has worked at the deaf-led charity SignHealth for over 20 years, beginning her career in mental health services. After eight years in mental health, she moved into the Domestic Abuse Team, becoming an Independent Domestic and Sexual Violence Advisor (IDSVA) and later a Team Leader, supporting deaf survivors across a wide range of complex and high-risk cases.
For the past two years, Vicki has led the Domestic Abuse service as the Service Manager, overseeing the UK’s only deaf-led domestic abuse support service. Under her leadership, the service has expanded from a small regional offer in London and Kent to a national service covering all of England - improving access to support for the UK’s estimated 87,000 BSL (British Sign Language) deaf people.
As a deaf professional with lived experience, Vicki understands the systemic barriers deaf survivors face across statutory and voluntary sectors. Her perspective shapes a practice rooted in equity, accessibility, and deaf cultural competence.
Vicki and her team are also a strong voice in the conversation around tech abuse and digital safety in the deaf community. While technology increases access, it can also be used to control, isolate or survive deaf victims in ways that often go unnoticed by mainstream services. Vicki and her team continue to push for deaf-aware tech solutions and safeguarding approaches that reflect the realities of deaf people’s lives.
Their leadership is grounded in trauma-informed, culturally competent and survivor-led practice, - always working to ensure that deaf people are not left behind in national responses to abuse.
Victoria Derbyshire is a BAFTA-award winning journalist and broadcaster. She presents the BBC’s flagship news and current affairs show Newsnight, the critically-acclaimed podcast Ukrainecast and the award-winning podcast And Then Came Breast Cancer. She’s been a journalist for almost 3 decades reporting on stories including the 9/11 attacks in New York, the Manchester Arena bombing and the Grenfell Tower fire. She has spoken openly about her own experience of domestic abuse - growing up with a violent father. During lockdown she investigated soaring rates of domestic abuse for a BBC Panorama special
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