Eric is a consummate professional, with a relaxed demeanor, he was the absolute hit of our event! We had a record attendance at our meeting, and due to his great presentation we have new exposure for our ISACA chapter!
Eric O'Neill
Cybersecurity Expert, Former FBI Operative Featured in the Film Breach, Bestselling Author, Technology Futurist, and National Security Strategist
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Eric O'Neill
Biography
ERIC O’NEILL—cybersecurity expert, legendary FBI operative, attorney, and founder of The Georgetown Group and Nexasure AI—works with organizations to protect themselves against cybercriminals, whose total thefts constitute the world’s third largest economy. Eric’s new book, Spies, Lies and Cybercrime: Cybersecurity Tactics to Outsmart Hackers and Disarm Scammers" was released in October 2025 by HarperCollins, to critical acclaim.
Eric is an in-demand speaker. With his lively style and stories from the dark web, Eric delivers bespoke keynotes on the rise of sinister cyberattacks, AI-generated threats, and more—including how to keep your money and your reputation safe. Engagements include Acronis, Allstate, AT&T, Bayer, Dell, FedEx, Honeywell, McKinsey, SalesForce, universities, and numerous associations from IIA to YPO.
Eric began his career in the FBI as a graduate of the FBI’s Intelligence Program. He spent the first five years as a field operative in a special surveillance group tasked to surveil and monitor foreign, national, and domestic terrorists and spies.
Eric transitioned from “ghosting” targets from the shadows to direct undercover work with a singular assignment—with little backup or support: Catch his new boss, Robert Hanssen, a 25-year veteran of the FBI, in the act of espionage with the Russians. Hanssen died in a supermax prison last year at the age of 79.
Eric’s edge-of-your seat story is featured in the dramatic thriller, Breach, starring Ryan Philippe and Laura Linney. The film is set inside the FBI, the gatekeeper of the nation’s most sensitive and potentially volatile secrets, and it reveals the story of the greatest security breach in US history. During the Hanssen investigation, Eric worked directly undercover with the spy within the FBI’s Information Assurance Division, created to protect all classified FBI intelligence. Read about it in Eric’s acclaimed book, "Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America’s First Cyber Spy" (Crown).
After serving as a national security strategist for several companies, Eric founded The Georgetown Group which has become a premier investigative and security consultancy in Washington, DC. The firm specializes in counterintelligence operations, economic espionage, cybersecurity penetrations, AI-fueled attacks, internal investigations, and security risk assessment.
Eric is also a media commentator. He and his work have been covered by CNN, C-Span, Fox, NPR, Newsweek, TechCrunch, “Fresh Air with Terry Gross,” World News Now, Access Hollywood, and more.
Eric is an honors graduate of Auburn University and George Washington University School of Law. Eric’s latest book "Spies, Lies and Cybercrime: Cybersecurity Tactics to Outsmart Hackers and Disarm Scammers" was released in October 2025 by HarperCollins to critical acclaim.
Eric O'Neill
Featured Keynote Programs
Gray Day
How I Caught the Most Damaging Spy in American History
Imagine if the FBI locked you in a room for eight hours a day with the most ruthless and damaging spy in United States history. Imagine feeling unqualified and outgunned, knowing the country depends on you to succeed despite the fact no one has provided the means to do so. Robert Hanssen was a notorious cyber spy charged with selling American secrets to Russia for more than US$1.4 million in cash and diamonds. His ability to exploit computer systems allowed him to protect his identity during a 22-year spy career. In this edge-of-the-seat spy thriller talk, Eric O’Neill shares intricate details of the investigation and shows how you can find success inside yourself by setting small goals that lead to big accomplishments until finally, through courage, confidence, and determination, victory is achieved.
Cybersecurity in the Age of Espionage
Experts predict that the cyber theft of private and confidential information from government agencies, business, and private individuals will reach $6 trillion annually by 2021. The modern spy is responsible for these sophisticated, brilliant, devious, and technologically advanced attacks targeting your data. Robert Hanssen was the first of these new cyber spies, charged with selling American secrets to Russia for more than US$1.4 million in cash and diamonds. His ability to exploit computer systems allowed him to protect his identity during a 22-year spy career. In this exciting and informative talk, Eric O’Neill uses real-life spy stories and a review of recent massive cyber-attacks to show how careful diligence, counter-espionage techniques, and restraint in social media can help identify the numerous spies, hackers, cyber criminals and trusted insiders that threaten every stroke of your keyboard.
Data Is The Currency Of Our Lives; This Is How You Protect It
In the information age, your company’s most precious asset is data. How can you keep it secure? In this lively and informative talk, cyber-security expert, author and spy hunter Eric O’Neill uses true stories informed by decades of work as an undercover operative in the FBI and security consultant to help you protect your information. Audiences will learn about the need for diligence; critical areas in physical security; phishing and email hacks; social media do’s and don’ts; how spies recruit; economic espionage; preventing the insider threat; and why it is important to hunt the threat before the threat hunts you.
