Founder, DFend + Cybersecurity Pundit + Digital Identity & Privacy Strategist + Award-Winning Author …who had his life stolen as a digital identity theft target.
Chris Smith—like millions of others—met someone new and was in the process of planning the next steps of his life.
What he didn’t plan for was becoming a target of a sophisticated international identity theft ring.
Privacy Pandemic is both the story of Chris’s fight against the fraudsters who tried to steal his life & a guide for readers on how to stay safe in a dangerous digital world.
About Chris
An established leader with 20+ years of experience in digital identity, digital media, and SaaS, Chris knows firsthand what it is like to experience significant digital identity theft.
A tech-savvy strategist in digital media and emerging technologies, Christopher A. Smith has garnered an unparalleled reputation for launching, redeveloping, and building highly successful companies with records that consistently reflect double-digit growth. His expertise includes creating strategic global partnerships, defining go-to-market strategies, galvanizing sales, spurring product development, and leading global teams within both start-ups and global organizations.
While an executive at a cryptocurrency firm, Chris became the target of significant and life-altering digital identity theft. Fueled by this experience, Chris founded DFend—a next-generation security service for developers, enterprise security professionals, and consumers to protect their digital assets and identities. Chris’s passion and purpose is to make the digital world a safer place, reducing others’ risk of becoming victims of similar crimes. This is his driving force when defending companies and consumers with disruptive technology. Chris was born and raised in San Mateo, California, and resides in New York City. Privacy Pandemic is his first book and documents his personal experience with digital fraud.
Click here to learn more 
Sign up for the newsletter
About Privacy Pandemic
Available Now!
After mounting red flags caused him to end a relationship, Chris soon found his digital life under attack: his accounts were compromised, emails and texts were intercepted, Social Security number was stolen—they even hacked his mother’s home WiFi router.
Chris would soon learn cybercriminals had targeted him in one of the most extensive, twisted cases of digital identity theft known by experts. But unfortunately, he also discovered that he’s not alone but rather is another casualty in an Information Age plague that threatens the finances and digital safety of individuals, companies, and governments worldwide.
Privacy Pandemic is the story of Chris’s fight against the fraudsters who tried to steal his life—and who continue to attack him to this day.
Once he recovered from the shock and betrayal, he vowed to bring his attackers to justice and assembled a team of experts in the US and abroad—attorneys, digital forensics specialists, and law enforcement agents—and began relentlessly building an active case.
But this is about more than Chris’s story. It’s about everyone’s story.
As Chris discovered when he tried to hold his attackers accountable, keeping vital personal information safe in the digital age is incredibly difficult.
Privacy Pandemic is not only a firsthand account of what happens when one is targeted by sophisticated cybercriminals—it’s also a guide for readers on how to stay safe in a dangerous digital world. Chris details the companies, software, tools, and practices that give us all the best chance of preventing security breaches and their disastrous consequences.
He shares how he’s turned personal loss and hardship into professional triumph, ensuring that the power to protect personal information as much as possible is where it belongs: in the hands of consumers.
About DFend
DFend’s mission is to provide proactive tools for organizations and their users to identify cyber threats in real time. Our SaaS platform provides organizations, and consumers with early-warning signals, automated recommendations, and security policies to stop cybercrime and identity theft. We believe digital security should be easy to use, implement, and deploy at scale for all users.
Blog
Phishing is one of the most common ways hackers steal personal information and do not be fooled everyone is vulnerable to a phishing attack.
Phishing can happen when a scammer pretends to be a trusted source, like your bank or a social media platform, to trick you into giving up ... read more
Account takeovers have become more common, and make no mistake, anyone can be a target.
One day, you’re logging into your email, social media, or banking app, and the next thing you know, your details are in the hands of a hacker. How many times have you seen your family and ... read more
I’m often asked how to reduce exposure to identity theft and what steps to take to safeguard yourself and your family.
The most important advice I can offer is to start by understanding your potential exposure. It is crucial to be proactive and create a plan for yourself and ... read more
Our digital identity, the footprint we leave online, is constantly evolving. Artificial intelligence (AI) is playing a growing role in this transformation, impacting both the security and privacy of our digital selves. Let’s delve into the positive and negative ways AI is shaping our online experience.
AI: The Security Shield
AI acts as a powerful shield against online ... read more
The digital age provides a lot of convenience but at the same time threatens privacy. We enjoy being connected to the internet, but that also means we leave our digital footprints behind us. However, you do not have to worry because we have got you covered.
Here’s a roadmap to ... read more
Media
Chris is available for interviews, features, and speaking engagements. Contact us below.
In an interview, Chris can speak on the following topics and more.
- Protecting consumers against data breaches
- The current state of crypto, digital identity, and Web3
- The future of AI & cybersecurity
- His personal experience with identity theft
Contact
Contacts:
Press: Madison Kendrick at 42West 
Management: Stevie Boothe at The Boothe Group
Publisher: Amplify Publishing Group