She was born in 1956 graduated in mathematics in 1979, and specialized in Computing in 1982. Since 1984 she has worked for the CNR,  at the end of 1986 she moved to CNUCE CNR in Pisa, where she started to be involved in networking activities. Her main activity has been the support in the process of interaction between the Research networks and the Internet in Italy. From the outset she has participated in projects introducing the Internet in Italy, collaborating, within the GARR Italian Academic and Research Network framework, in the establishment of research networks and the development of the information society. In 1986 she became the EARN (European Academic Research Network) country coordinator for Italy. From 1992 to 1996 she managed the GARR link to CNUCE, the central node of the main national and international network infrastructures. For 1993 to 2002 she managed the CNR technical and scientific organizations dedicated to the management and development of telematic networks, such as the Research Network Infrastructure Department, which later became the Telematic Applications Department of CNUCE, and the Computing Communication and Information Security Department for the Institute for Telematic Applications. Beyond the purely physical aspects of the transmission network, she was responsible for the development, management and security of services to the end user, as well as for handling problems associated with the development of communication procedures.
Laura Abba was involved in the TLD.it Registration Authority between 1992 and 2001, and has been a member of the Naming Authority since its inception as the GARR-ITA-PE Group.
Within the scope of Web Technologies, she coordinates technical planning for the development of the CNR web site; for the development and consolidation of the XML standard, she set up, with others, the Italian XML Group.
As a member of the RTRT (Telematic Network for the Tuscany Region) Strategic Management, she contributed to the drafting of Tuscany Regional Law no. 1 of 26 January 2004, the first law in Italy to clarify, by means of a statement of principles, what is meant by the information society, and to define, through the proposed organization of the RTRT, the operational context of network governance.
She was responsible for implementation of the first Internet TCP-IP course at the Sant'Anna School at Pisa in October 1991, under the title "Networks for scientific research, protocols and TCP/IP applications", and since then has continuously worked for the dissemination of the Internet culture and technologies (training, conventions, editorials).
Since 2003 she is a member of the Board of ISOC Italy, the Italian Chapter of Internet Society. She is a member of a group of experts on Internet governance, nominated by the Minister for Innovation and Public Administration. She is a member of the promoting committee of IGF Italy. She participated, since the beginning, in Internet Governance Forum's promoted by the United Nations.
Recently she realized a publication to promote Internet governance as an interdisciplinary research field within CNR; the scope includes establishing links with academic groups and international activities on the subject, with specific attention to the “Internet of the future” project launched by the European Commission. 
[Pisa, Jun 2009]