For a few moments, a serious chat with Bevan Smith descends into silliness when we imagine his fridge going rogue. You think it’s just going to order more milk when supplies run low, but, instead, it orders beer and wine and starts a party with the dishwasher.

Figuring out how inanimate objects can be made to transact securely over the Internet of Things (IoT) is part of Smith’s job as the head of Risk for Visa Sub-Saharan Africa. He helps to keep payment systems secure across 50 countries, largely by predicting and preparing for different types of fraud that ever-inventive criminals devise.