35 Leading Keynote Speakers Globally on Cybersecurity

The most important thing a cybersecurity keynote speaker can do in 2026 is not explain the latest ransomware variant. It is not reveal how many attacks happen per second or walk your audience through a flowchart of your organisation's attack surface. The most important thing a cybersecurity keynote speaker can do is change the way your people think, behave, and relate to security in their daily work. Because the uncomfortable truth that every serious security professional now understands is this: technology is not the problem. People are. And people are also the solution.

According to IBM's Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025, the global average cost of a data breach reached US$4.88 million, a 10% increase from the year before and the highest on record. Verizon's 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report found that 68% of breaches still involved a human element, whether through phishing, credential theft, or social engineering. The technology to prevent most attacks exists. What most organisations lack is a culture where every person treats security as their personal responsibility rather than someone else's job.

That is where a great cybersecurity keynote comes in. The right speaker does not just educate your audience about threats. They shift your organisation's relationship with security at a cultural level. They make the abstract concrete, the complex accessible, and the urgent personal. They send your team back to their desks thinking and behaving differently.

This directory brings together 35 of the most credible, experienced, and sought-after cybersecurity keynote speakers in the world for 2026. The list spans former government intelligence officers, ethical hackers, cyberpsychologists, policy architects, investigative journalists, security culture advocates, and governance specialists from across every region of the globe. Whether you are planning a corporate summit for 3,000 executives, a healthcare industry conference, a government security briefing, or an association event for security professionals, this is the most comprehensive starting point available.

For organisations whose teams need help navigating the leadership and people challenges that sit underneath every security programme, Jonno White, bestselling author of Step Up or Step Out and Certified Working Genius Facilitator, delivers keynotes and workshops that help leadership teams build the cultures, communication habits, and accountability frameworks that make security transformation possible. To book Jonno for your next event, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Why Cybersecurity Keynotes Matter More Than Ever

For decades, cybersecurity was treated as a technical problem to be solved by technical people. The CISO sat in the basement and reported to the CTO. Security awareness training was a compliance checkbox. And most employees believed that if they were careful with email, they were doing their part.

That model is finished. Today, cyberattacks target the human layer as deliberately and systematically as they target the technical layer. Nation-state actors invest in social engineering with the same rigour they invest in code. Ransomware gangs study your organisational culture before they deploy their payload. The World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report 2025 identified cybersecurity failure as one of the top five global risks over both a one-year and ten-year horizon, marking the first time it appeared in that position for two consecutive reporting periods.

The financial stakes are matched by the reputational and operational stakes. Healthcare organisations that experience a cyber incident face an average recovery time of 110 days according to the 2025 Ponemon Institute Cyber Resilience Report. Manufacturers face average operational downtime costs of over US$200,000 per hour in the event of a ransomware attack on operational technology. Governments face the erosion of public trust that cannot be easily quantified but takes years to rebuild.

Against this backdrop, the role of the cybersecurity keynote speaker has become genuinely strategic. The best speakers create moments of cultural inflection that no internal communication campaign can replicate. They give your leadership team permission to prioritise security spending by making the risk emotionally vivid rather than statistically abstract. They give your frontline employees frameworks for security behaviour that stick because they are built on psychology, not compliance mandates.

If your organisation wants to build a keynote programme that turns passive awareness into active security culture, Jonno White, author of Step Up or Step Out with over 10,000 copies sold globally and host of The Leadership Conversations Podcast, runs workshops and executive offsites that translate the principles from your keynote into lasting team behaviour. Email jonno@consultclarity.org to discuss your next event.

For more on finding the right speakers for your technology conferences, read my post "35 Best Keynote Speakers on AI and Team Dynamics" at https://www.consultclarity.org/post/keynote-speakers-ai-team-dynamics.

How This List Was Compiled

This list was built through a multi-source research process drawing on the speaker rosters of more than a dozen major cybersecurity conferences, including the RSA Conference, Black Hat, DEF CON, Infosecurity Europe, and the SANS Institute events. We analysed speaker bureau rosters from leading global and specialist cybersecurity agencies, reviewed the speaker lineups of events including Cyber Week, the FIRST Annual Conference, and the Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit.

Every person on this list was assessed against five standards. First, genuine credentials in the cybersecurity field, meaning formal expertise, not adjacency. Second, demonstrated impact on how organisations think about and practise security, through keynotes, publications, research, advocacy, or institutional leadership. Third, geographic and disciplinary diversity, to ensure the list represents the full range of perspectives, regions, and cybersecurity disciplines available in the global speaking market. Fourth, ability to engage a non-technical audience, because most cybersecurity events include a significant proportion of business, leadership, and non-technical delegates who need ideas they can act on, not terminology they need to decode. Fifth, currency of contribution, meaning the person is actively contributing to cybersecurity thought leadership today, not resting on credentials from a previous decade.

The list is organised into six thematic categories, each addressing a distinct audience need and cybersecurity perspective.

Category One: Human Factors and Security Culture

The fastest growing segment of the cybersecurity keynote market is speakers who address the psychological, behavioural, and cultural dimensions of security. These voices have shaped how organisations think about the human layer of their security programme.

1. Jessica Barker MBE

One of the most rigorously credentialled and genuinely influential voices in the world on the human side of cybersecurity, Dr. Jessica Barker is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Cygenta, the UK-based consultancy she co-built around the intersection of cybersecurity, psychology, and sociology. She has been named one of the top 20 most influential women in cybersecurity in the UK and was awarded an MBE for services to cybersecurity by King Charles III in 2023. Her keynotes challenge the fear-based approach to security awareness and replace it with frameworks built on empathy, empowerment, and evidence-based behaviour change.

