Kevin Poulsen: Cybersecurity Speaker
Kevin Poulsen brings rare insider expertise on cybersecurity, hacking, and digital risk, helping leaders navigate today’s evolving threats with clarity, context, and real-world insight.
Quick Facts:
- Former hacker turned leading cybersecurity journalist and bestselling author.
- Broke national stories on hospital breaches, nuclear plant vulnerabilities, and government device intrusions.
- Former editorial director at SecurityFocus and major contributor to WIRED’s cybersecurity reporting.
- One of the first hackers to receive the maximum US penalty for computer fraud.
- Formats:
- Keynote Speaker | Cybersecurity Expert
- Audiences:
- Executives, technology leaders, cybersecurity professionals, government agencies, educators, compliance teams, media organizations, and audiences interested in the future of technology and digital security.
- Outcomes:
- Gain insight into the evolving world of cybercrime and digital threats.
- Understand how technology impacts business, privacy, and society.
- Learn practical strategies for navigating risk in a rapidly changing digital environment.
- Travels from: San Francisco, CA
- **US Fee range: $10,001 - $20,000
Talent Services
Keynote Topics:
Kingpin: Privacy, Crime and Security Online
If anyone knows the inner workings of internet security systems, it is Kevin Poulsen. This former hacker and cyber crime expert is now a respected journalist working as the senior editor at Wired.com. Audiences will learn from his first-hand experience what cyber criminals will do to steal your privacy and corrupt your online security. Poulsen outlines the various security vulnerabilities that could exist in your company, and what you need to do to improve your IT systems.
Talent Short Bio
Kevin Poulsen is a renowned cybersecurity expert, investigative journalist, bestselling author, and keynote speaker recognized for his unique perspective on cybercrime, technology, and digital security. With a career spanning both sides of the cybersecurity landscape, Kevin offers audiences rare insights into how technology influences society, business, law enforcement, and global security.
Known for his early notoriety as a hacker in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Kevin later transformed his deep technical knowledge into an award-winning journalism career. Following his conviction for computer fraud and subsequent rehabilitation, he became one of the technology industry’s most respected investigative reporters, covering cybersecurity, cybercrime, surveillance, privacy, and emerging technologies.
Kevin’s work has appeared in leading publications, including WIRED, where he built a reputation for uncovering complex stories involving hacking, digital investigations, and national security. His reporting has contributed to criminal investigations, exposed cybercriminal activity, and helped shape public understanding of the evolving digital landscape.
Talent Videos
Kevin Poulsen at Stanford Center for Internet and Society: Cybersecurity, Hacking Evolution, and Digital Risk
A sixty-eight minute Stanford presentation where Kevin Poulsen explores the evolution of hacking, critical vulnerabilities, and the societal impact of digital security failures.
Video Summary & Key Moments
This sixty-eight minute talk from the Stanford Center for Internet and Society features Kevin Poulsen delivering an in-depth, highly contextual examination of hacking culture, cybercrime evolution, and the investigative work that shaped his career as a cybersecurity journalist. Drawing from his own past as a high-profile hacker and later as a leading investigative reporter, Kevin explains how early phone-phreaking techniques foreshadowed today’s wide-ranging digital threats, highlighting the human motivations and technical ingenuity that drive cyber incidents.
He provides a detailed look at several landmark cases he has reported on, including hospital breaches, wireless network vulnerabilities, and government device intrusions. These stories illuminate how attackers exploit oversight, outdated systems, and simple human error. Kevin emphasizes that while technology evolves rapidly, many of the vulnerabilities stem from predictable patterns of behavior—both from attackers and the organizations attempting to defend against them.
The presentation also explores the journalistic responsibilities involved in covering cybersecurity events. Kevin discusses how he verifies information, works with victims and authorities, and evaluates the ethical boundaries of reporting on sensitive digital incidents. He shares his investigative process, offering a behind-the-scenes look at uncovering stories that later became national headlines.
Key Moments
00:00–10:30 Overview of Kevin’s background, early hacking culture, and how phone-phreaking shaped modern cybercrime.
10:30–25:00 Exploration of landmark investigations, including hospital breaches and vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure.
25:00–40:00 Discussion of digital risk, attacker psychology, and how organizations typically fail to anticipate evolving threats.
40:00–55:00 Explanation of Kevin’s investigative methods, journalistic ethics, and reporting on high-impact cybersecurity cases.
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Fee Range Information
All talent fees exclude travel and accommodation where required.