Dr. Hristian Daskalov, speaker at CONNEXUS 2026

Cybersecurity

Dr. Hristian Daskalov

Cybersecurity Compliance Director | Chair @ DIH Trakia

Talk TopicEuropean digital identity wallets: opportunities and risks

About the speaker

Dr. Hristian Daskalov is a cybersecurity practitioner, researcher, university lecturer, and digital policy advisor with over 15 years of experience in digital transformation, open technologies, and regulatory frameworks for governance and resilience. He currently serves as Cybersecurity Compliance Director at a leading qualified trust service provider.

Previously, he co-founded the Center for Shared Science & Business (CSSB) at the Technical University of Sofia, where he piloted the application of blockchain technologies in academia. Between 2023 and 2026, he served as Chairman of the Board of Digital Innovation Hub Trakia (Cyber4AllSTAR), Bulgaria's cybersecurity EDIH, and coordinated the Hub's engagement under the pan-European CyberSec4OT and OSCRAT.EU initiatives.

In this capacity, he supported the provision of cybersecurity services to industrial SMEs across Europe and helped enable their compliance with cybersecurity regulatory frameworks, including the European Cyber Resilience Act. His work focuses on building institutional and technological resilience in digitally dependent ecosystems, with an emphasis on public-private collaboration, secure product lifecycle governance, and capacity building for cyber-aware innovation.

About the talk

Talk DescriptionEuropean digital identity wallets, which every government must give its citizens access to by the end of 2026, will let everyone in Europe securely identify themselves when accessing public and private services, and store and present digital documents such as mobile driving licences and educational certificates - all from their mobile phones. They will also improve privacy by sharing only the exact information consented to. Similar benefits will apply to European companies via the "European Business Wallet". The talk will detail both the opportunities created by these new technological solutions and the threats that need to be addressed during implementation.

Key TakeawaysEuropean digital identity wallets will create a universal, trustworthy and secure means of digital identification for all Europeans, as well as for European companies and public organizations.

Dr. Hristian Daskalov