Jessica is the author of two bestselling books, Confident Cyber Security and Hacked: The Secrets Behind Cyber Attacks, both published by Kogan Page. She has delivered keynotes to over 80,000 people across more than 90 engagements including NATO, the World Government Summit, and the RSA Conference. Her work on the UK Government Cyber Security Advisory Board gives her a rare combination of frontline practitioner experience and systemic policy influence that translates into genuinely distinctive keynote content. She is among the most booked human-factors cybersecurity speakers in the world for a very straightforward reason: the work she presents is unlike anything else available on the market.

2. Perry Carpenter

Perry Carpenter is Chief Human Risk Management Strategist at KnowBe4, the world's largest security awareness training company, and one of the most energetic and practically-grounded voices in the security culture movement. He has spent more than a decade working at the intersection of cognitive science, behavioural economics, and enterprise security, translating academic research on persuasion and habit formation into frameworks that security teams can actually deploy. His work reframes security awareness from a compliance exercise into a genuine behaviour change challenge.

Perry is the author of Transformational Security Awareness and The Security Culture Playbook, the latter co-authored with Kai Roer. His podcast 8th Layer Insights has become one of the most respected resources for security culture professionals globally. His keynotes are known for their combination of storytelling depth, intellectual rigour, and immediately applicable tools, making him one of the most valuable choices for organisations that want to leave an event with a tangible plan for transforming their security culture. Contact via KnowBe4.

3. Mary Aiken

Professor Mary Aiken is the Chair of the Department of Cyberpsychology at Capitol Technology University and one of the world's foremost authorities on the psychological impact of technology on human behaviour. She coined the term cyberpsychology and has advised Europol, the Council of Europe, the FBI, and the White House on matters relating to online safety, digital trust, and the human vulnerabilities that cybercriminals exploit. Her book The Cyber Effect brought her research to a mainstream global audience.

Her keynotes operate at the intersection of neuroscience, clinical psychology, and digital security, helping audiences understand why humans behave the way they do online and what security programmes can do to work with rather than against human psychology. She is particularly powerful for healthcare, education, and government audiences where the intersection of human vulnerability and institutional digital risk is most acute. Her academic rigour combined with her real-world advisory experience makes her one of the most distinctive voices on this list. Contact via Champions Speakers and other major bureaus.

4. Monica Verma

Monica Verma is a Norway-based cybersecurity leader, keynote speaker, and strategic advisor whose work focuses specifically on the intersection of artificial intelligence, cyber risk management, and leadership capability. She is one of the most internationally active European voices on what organisations actually need to do to reduce their vulnerability to AI-driven cyber threats, moving beyond generic awareness to concrete risk reduction strategies for boards and senior teams.

Monica speaks across Europe and internationally on building resilient security programmes that account for the human dimension of AI-driven risk. Her keynotes are known for their practical immediacy and their ability to make complex risk management frameworks accessible to non-technical leadership audiences. She is a sought-after voice for organisations that need a speaker who bridges the technical and leadership communities without compromising either audience. Contact via her professional website.

5. Shira Rubinoff

Shira Rubinoff is a New York-based cybersecurity executive, global keynote speaker, and advisor who has founded two cybersecurity product companies and has become one of the most recognised voices connecting cybersecurity with human behaviour, leadership, and the role of diversity in building stronger security teams. She is a contributor to Forbes, CNBC, and multiple industry publications, and her keynotes weave together the technical dimensions of security with the human and cultural dimensions that determine whether security investments actually work.

Shira has been recognised as one of New Jersey's Best 50 Women in Business and received the Woman of Influence award from CSO Magazine. Her YouTube channel has over 233,000 subscribers, reflecting a breadth of reach that extends well beyond traditional conference audiences. Her keynotes address the critical intersection of human behaviour, leadership mindset, and organisational security culture, making her particularly effective for corporate and leadership conference audiences who need both strategic and practical content. Contact via SpeakersGroup and other bureaus.

Category Two: Former Intelligence and Law Enforcement

No other segment of the cybersecurity keynote market generates the same level of immediate credibility and audience engagement as former intelligence and law enforcement professionals. These voices have operated at the highest levels of state security and bring an operational authenticity that no amount of technical expertise can replicate.

6. Eric O'Neill

A legend in the intelligence community, Eric O'Neill is a former FBI counterterrorism and counterintelligence operative whose undercover assignment to capture Robert Hanssen, then the most damaging spy in US intelligence history, was dramatised in the 2007 film Breach. His keynotes draw on that extraordinary operational experience to help organisations understand the human dimensions of cyber espionage and insider threat. He is a national security strategist and author whose work now focuses on helping corporate audiences understand the difference between technical security and human security.

His book Gray Day provides an account of the Hanssen operation that has become required reading in intelligence and security circles. His keynotes are among the most genuinely gripping in the cybersecurity world, combining true-crime storytelling with practical frameworks for insider threat detection and proactive security culture. He is represented by BigSpeak and other major bureaus.

7. Theresa Payton

Theresa Payton served as the first female White House Chief Information Officer under President George W. Bush and is now CEO of Fortalice Solutions, one of the leading cybersecurity advisory firms in the United States. Her keynotes address AI-driven cyber risk, digital trust, privacy governance, and the governance frameworks that organisations need to deploy technology responsibly. She is one of the most authoritative voices in the world on what cybersecurity leadership looks like at the very highest levels of institutional responsibility.

Theresa is a bestselling author of Manipulated and Protect Your Child in the Digital World, a regular media commentator, and a former panellist on the CBS reality show Hunted USA. Her ability to translate high-level national security experience into actionable corporate guidance makes her one of the most in-demand women in the cybersecurity keynote space globally. Contact via Fortalice Solutions and major speaker bureaus.

