Eric O'Neill Keynote Speaker

Legendary FBI operative, lawyer, founder of top security firm
FBI “ghost” who brought down the nation’s first cyberspy
Author, The Invisible Threat

Eric O'Neill's Biography

Eric O’Neill is an author, attorney, security consultant, and professional public speaker. In 2001, Eric helped capture the most notorious spy in United States history: Robert Hanssen, a 25-year veteran of the FBI. The remarkable true events of Eric’s life inspired the critically acclaimed dramatic thriller Breach, starring Ryan Phillippe as O’Neill. The film tells the story of the greatest security breach in U.S. history.

Eric began his career in the FBI as a “Ghost”—an undercover field operative tasked with surveilling and monitoring foreign, national, and domestic terrorists and spies. During the Hanssen investigation, Eric worked directly undercover with the spy inside the FBI’s Information Assurance Division, which was created to protect all classified FBI intelligence.

Today, Eric runs The Georgetown Group, a premier investigative and security consultancy based in Washington, D.C. He also serves as National Security Strategist for Carbon Black, a leader in next-generation endpoint protection. Eric is the author of Gray Day, the gripping account of how he helped take down notorious FBI mole Robert Hanssen, the first Russian cyber spy.

A compelling motivational speaker, Eric weaves real-life experiences into presentations that are both entertaining and impactful, providing practical insights relevant across a wide range of industries.

Cybersecurity: Spies, Lies, Cybercrime, and You

Dive headfirst into the battleground where foreign spies, deepfakes, and Dark Web criminals conspire to steal from you. Today’s adversaries are relentless and cunning, exploiting every vulnerability and deploying an arsenal of generative AI bots and bandits.

As we hurtle toward the future, cybertheft is projected to take over $20 trillion USD from organizations just like yours.

Join cybersecurity expert and legendary FBI spy hunter Eric O’Neill in this unexpected presentation. Through fresh, real-world stories that read like a thriller, Eric teaches audiences how to think like a spy catcher—and win.

Secrets from a Legendary Spyhunter: Decoding AI Deepfakes, Extortion & More

AI-generated voices, texts, and images now pose a grave threat—not only to national security, but to individuals and organizations everywhere. The latest jaw-dropping cases include kidnapping scams where parents hear what sounds like their child’s desperate cries for help, elaborate video conferences that trick teams into funding fake projects, and ransomware attacks in which cyber-extortionists hold critical data hostage.

In a world where technology increasingly drives our lives, the risks are growing more personal, more sophisticated, and more difficult to detect. Protecting yourself and your organization now requires a new level of awareness and action.