Pavlina Pavlova is a policy expert in international cybersecurity and transnational cybercrime. She founded Critical Cyber, a global initiative that centers the voices of cybercrime victims and responders to expose the harm caused by cyberattacks in vital sectors and translates frontline evidence into accountable policy.

Pavlova has worked across civil society and national, regional, and international institutions, including the United Nations (UN), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the European Parliament. She has led stakeholder engagement in UN negotiations on responsible state behavior in cyberspace and on the Convention against Cybercrime and coordinates the Cybercrime Working Group at the Alliance of NGOs on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice to advance the participation of civil society, the technology sector, and academic institutions in treaty implementation and capacity building.

Her research focus is on governance frameworks responding to technology-related risks. She was a fellow at New America and the Internet Society and a research awardee at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research has been presented at institutions such as the Yale MacMillan Center, Harvard Kennedy School, Stanford Internet Observatory, the Hertie School, Leiden University, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the US Military Academy at West Point and the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats.