Katerina Vardalaki is a Senior Analyst at the Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS). Originally from Crete, where she completed her BA in Sociology, and later moved to Leiden, Netherlands to acquire her MSc in Criminology and Comparative Criminal Justice. During her studies she completed her internship in Europol in the Department of Innovation. Her interests include cyber- crime, security, espionage, technological threats and intelligence. She has conducted multiple research papers on IoT, Fake News technologies, disinformation, and ransomware, and is passionate about OSINT.