8. Cynthia Kaiser

Cynthia Kaiser is a former Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI Cyber Division who most recently serves as a ransomware research leader at Halcyon. She was a featured keynote speaker at Infosecurity Europe 2026, where she delivered an insider perspective on the cybercriminal economy based on her years investigating sophisticated cybercrime operations at the FBI. Her focus on ransomware, the dark web ecosystem, and how understanding criminal incentive structures can help organisations build more effective defences represents a distinctive and highly practical angle on cybersecurity.

Her keynotes combine genuine law enforcement authority with the operational knowledge of someone who has investigated and disrupted some of the world's most consequential ransomware campaigns. She is particularly valuable for CISO-level and security operations audiences who want to understand how attackers think, plan, and operate before they strike. Contact via Halcyon and conference booking channels.

9. Tyler Cohen Wood

Tyler Cohen Wood is a former senior officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency and served as Director of Cyber Risk Management at AT&T. She specialises in intelligence-driven cybersecurity, threat forecasting, and the intersection of nation-state tactics and commercial cyber threat. Her keynotes reveal how intelligence techniques developed for national security environments translate into corporate threat intelligence strategies, helping organisations anticipate and prepare for attacks before they occur rather than after.

Her experience across government and private sector environments gives her a rare capacity to translate the most sensitive dimensions of national security strategy into actionable corporate guidance. She is a regular media commentator on cybersecurity issues and is represented by GDA Speakers and other bureaus. Her keynotes are particularly powerful for critical infrastructure, financial services, and defence sector audiences.

10. Stacy Arruda

Stacy Arruda is a retired FBI Special Agent who held a range of operational and leadership roles at the FBI over a 22-year career, including work on cybersecurity investigations and drafting the FBI's response to electronic attack in the international arena. She is credited with boosting the FBI's computer crime and cybersecurity investigative capabilities during a critical period of threat evolution. Her keynotes bring the credibility of someone who helped build the FBI's cybercrime response infrastructure during the years when digital threats were transforming from curiosity to crisis.

Her ability to speak to the institutional and procedural dimensions of cybersecurity investigation, combined with the storytelling that comes from two decades of operational experience, makes her one of the most credible voices available for government, healthcare, and critical infrastructure audiences. She is represented by GDA Speakers and delivers for both corporate and government conference audiences.

Category Three: Technical Researchers and Ethical Hackers

These voices come from the frontlines of actual cyber threat research and ethical security testing. They understand attacks from the inside and translate that knowledge into defences that organisations can actually build.

11. Mikko Hypponen

Few names command more respect in global cybersecurity than Mikko Hypponen, now Chief Research Officer at Sensofusion, the Finnish anti-drone technology company he joined in June 2025 following a 34-year tenure at WithSecure. He has tracked the world's most dangerous malware campaigns over three decades, including landmark investigations into Stuxnet, the world's first publicly known cyberweapon, and the WannaCry ransomware attack. He is a regular Davos and TED speaker whose keynotes trace the evolution of digital threats from the earliest computer viruses to today's AI-powered cyberweapons.

Mikko is the author of If It's Smart, It's Vulnerable, published in 2022, which has become one of the most referenced books on the expanding attack surface created by the Internet of Things. He delivered the opening keynote at Black Hat USA 2025, the most prestigious single keynote in the global cybersecurity calendar. His ability to make the most complex and frightening aspects of the threat landscape comprehensible to non-technical audiences is extraordinary. He is represented by major bureaus including Aurum Bureau and the Finnish Speaker Agency.

12. Keren Elazari

Known internationally as "Keren the Friendly Hacker," Keren Elazari is a Tel Aviv-based cybersecurity analyst, researcher, and TED speaker who has spent more than two decades studying hackers and what they reveal about the weaknesses of our digital infrastructure. Her 2014 TED talk, "Hackers: The Internet's Immune System," was voted one of TED's most powerful ideas of that year and remains one of the most widely shared cybersecurity presentations in history. She is a researcher at Tel Aviv University's Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Centre and a regular keynote speaker at major global security events including RSA, DEF CON, and Black Hat.

Keren's central argument, that ethical hackers and security researchers play an essential role in making the internet stronger, has helped shift organisational attitudes toward responsible disclosure, bug bounty programmes, and hacker collaboration. Her keynotes combine deep technical knowledge with a distinctive storytelling gift that makes her genuinely captivating for both technical and executive audiences. She is represented by Champions Speakers and multiple bureaus globally.

13. Brian Krebs

Brian Krebs is the founder of KrebsOnSecurity.com, one of the most read and respected cybercrime investigation blogs in the world, and the author of Spam Nation: The Inside Story of Organized Cybercrime from Global Epidemic to Your Front Door, a New York Times bestseller. A former Washington Post reporter who shifted to independent journalism after personally becoming the target of a sophisticated cyberattack, Krebs has since built a reputation as the world's most prolific investigator of data breaches, cybercriminal operations, and the dark web ecosystems that enable them.

His keynotes translate years of frontline cybercrime investigation into the most up-to-date, practically grounded intelligence available to any corporate audience. He was named Cybersecurity Person of the Year by CISO MAG. His sessions are particularly powerful for financial services, retail, and healthcare audiences who need to understand the criminal business models behind the attacks targeting their industries. Contact via Executive Speakers Bureau and major bureaus.

14. Graham Cluley

Graham Cluley is an award-winning British cybersecurity researcher, blogger, and public speaker who has been working in the industry since the early 1990s. He is the host of the Smashing Security podcast, one of the most respected and highly produced cybersecurity podcasts in the English-speaking world. He brings three decades of malware research, threat analysis, and security communication experience to his keynotes, which are known for making complex security topics accessible and even entertaining without sacrificing technical accuracy.

