Dr. Paul de Souza is the founder of the Cyber Security Forum Initiative (CSFI). Dr. de Souza has over 20 years of cybersecurity experience. He is faculty at George Washington University and has worked as the Chief Security Engineer for AT&T, where he designed and approved secure networks for MSS (Managed Security Services). Dr. de Souza also worked as a security engineer for Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) and U.S. Robotics. He has consulted for several governments, military organizations, and private institutions across the globe. He served as a Federal Director of Training and Education for Norman Data Defense Systems.

Dr. de Souza serves as a CENTRIC (Centre of Excellence in Terrorism, Resilience, Intelligence & Organized Crime Research) Visiting Researcher at Sheffield Hallam University, U.K., and as a Guest Lecturer at the Swedish Defence University (SEDU) Försvarshögskolanand; former Institute of World Politics Board of Advisors for the Cyber Intelligence Initiative (Ci2) in Washington, D.C.; and served as an Advisor for the MCPA (Military Cyber Professionals Association). He is a Cyber SME NATO Instructor and an Order of Thor Medal recipient.

He is a Negev Hi-Tech Faculty Startup Accelerator Advisor for Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, and an Advisory Board member at IntellCorp (Lisbon, Portugal – Counter-Terrorism/Counter-Intelligence/Cyber). He has been a Visiting Research Fellow at the National Security Studies, Tel Aviv University, Israel (INSS) – Cyber Security and Military & Strategic Affairs Programs. He has completed the Executive Program in Counter-Terrorism Studies from the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya in Israel. He is also a Cybersecurity Exec Ed alum at Harvard Kennedy School. He serves as an American Public University Ambassador, a Cybersecurity Programs Advisory Board Member at Capitol Technology University, a Cybersecurity Advisory Committee member for the Cybersecurity Risk Management Master's program at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., a Professor of Cyber Threat Intelligence at The University of Georgia, Tbilisi, and an Executive in Residence at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP), Geneva, Switzerland (CTI Information Sharing Policy Project Lead). Cyber Warfare Documentary Research Advisor for the documentary "Dawn of Cyber Warfare."

Dr. de Souza has a master's degree in National Security Studies (M.A.) with a concentration in Terrorism from American Military University, West Virginia, and a Ph.D. in Critical Infrastructure from Capitol Technology University, Maryland.