Babel Balsomi is part of a growing generation of African technology entrepreneurs working to strengthen the continent’s digital future through cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and digital resilience.
As an ethical hacker, AI researcher, and the Chief Executive Officer of Hiero Digital, Babel has built her work around helping organizations understand and address the vulnerabilities emerging alongside Africa’s rapid digital transformation.
Across Africa, governments, startups, financial institutions, healthcare providers, and businesses are increasingly investing in digital systems, AI technologies, fintech infrastructure, and connected public services. Yet many organizations still operate with weak cybersecurity foundations, exposing sensitive systems and data to growing risks.
This challenge sits at the center of Babel Balsomi’s work.
Since beginning operations in Côte d’Ivoire in 2022, Babel has focused on cybersecurity audits, vulnerability assessments, phishing simulations, and digital risk evaluations aimed at helping organizations strengthen their security posture before incidents occur. Through Hiero Digital, she works with businesses and institutions navigating increasingly complex digital environments while often operating with limited security awareness and outdated infrastructure.
Her work combines technical expertise with a broader understanding of how cybersecurity intersects with business continuity, digital trust, and long-term economic resilience.
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Babel is also recognized for advocating cybersecurity as a strategic necessity rather than simply a technical function. In many organizations, she believes cybersecurity is still treated as an operational cost instead of a foundational element of sustainable digital growth.
Her experience working with organizations across Côte d’Ivoire has exposed recurring vulnerabilities including outdated servers, poor network segmentation, weak backup systems, and low cybersecurity awareness among employees and business leaders. Many organizations continue handling financial, healthcare, and customer data without sufficient protections in place.
Beyond infrastructure security, Babel also focuses heavily on cybersecurity culture and awareness.
She has conducted phishing simulations within organizations where significant numbers of employees unknowingly interacted with malicious links, highlighting how human behavior often becomes one of the largest cybersecurity risks businesses face. Her work consistently emphasizes the importance of education, training, and internal awareness alongside technical protection systems.
As conversations around artificial intelligence continue expanding globally, Babel has also become increasingly involved in discussions surrounding AI-related cybersecurity risks.
She has spoken about emerging threats including prompt injection attacks, compromised training data, AI-generated malware variants, and vulnerabilities linked to autonomous AI systems. Rather than discouraging AI adoption, she advocates for secure-by-design deployment models where innovation and cybersecurity evolve simultaneously.
Alongside her entrepreneurial work, Babel is also involved in cybersecurity education and talent development.
She founded HDI, an NGO of ethical hackers focused on cybersecurity awareness, data protection, digital training, and supporting the next generation of African cybersecurity talent. Her work reflects a strong commitment not only to protecting systems, but also to strengthening the human capacity needed to support Africa’s digital future.
With more than 15 years of experience spanning cybersecurity, machine learning, and digital risk management, Babel Balsomi represents a growing movement of African innovators building locally relevant solutions to increasingly global technological challenges.
What distinguishes her journey is the balance between technical depth and practical understanding of the realities many African businesses and institutions face while adapting to rapid digital change.
At a time when African countries continue positioning themselves as emerging technology and innovation hubs, Babel’s work reflects the growing importance of building secure digital ecosystems capable of supporting sustainable growth, public trust, and long-term resilience.
Babel Balsomi’s journey reflects a new generation of African cybersecurity entrepreneurs helping shape safer digital systems across the continent, ensuring that Africa’s technological progress is matched by the security, preparedness, and resilience needed to sustain it.
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Image Credit: We Are Tech Africa