Graham is consistently named as one of the most respected independent voices in the global cybersecurity community. His ability to explain security threats and solutions without jargon or alarmism makes him particularly effective for general corporate audiences and organisations whose leadership teams have limited technical backgrounds. Contact via his website and speaking platforms.

15. Violet Blue

Violet Blue is a six-time award-winning investigative journalist and author specialising in cybersecurity, privacy, and digital safety. Her work has appeared in WIRED, Engadget, the Financial Times, CNN, CBS News, and the San Francisco Chronicle. She was selected as a keynote speaker at Black Hat Asia 2026, where she addressed the fracturing global consensus on data privacy and the implications of divergent regulatory approaches across the Asia-Pacific region. Her work examining how privacy-first frameworks are being redefined by activists, scholars, and researchers makes her a distinctive and genuinely original voice in the keynote market.

Her particular expertise in the intersection of privacy policy, digital sovereignty, and cybersecurity makes her one of the most valuable choices for events focused on data governance, digital rights, or the Asia-Pacific regulatory landscape. She is particularly effective for audiences in technology, media, legal, and policy sectors who need depth and rigour alongside accessibility. Contact via Black Hat conference channels and her professional platform.

Category Four: Policy, Governance, and National Security

Cybersecurity no longer sits at the intersection of IT and risk. It sits at the intersection of geopolitics, national security, international law, and democratic governance. These voices bring the institutional and policy perspectives that no technical speaker can provide.

16. Ciaran Martin CB

Ciaran Martin is the founding CEO of the UK's National Cyber Security Centre, the government body he built within GCHQ between 2016 and 2020 and which became one of the most respected and effective national cybersecurity agencies in the world. He is now a Professor at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford, where he researches and teaches on cyber policy, digital regulation, and the governance of critical national infrastructure. He was awarded a CB in the Queen's Birthday Honours in recognition of his service.

His keynotes draw on the experience of building a national cyber defence capability from the ground up and managing some of the most significant national cyber incidents in UK history. He is particularly valuable for professional associations, government bodies, and regulated industry conferences whose audiences need to understand how national security considerations translate into organisational risk management decisions. Contact via London Speaker Bureau and selected bureaus.

17. Jen Easterly

Jen Easterly is the CEO of RSAC, the organisation behind the world's largest and most influential cybersecurity conference, having previously served as Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency under President Biden from 2021 to January 2025. At CISA she led the agency through some of the most significant cyber incidents of the modern era and built one of the most ambitious public-private cybersecurity partnership frameworks ever attempted. Her leadership of RSAC 2026, including her keynote conversation with former New Zealand Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern, has positioned her as one of the most influential convening voices in the global cybersecurity community.

Her experience across US Army intelligence, the NSC, and CISA gives her a breadth of national security perspective that is unmatched in the corporate keynote market. She brings the practical and policy authority of someone who has both shaped national cyber strategy and stood in the breach during actual major incidents. Contact via RSAC and major speaker bureaus.

18. Michael Daniel

Michael Daniel served as Cybersecurity Coordinator in the Obama White House, where he chaired the interagency process on cybersecurity policy and led the development of national cybersecurity strategies. He is now the President and CEO of the Cyber Threat Alliance, the non-profit that facilitates intelligence sharing between cybersecurity organisations globally. His keynotes address how public-private partnerships and shared threat intelligence create the collective defences that no individual organisation can build alone.

His perspective is particularly valuable for audiences that need to understand how cybersecurity intersects with public policy, international relations, and the governance of shared digital infrastructure. He is particularly effective for government, critical infrastructure, and regulated industry audiences whose security posture is shaped as much by policy as by technology. Contact via the Cyber Threat Alliance and speaking bureaus.

19. Camille Stewart Gloster

Camille Stewart Gloster is a former Deputy National Cyber Director at the White House, where she led workforce development, cybersecurity education, and diversity and equity initiatives as part of the Biden administration's national cyber strategy. She now works in a senior security role at Google. Her keynotes address how organisations and governments can build the diverse, capable, and inclusive cybersecurity workforce that the scale of current threats demands. She is one of the most important voices in the field on the intersection of cybersecurity, diversity, and talent development.

Her White House experience gives her both the policy credibility and the institutional storytelling to make workforce and culture arguments land in security environments that often resist them. Her focus on building cyber teams that reflect the diversity of the communities they protect is a genuinely differentiated angle that resonates across government, education, and corporate conference audiences. Contact via Google and speaking bureaus.

20. H.E. Dr. Mohamed Al Kuwaiti

Dr. Mohamed Al Kuwaiti is the Head of Cybersecurity for the UAE Government and serves on the UAE Cyber Security Council, making him one of the most influential cybersecurity policy voices in the Middle East and Gulf region. He was a keynote speaker at RSAC 2026, where he addressed how the UAE government has approached building national cyber resilience at a time when Gulf states face some of the most sophisticated and politically motivated threat actors in the world. His perspective on cybersecurity governance from an emerging market and Gulf leadership context is a genuinely rare addition to any global conference programme.

His keynotes address national cyber strategy, digital government transformation, and the institutional frameworks that emerging economies need to build resilient digital infrastructure. He is particularly valuable for audiences in financial services, government, and critical infrastructure sectors who need to understand how cybersecurity governance is evolving in the Gulf, Middle East, and developing world contexts. Contact via UAE Cyber Security Council and conference channels.

