Christopher A. Smith

Christopher Smith is an award-winning author, entrepreneur, and digital safety advocate who transformed his story of loss into one of purpose. After being the target of a life-changing cyberattack, he made it his mission to protect others from the growing threat of identity theft and digital exploitation in the age of AI.
 
He is the Founder and CEO of DFend, an AI-powered digital safety platform designed to help people protect their accounts, identity, and privacy from cybercrime. Born from his own experience as a victim of digital intrusion, DFend was built to make security personal—offering proactive monitoring and real-time defense across devices and platforms.
 
Before founding DFend, Chris launched Stitch Video, a content distribution and monetization platform that was acquired in 2023. Under his leadership, Stitch grew to more than 500 million monthly video views, partnered with over 500 global publishers, and expanded strategically into emerging markets.
 
Earlier in his career, he held senior leadership roles in business development and strategy at Civic Technologies, Turn, Collective, and Adap.TV. At Turn, he helped double global revenue to over $100 million in 18 months, launching one of the industry’s first buy-side programmatic TV platforms. At Civic, he worked to transform Web3 identity verification into practical enterprise solutions for Fortune 500 partners.
 
Chris is the award-winning author of Privacy Pandemic, recognized as a Book of the Year finalist by Foreword Reviews. He was named to Cybersecurity Magazine & Ventures’ inaugural Cybersecurity Pundit List for his advocacy around digital identity and consumer protection.
 
He believes the future of digital safety is personal, because the threat already is. Chris is based in the United States.