Top Cybersecurity Keynote Speakers For Stronger Defences

Cybersecurity keynote speakers are worth booking when you need a board or a whole workforce to take a risk seriously that they cannot see. The best of them have run a national incident, broken into a building on a client's instruction, or investigated a breach from the inside, and can explain what happened without reaching for jargon.

PepTalk represents former intelligence chiefs, ethical hackers, investigative journalists and technology ethicists across cybersecurity and information security. Below are eleven of them, grouped by how much of the session they can carry on their own. If your event leans towards regulation and controls rather than threat, our risk management and compliance speakers may be the better fit.

What should you look for in a cybersecurity keynote speaker?

Look for someone who has done the work rather than only studied it. A speaker who has led a national response, tested an organisation's defences in person, or reported on a live investigation brings detail that generic threat-landscape talks cannot match. That detail is what holds a non-technical audience and what a board remembers afterwards.

After that it is a question of audience. Executive teams tend to want the strategic and geopolitical picture. All-staff sessions land better with a speaker who works through real scams and real breaches, because the behaviour you want to change sits with individuals. Technical teams usually want someone who has held an operational role and can go deeper in Q&A.

Cybersecurity keynote speakers with first-hand experience

These five each carry a full keynote slot on their own, and all have run or investigated real incidents.

Ciaran Martin

Book Ciaran for

A board-level view of cyber risk from the person who built the UK's national response.

Ciaran Martin founded the UK's National Cyber Security Centre and was its inaugural CEO from 2016 to 2020. Over that period the UK moved from eighth to first in the ITU's Global Cybersecurity Index. He is now Professor of Practice at Oxford's Blavatnik School of Government.

His talks are built from real national incidents rather than hypotheticals, which makes them useful for executives deciding where to spend and what to escalate. Expect practical guidance on resilience, incident response, and how government and industry actually cooperate when something goes wrong.

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Robert Hannigan

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Where cyber threat meets geopolitics, from a former Director of GCHQ.

Robert Hannigan was Director of GCHQ, where he established the National Cyber Security Centre and developed the UK's first cyber security strategy. He now chairs BlueVoyant International and is one of the few non-US nationals to hold the US Intelligence Distinguished Public Service Medal.

Book him when the question is geopolitical: who is attacking, what they want, and what that means for a business operating across borders. He also speaks on Bletchley Park and its codebreakers, which suits audiences who want the history alongside the current threat picture.

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Jenny Radcliffe

Book Jenny for

A live account of how attackers get past your people rather than your firewall.

Jenny Radcliffe is a social engineer and ethical burglar who runs psychological penetration tests for global corporations and law enforcement. She hosts the podcast The Human Factor, wrote People Hacker, and was inducted into Infosecurity Europe's Hall of Fame.

Her sessions are built from real jobs: how she talked her way into a building, what someone said that gave her the opening. Each case comes with methods drawn from psychology, negotiation and non-verbal communication, so teams leave able to recognise the same tactics being used on them.

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Eric O'Neill

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Counterintelligence tradecraft applied to the way modern breaches actually happen.

Eric O'Neill is the former FBI undercover operative who caught Robert Hanssen, the most damaging spy in US history, in a case dramatised in the film Breach. He now runs The Georgetown Group, a Washington DC counterintelligence and cybersecurity consultancy, alongside the AI security firm Nexasure AI.

He speaks on data protection, foreign espionage, Dark Web crime and AI-driven threats, anchored throughout in first-person accounts from the Hanssen investigation and his later work. A good choice for audiences who need the human motivation behind an attack, not only the technical route in.

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Victoria Baines

Book Victoria for

Trust, safety and encryption debates made concrete for a non-technical audience.

Victoria Baines is Professor Emerita of Information Technology at Gresham College and a former Trust and Safety Manager for EMEA at Facebook, with earlier roles at Europol's European Cybercrime Centre and the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency. She co-developed the world's first accredited Trust and Safety Engineering course at Stanford and wrote Rhetoric of InSecurity.

On stage she uses a talk show format, borrowing scenario planning and speculative fiction to make abstract digital threats tangible. She writes for the PepTalk Journal as well: her piece on why trust has never been easier to fake is a good sample of how she handles a technical subject for a general audience.

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More cybersecurity speakers worth booking

These six work well as a second voice on a panel, a shorter opening slot, or a keynote for a more specific brief.

Geoff White

Investigative journalist Geoff White co-hosted the BBC podcast The Lazarus Heist, which reached number one in the UK, and has written three books on organised crime and technology. His sessions cover cryptocurrency crime, cybercrime and money laundering, told as case studies from his own reporting.

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Alexis Conran

Best known as the writer and presenter of BBC's The Real Hustle, Alexis Conran breaks scams down one at a time to show the psychology that keeps each one working. His clients include Google, IBM, Experian and the City of London Police Fraud in Action Unit.

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Alex van Someren

Alex van Someren is the UK's Chief Scientific Adviser for National Security and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He co-founded the cryptographic security firm nCipher, later acquired by Thales, and spent over a decade investing in deep technology at Amadeus Capital Partners.

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Jonathan Shaw

Jonathan Shaw CB CBE was the UK's first Head of the Defence Cyber Security Programme at the Ministry of Defence, running a £90 million initiative, after a 32-year Army career that included Director of Special Forces. He speaks on geopolitical risk, cyber strategy and leadership under pressure.

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Stephanie Hare

Stephanie Hare wrote Technology Is Not Neutral: A Short Guide to Technology Ethics, named one of the Financial Times' best summer books of 2022. A regular BBC contributor, she applies an ethics-led lens to AI, cybersecurity and emerging technology.

Learn more and book Stephanie Hare →

Gareth Tennant

Gareth Tennant spent 14 years with the Royal Marines, reaching head of operational intelligence, and now runs the consultancy Decision Advantage. He has contributed to NATO doctrine and the Royal Navy's Information Superiority Policy, and speaks on decision-making and data in fast-moving environments.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What does a cybersecurity keynote speaker actually cover?

Most cover three things: how attacks work in practice, what an organisation should do differently, and how to make security part of everyday behaviour rather than an IT department problem. Specialisms vary widely, from social engineering and fraud through to state-level threat and technology ethics.

How much does it cost to book a cybersecurity speaker?

Fees depend on the speaker's profile, the format and the location. PepTalk in-person bookings start from $2,000, and speakers with senior intelligence or national security backgrounds sit above that. Travel and accommodation are usually additional for in-person events. Tell us your date, format and budget and we will come back with real numbers.

Should we book a technical expert or a storyteller?

It depends who is in the room. For an all-staff session, a speaker who works through real scams and breaches will change behaviour faster than a technical briefing. For a board or a security team, someone who has held an operational or policy role can go deeper and handle harder questions.

Can cybersecurity speakers run workshops as well as keynotes?

Yes. Most of the speakers here also run workshops, panels, fireside chats and Q&A sessions, in person or virtually. Awareness training and tabletop-style incident exercises are common formats alongside a main keynote.

💡 Ready to book a cybersecurity speaker for your next event? Send us a message via the chat and we'll scope the right name, the right format and a quote for your audience. Remember, it's always a good time to get a PepTalk!