21. Despina Spanou

Despina Spanou serves as Deputy Director General for Cybersecurity and Trust at the European Commission, making her one of the most operationally important figures in European cybersecurity policy. She oversees the Commission's implementation of the EU's flagship cybersecurity regulatory instruments, including the NIS2 Directive, the Cyber Resilience Act, and the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre. She was a keynote speaker at RSAC 2026, where she addressed how the EU's regulatory approach is reshaping the global cybersecurity landscape for organisations with European operations or customers.

Her keynotes are essential for any organisation navigating GDPR, NIS2, or the Cyber Resilience Act, providing the most authoritative available account of what European cybersecurity regulation means in practice. She is particularly valuable for legal, compliance, and risk management audiences in financial services, technology, and critical infrastructure. Contact via European Commission speaking channels.

22. Dame Jacinda Ardern

Dame Jacinda Ardern served as Prime Minister of New Zealand from 2017 to 2023 and is the patron of the Christchurch Call Foundation, the global initiative she co-founded with French President Macron to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. Her work on the Christchurch Call is one of the most significant examples of international government-technology company partnership on digital safety and content governance. She was a keynote speaker at RSAC 2026, where she joined Jen Easterly in a conversation about empathy, values-driven leadership, and what crisis management in digital security demands from national and organisational leaders.

She brings something no technical expert can offer: the credibility of a head of government who has led through a national digital crisis, built international coalitions around digital safety, and demonstrated what empathetic crisis leadership looks like in practice. She is particularly powerful for events that need to connect cybersecurity with national resilience, leadership under pressure, and the human dimensions of governing in a digital world. Contact via Field Fellowship for Empathetic Leadership and major speaker bureaus.

Category Five: Cybersecurity Culture and Diversity Advocates

These voices are reshaping who works in cybersecurity, who has access to it, and whose voices are heard in the conversation about how to make the digital world safer.

23. Jane Frankland

Jane Frankland is the founder of the IN Security Movement and the author of IN Security: Why a Failure to Attract and Retain Women in Cybersecurity Is Making Us All Less Safe, one of the most important books on cybersecurity workforce diversity ever published. Her central argument, that the cybersecurity industry's failure to attract and retain women creates systematic blind spots that attackers exploit, has shifted how the most sophisticated organisations think about the relationship between diversity and security effectiveness.

Jane has been a Black Hat Executive Summit Advisory Board Member and is one of the most booked speakers on the intersection of cybersecurity, leadership, and diversity globally. Her keynotes are not diversity talks delivered in a cybersecurity context. They are cybersecurity talks that demonstrate why diversity is a security strategy as much as a values statement. Contact via her website and speaking bureaus.

24. Naomi Buckwalter

Naomi Buckwalter is the founder and Executive Director of the Cybersecurity Gatebreakers Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to closing the cybersecurity talent gap by removing the barriers that prevent entry-level professionals from accessing the field. With over 20 years of experience in IT and security, she is also a LinkedIn Learning instructor and keynote speaker whose work addresses one of the most underacknowledged dimensions of the global cybersecurity challenge: the field cannot defend itself if it cannot recruit, train, and retain the talent it needs.

Her keynotes address the structural inequities of cybersecurity hiring practices, the disconnect between certification requirements and actual job performance, and the specific changes that organisations can make to build more accessible and effective talent pipelines. She is particularly powerful for HR, talent development, and CISO audiences who are responsible for building security teams but struggling with the scale of the talent shortage. Contact via the Cybersecurity Gatebreakers Foundation and speaking platforms.

25. Shamane Tan

Shamane Tan is the Chief Growth Officer at Sekuro and the bestselling author of three books for executives and boards: Cyber Risk Leaders, Cyber Mayday and the Day After, and Building a Cyber Resilient Business, the last of which was featured on Forbes Australia's list of top books for CEOs. She has been named a LinkedIn Top Voice in Cybersecurity, recognised as one of the 40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australians, and ranked by IFSEC Global as one of the Top 20 Cybersecurity Influencers in the world. She has founded the Cyber Risk Meetup, a global community spanning seven cities with 5,000 members, and CISO Tribe, which brings together more than 300 CISOs and CIOs.

Her keynotes address how boards and C-suite executives can translate cyber risk into business strategy, build digital resilience, and communicate cybersecurity imperatives in language that drives executive decision-making. She is particularly strong for Asia-Pacific, Southeast Asian, and Australian conference audiences and is one of the most impactful women in the global cybersecurity keynote market. Contact via Sekuro and speaking bureaus including Chartwell Speakers.

26. Lisa Forte

Lisa Forte is the Co-Founder of Red Goat Cyber Security and was named No. 1 on the Top 100 Women in Tech list. She is also a Co-Founder of Cyber Volunteers 19, which provided free cybersecurity support to hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Co-Founder of Respect in Security, the campaign challenging harassment in the cybersecurity industry. Her expertise in social engineering, human hacking, and the manipulation techniques used to compromise organisations is among the most practically grounded on this list.

Her research on how terrorist organisations used social engineering techniques to radicalise citizens online gives her a distinctive and sobering perspective on the human vulnerabilities at the heart of every security breach. Her keynotes translate that research into practical organisational guidance on recognising, testing, and strengthening resistance to social engineering at every level of an organisation. She is represented by Champions Speakers. Contact via Champions Speakers.

27. Rachel Wilson

Rachel Wilson spent 15 years in senior leadership at the National Security Agency running counterterrorism and cyber operations worldwide before joining Morgan Stanley as the firm's first Head of Cybersecurity. In that role she is responsible for helping protect trillions of dollars in assets and advising clients on AI-driven cyber risk and digital resilience. Her combination of intelligence community experience and private sector cybersecurity leadership at one of the world's most targeted financial institutions gives her a genuinely rare cross-sector perspective.