Cyber Spies Are Holding Your Data Hostage; This Is How You Stop Them
Ransomware is not only the most damaging and costly cybercrime, it is a go-to tool for spies, terrorists, and attackers. Over the last three years, ransomware attacks increased 2,500 percent and security experts predict that this economic boom industry will cost $11.5 million by 2019. In this lively and entertaining talk, cyber-security expert Eric O’Neill uses humor and stories to explain why ransomware has taken the dark web by storm, why terrorists and spies are launching the largest ransomware attacks, how a single email can cause catastrophic damage and the easy steps you and your organization can take to save your data.
Eric O'Neill
Featured Books
Spies, Lies, and Cybercrime: Cybersecurity Tactics to Outsmart Hackers and Disarm Scammers
by Eric O'Neill
INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER!
National security strategist and former FBI counterintelligence operative Eric O’Neill exposes how nefarious cybercriminals relentlessly attempt to access your data and wallet, and arms you with his proven tactics for spotting and neutralizing cyberthreats to protect yourself, your family, and your business.
Cybercriminals, domestic and foreign, are launching attacks day and night using malware, phishing scams, deepfakes, artificial intelligence, and other unscrupulous schemes designed to steal your data and hold it hostage. When they win, it costs nations, businesses, and individuals trillions of dollars annually—a figure so massive that it ranks as the third largest economy in the entire world.
It’s possible to fight back, but it’ll take more than a strong password. Drawing on his years of experience as an FBI spy hunter and national security strategist, Eric O’Neill casts light on these malicious actors’ tactics for stealing personal data and exploiting victims. Armed with this knowledge, O’Neill shares his method—called PAID—that you can use to defend yourself and stop attackers in their tracks:
- Prepare: Pinpoint your most critical data, identify where it resides and who can access it, and build your defenses around it.
- Assess: Continuously reassess your security and apply counterintelligence tactics to identify scams and cyberattacks..
- Investigate: Stay educated andhunt the threat before the threat hunts you.
- Decide: Using your new aptitude, make smart, rapid decisions under pressure..
Written by a top expert in the field and with the page-turning readability of a true crime thriller, Spies, Lies, and Cybercrime offers easy-to-follow steps for staving off cyberattacks, securing data, and keeping private information safe in an increasingly digital and dizzying world.
Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America's First Cyber Spy
by Eric O'Neill
A cybersecurity expert and former FBI “ghost” tells the thrilling story of how he helped take down notorious FBI mole Robert Hanssen, the first Russian cyber spy.
“Both a real-life, tension-packed thriller and a persuasive argument for traditional intelligence work in the information age.”—Bruce Schneier, New York Times bestselling author of Data and Goliath and Click Here to Kill Everybody
Eric O’Neill was only twenty-six when he was tapped for the case of a lifetime: a one-on-one undercover investigation of the FBI’s top target, a man suspected of spying for the Russians for nearly two decades, giving up nuclear secrets, compromising intelligence, and betraying US assets. With zero training in face-to-face investigation, O’Neill found himself in a windowless, high-security office in the newly formed Information Assurance Section, tasked officially with helping the FBI secure its outdated computer system against hackers and spies—and unofficially with collecting evidence against his new boss, Robert Hanssen, an exacting and rage-prone veteran agent with a fondness for handguns. In the months that follow, O’Neill’s self-esteem and young marriage unravel under the pressure of life in Room 9930, and he questions the very purpose of his mission. But as Hanssen outmaneuvers an intelligence community struggling to keep up with the new reality of cybersecurity, he also teaches O’Neill the game of spycraft. The student will just have to learn to outplay his teacher if he wants to win.
A tension-packed stew of power, paranoia, and psychological manipulation, Gray Day is also a cautionary tale of how the United States allowed Russia to become dominant in cyberespionage—and how we might begin to catch up.
“Both a real-life, tension-packed thriller and a persuasive argument for traditional intelligence work in the information age.”—Bruce Schneier, New York Times bestselling author of Data and Goliath and Click Here to Kill Everybody
Eric O’Neill was only twenty-six when he was tapped for the case of a lifetime: a one-on-one undercover investigation of the FBI’s top target, a man suspected of spying for the Russians for nearly two decades, giving up nuclear secrets, compromising intelligence, and betraying US assets. With zero training in face-to-face investigation, O’Neill found himself in a windowless, high-security office in the newly formed Information Assurance Section, tasked officially with helping the FBI secure its outdated computer system against hackers and spies—and unofficially with collecting evidence against his new boss, Robert Hanssen, an exacting and rage-prone veteran agent with a fondness for handguns. In the months that follow, O’Neill’s self-esteem and young marriage unravel under the pressure of life in Room 9930, and he questions the very purpose of his mission. But as Hanssen outmaneuvers an intelligence community struggling to keep up with the new reality of cybersecurity, he also teaches O’Neill the game of spycraft. The student will just have to learn to outplay his teacher if he wants to win.
A tension-packed stew of power, paranoia, and psychological manipulation, Gray Day is also a cautionary tale of how the United States allowed Russia to become dominant in cyberespionage—and how we might begin to catch up.
Eric O'Neill
Featured Reviews
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