Her keynotes are particularly powerful for financial services audiences, for board and governance-level events, and for any organisation that needs a speaker who can make the conversation about cyber risk land in the same terms as investment risk, operational risk, and reputational risk. Contact via GDA Speakers and major bureaus.

Category Six: Cybersecurity Journalism, Research, and Global Strategy

These voices are the interpreters, investigators, and strategists who give organisations a wider lens for understanding cyber risk in context.

28. Nicole Perlroth

Nicole Perlroth is the New York Times bestselling author of This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends, the definitive account of the global cyberweapon market, and the former lead cybersecurity reporter at The New York Times where she spent more than a decade investigating state-sponsored hacking, the vulnerability broker market, and the dark web ecosystem. She is now Managing Partner at Silver Buckshot Ventures and Venture Partner at Ballistic Ventures, bringing investor-grade thinking to the cybersecurity market alongside her journalistic depth.

Her keynotes place cybersecurity in the context of geopolitics, national security, and the global market for offensive cyber capabilities in a way that no technical speaker and very few policy speakers can match. She is particularly powerful for executive, board-level, and corporate governance audiences who need to understand the geopolitical dimensions of the threats facing their organisations. Contact via major speaker bureaus.

29. Joe Tidy

Joe Tidy is the BBC's first-ever specialist cyber journalist and one of the most trusted voices in cybersecurity media globally. He has covered some of the most significant cyber incidents of the last decade including major ransomware campaigns and state-sponsored attacks across Europe and North America. His career as the BBC's dedicated cyber correspondent gives him a breadth of real-world incident reporting experience that is genuinely rare in the keynote market.

Joe is the author of the book Cyber, which brings his journalism to a general audience. His keynotes translate his reporting experience into practical organisational guidance, using the specific lessons from real incidents to help audiences understand what failure looks like and what it costs. Contact via Champions Speakers.

30. Chuck Brooks

Chuck Brooks is President of Brooks Consulting International, an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University where he teaches graduate courses on risk management and homeland security, and one of the most prolific and widely read cybersecurity commentators in the world. He has been recognised as a Top 5 Tech Person to Follow by LinkedIn and named among the foremost cybersecurity advisors in the United States by multiple industry publications. His briefings to the G20 on energy cybersecurity and his presidential appointments to executive roles under two US Presidents give him a policy and institutional perspective that few private sector speakers can match.

His keynotes span cybersecurity strategy, emerging technology risk, AI-driven threats, and the governance frameworks that boards need to provide effective oversight of organisational security. He is particularly valuable for C-suite and board-level audiences that need a speaker who can synthesise the broadest possible view of the threat landscape into strategic guidance. Contact via multiple bureaus and his speaking platform.

31. Ben Hammersley

Ben Hammersley is a British futurist, author, and former war correspondent who hosts the Netflix series Cybercrimes with Ben Hammersley, and has been recognised by the World Economic Forum as one of the leading voices on technology's future. His keynotes blend investigative journalism with geopolitical analysis and strategic foresight, examining how the convergence of cybercrime, artificial intelligence, and geopolitical competition is reshaping the security landscape for organisations and governments alike.

His background as a war correspondent gives him a perspective on threat and risk that is genuinely different from anything available from a technical or policy background. His ability to connect complex technological trends to real-world consequences for ordinary organisations and individuals makes him a particularly powerful choice for leadership summits and corporate conferences where the goal is to shift strategic thinking rather than deliver technical training. Contact via Speakers.com.

32. May-Ann Lim

May-Ann Lim is the Director of Multilateral Relations, Data Policy, and Partnerships at Access Partnership, and serves as Executive Director of the Coalition for Cybersecurity in Asia Pacific. She is one of the most important voices in the global conversation about cybersecurity governance in the Asia-Pacific region, where the intersection of rapid digital growth, fragmented regulation, and intensifying state-sponsored threat activity creates a governance challenge unlike anywhere else in the world.

Her keynotes address how organisations operating in APAC can navigate the region's diverse and evolving cybersecurity regulatory landscape and what APAC-specific threat dynamics mean for organisations expanding into or operating across Southeast Asia. She is particularly valuable for multinational organisations, policy audiences, and conferences with a specific focus on Asia-Pacific digital resilience. Contact via Access Partnership.

33. Mark T. Hofmann

Mark T. Hofmann is a German crime analyst and psychological profiler who applies behavioural science to cybercrime investigations and threat prediction. Trained in both psychology and criminology, he has advised law enforcement agencies and corporations worldwide on profiling cybercriminals, understanding the motivations behind hacking and fraud, and using behavioural analysis to anticipate attacks before they occur. His keynotes explore the human motivations behind cybercrime in a way that bridges the gap between the technical analysis of attacks and the psychological analysis of attackers.

His work reveals the behavioural patterns that technology alone cannot detect, helping organisations understand why certain people become cybercriminals and how behavioural profiling can inform both defensive strategies and social engineering resilience programmes. He is one of the most genuinely original voices in the global cybersecurity keynote market. Contact via Speakers.com and international bureaus.

34. Dan Lohrmann

Dan Lohrmann is the Field Chief Information Security Officer for the Public Sector at Presidio, one of the leading technology integration firms in the United States. With over 25 years of cybersecurity experience spanning the US government, state government, and private sector advisory, he is one of the most recognised voices on public sector cybersecurity strategy. He writes the widely read "Lohrmann on Cybersecurity" column for Government Technology magazine and has been named one of the top 25 industry influencers in government.

His keynotes are particularly valuable for government, education, healthcare, and regulated industry audiences that need a speaker who understands the specific constraints and risk profiles of public sector and quasi-public organisations. His accessible, storytelling-rich communication style and his depth of government experience make him one of the most consistent performers on the association and government conference circuit. Contact via major bureaus and his speaking platform.

35. Jonno White

The people on this list are among the most knowledgeable cybersecurity voices in the world. They can tell your audience what the threats are, where they come from, how attackers think, what your organisation needs to do differently, and why the stakes have never been higher. Jonno White is the person you bring in when you are ready to act on what they say, to build the team culture, hold the difficult conversations, and lead the change.

Jonno White is a Brisbane-based keynote speaker, Certified Working Genius Facilitator, and bestselling author of Step Up or Step Out with over 10,000 copies sold globally. He works with organisations across Australia, the UK, USA, Singapore, Canada, New Zealand, India, and beyond, helping leadership teams build the communication habits, accountability frameworks, and cultural foundations that determine whether organisational change programmes, including cybersecurity transformation programmes, actually succeed. His Working Genius facilitation, delivered through the world's fastest growing team assessment with over 1.3 million completions globally in less than five years, helps organisations identify why their teams engage with security work differently and how to channel those differences productively.

To book Jonno White for your next keynote, workshop, or executive offsite, email jonno@consultclarity.org. International travel is often far more affordable than clients expect.

Notable Voices We Almost Included

Several genuinely exceptional voices were seriously considered for this list and came close to inclusion. Bruce Schneier, lecturer at Harvard Kennedy School and author of more than a dozen books on security and cryptography, is perhaps the most eminent cybersecurity thinker not on the list. His influence on how the field thinks is unparalleled, but his focus has shifted significantly toward academic writing and policy research in recent years, with his public keynote output at a lower volume than others on this list.

Eugene Kaspersky, founder and CEO of Kaspersky Lab, has built one of the world's most important threat research organisations and has been a significant voice in global cybersecurity for three decades. His exclusion reflects the practical reality that organisations in many markets currently face reputational and regulatory complexity in association with the firm's Russian origins. Robert Hannigan, former Director General of GCHQ and now at BlueVoyant, has the intelligence credentials to sit in Category Four, but his current public speaking activity was at a lower level than others in that category at the time of compilation. Chirag Joshi, President of ISACA Sydney and bestselling author on cybersecurity governance, was a strong candidate and may well appear on a future list as his international profile continues to grow.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Booking a Cybersecurity Keynote Speaker

The biggest mistake event organisers make when booking a cybersecurity keynote speaker is optimising for name recognition rather than audience fit. A former NSA director or White House CIO may generate strong registrations when announced, but their keynote often assumes a level of institutional context that corporate audiences do not share and delivers at a level of abstraction that leaves frontline employees and middle managers without tools they can act on.

A related mistake is booking technical speakers for non-technical audiences and non-technical speakers for technical audiences without adjusting the brief. A speaker who is extraordinary for a CISO summit will often miss the mark at an all-staff security awareness event. Every speaker on this list performs across multiple audience types, but the brief you provide shapes the outcome as much as the speaker you select. Be specific about who will be in the room, what they already know, and what you want them to feel and do differently by Monday morning.

Organisations also consistently underinvest in the brief. The best keynote speakers on this list invest significant time understanding your organisation, your industry context, your specific threat landscape, and your cultural starting point before they take the stage. That investment requires a detailed, honest brief from you. The organisers who get the most extraordinary results from these speakers are the ones who share not just the logistics but the real story, where your organisation is struggling, what the leadership team is afraid to say publicly, and what kind of cultural shift you are hoping the keynote will catalyse.

Another common mistake is treating a keynote as a standalone intervention. The most enduring cybersecurity keynotes work because they are part of a programme: a keynote that sparks a new conversation, followed by workshops that build the skills, followed by leadership coaching or team facilitation that embeds the behaviours. Finally, organisations regularly underestimate the cost of a bad booking. A keynote that fails to engage, that talks over the heads of the audience, or that delivers generic content your team has heard before costs far more than a speaker fee.

Implementation Guide: How to Use This Directory

Finding a cybersecurity keynote speaker is the beginning, not the end, of the process. Here is how to turn this directory into a booked speaker who delivers extraordinary results for your event.

Start by defining your audience with precision. The categories in this directory map to distinct audience needs. If your audience is technical, a threat researcher or former intelligence professional will land better than a security culture advocate. If your audience is mixed executive and technical, a policy voice or investigative journalist can bridge the gap. If your audience is primarily non-technical, a human factors specialist or a storytelling-focused investigative journalist will be most effective. Match the speaker's primary angle to the primary gap in your audience's understanding.

Then narrow by geography. International speakers bring significant credibility and novelty value, and international travel costs are far more affordable than most event budgets assume. However, for association conferences with a strong national identity, a speaker who understands the specific threat landscape and regulatory context of your market will often outperform an international voice on topics that require local grounding. This directory spans every major market, so you can find the right geographic match without sacrificing quality.

Contact speakers directly or through the bureaus referenced in each entry. Always ask for a detailed brief call before committing. The speakers on this list who ask the most questions and do the most preparation before the event consistently deliver the highest satisfaction ratings after it. Be wary of any speaker who proposes a generic talk without asking about your organisation, your audience, and your goals.

If you want to deepen the impact of your keynote with a workshop or executive offsite component, consider pairing your cybersecurity speaker with a leadership or team dynamics facilitator who can help your team translate the keynote insights into sustained behavioural change. Jonno White, Certified Working Genius Facilitator and bestselling author of Step Up or Step Out, works alongside cybersecurity keynote programmes to help leadership teams build the culture and communication habits that make security transformation stick. Email jonno@consultclarity.org to discuss how a pairing might work for your event. International travel is often far more affordable than clients expect.

For more resources on selecting the right speakers, check out my posts "50 Best Keynote Speakers on AI Ethics and Governance Globally" at https://www.consultclarity.org/post/keynote-speakers-ai-ethics-governance and "25 Best Keynote Speakers for Association Conferences" at 

https://www.consultclarity.org/post/keynote-speakers-association-conferences-usa.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the most in-demand topics for cybersecurity keynote speakers in 2026?

The most sought-after cybersecurity keynote topics in 2026 reflect the convergence of AI-driven threats and human vulnerability. AI-powered phishing and social engineering, ransomware targeting critical infrastructure, nation-state cyber operations and their commercial spillover effects, security culture and behaviour change, board and executive cyber governance, and the human factors behind security breaches are all generating strong demand. The shift toward AI as both a threat accelerator and a defensive tool is the single topic that appears most consistently across conference programmes this year.

How much does it cost to hire a cybersecurity keynote speaker?

Cybersecurity keynote speaker fees vary enormously based on credentials, profile, and demand. Former government and intelligence officials with high public name recognition typically command between US$20,000 and US$75,000 for a keynote. Mid-profile technical experts and security culture specialists typically range from US$10,000 to US$30,000. Journalists, researchers, and practitioners with growing profiles may be available from US$5,000 to US$15,000. International travel costs are additional but are often more affordable than event budgets assume. Always ask speakers for a quote that includes travel and accommodation.

How do I choose the right cybersecurity speaker for my specific audience?

The most important variable is audience composition and knowledge level. A security operations audience needs different content from a board or executive audience. Technical audiences respond well to threat researchers, ethical hackers, and former intelligence professionals who bring operational depth. Executive and leadership audiences respond better to policy voices, investigative journalists, and security culture specialists who can make the stakes vivid without requiring technical literacy. Industry context also matters significantly: healthcare, financial services, government, and critical infrastructure each have distinct threat profiles and regulatory environments that the best speakers will research and address specifically.

How was this list compiled?

This directory was built through analysis of major cybersecurity conference speaker rosters including RSA, Black Hat, Infosecurity Europe, DEF CON, Cyber Week, the FIRST Annual Conference, and Gartner Security and Risk Management Summits. We drew on speaker bureau rosters, industry publications, and research into current speaking activity to identify speakers who are actively contributing to cybersecurity thought leadership in 2025 and 2026. Selection prioritised genuine credentials, demonstrated impact, geographic and disciplinary diversity, and ability to engage diverse audiences including non-technical leaders and executives.

Can I hire someone to facilitate cybersecurity-related leadership workshops for my team?

Yes. Jonno White, a Certified Working Genius Facilitator and bestselling author of Step Up or Step Out with over 10,000 copies sold globally, runs workshops and facilitated sessions that help leadership teams build the communication habits, accountability frameworks, and team dynamics that determine whether cybersecurity transformation programmes succeed. While Jonno's core expertise is in leadership, team culture, and working dynamics rather than cybersecurity itself, his work directly addresses the people and culture challenges that every cybersecurity leader identifies as the hardest part of their job. To enquire about a workshop or executive offsite, email jonno@consultclarity.org. Organisations consistently find that international travel is far more affordable than expected.

Final Thoughts

The cybersecurity threat landscape of 2026 is simultaneously more technically sophisticated and more fundamentally human than it has ever been. The best attack tools in the world are failing against organisations that have built genuine security cultures. And some of the most technically advanced security stacks in the world are being defeated by a single employee who clicked the wrong link.

The 35 speakers in this directory represent the broadest and most credible collection of cybersecurity voices assembled for event organisers and conference producers. They span the full spectrum from underground hacker culture to heads of government, from cyber psychology laboratories to national signals intelligence agencies. What they share is the ability to make cybersecurity matter, not just as a technical imperative, but as a human, cultural, and leadership challenge that every person in your organisation shares responsibility for.

Choose the voice that best matches your audience, your industry context, and the specific gap in your security culture that you most need to close. Brief them thoroughly. Give them a real story to work with. And if you need help building on what the keynote starts, bring in a facilitator who can help your leadership team take that new awareness and turn it into new behaviours.

For more on the AI and digital ethics dimensions of the cybersecurity keynote market, check out my post "50 Best Keynote Speakers Globally on AI Ethics and Governance" at https://www.consultclarity.org/post/keynote-speakers-ai-ethics-governance.

About the Author

Jonno White is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, bestselling author, and leadership consultant who has worked with schools, corporates, and nonprofits across the UK, India, Australia, Canada, Mongolia, New Zealand, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, USA, Finland, Namibia, and more. His book Step Up or Step Out has sold over 10,000 copies globally, and his podcast The Leadership Conversations has featured 230+ episodes reaching listeners in 150+ countries. Jonno founded The 7 Questions Movement with 6,000+ participating leaders and achieved a 93.75% satisfaction rating for his Working Genius masterclass at the ASBA 2025 National Conference. Based in Brisbane, Australia, Jonno works globally and regularly travels for speaking and facilitation engagements. Organisations consistently find that international travel is far more affordable than expected.

To book Jonno for your next keynote, workshop, or facilitation session, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Next Read: 50 Best Keynote Speakers Globally on AI Ethics and Governance

Finding the right keynote speaker on AI ethics and governance for your next conference, leadership summit, or corporate event is one of the most consequential decisions you will make as an event organiser in 2026. The regulatory landscape has fractured dramatically over the past eighteen months. The EU AI Act is now in phased enforcement, with high-risk system obligations fully applicable by August 2026. The United States has pivoted toward a pro-innovation federal posture while individual states like Colorado and California push aggressive transparency and anti-discrimination mandates.

Keep reading: https://www.consultclarity.org/post/keynote-speakers-ai-ethics-governance