John Sileo

Biography

John Sileo left hi-tech consulting and became an entrepreneur to reclaim his greatest priority– being present, every day, for his wife Mary and their dream of starting a family. Six successful years, a $2M business and two precious daughters later, he lost it all to cybercrime.

Because the cybercriminal, a company insider, masked the crimes using John’s identity, John was held legally and financially responsible for the felonies committed. The losses destroyed his company, decimated his finances and consumed two years of his family life as he fought to stay out of jail. John shares his entire story from stage.

During his keynote, John laces his story with humor and interaction to inspire audiences to take security seriously without giving in to the fear. He has molded his first-hand experiences into a string of successes as an award-winning author, 60 Minutes guest and keynote speaker to the Pentagon, Schwab and thousands of audiences ready to take concrete action on cyber security, digital privacy and tech/life balance. John helps organizations defend their data and tap into a depth of human resilience and ownership that provides the greatest security of all.

John’s Professional Profile:

Graduated from Harvard University w/ honors
Inducted into National Speakers Hall of Fame
Award-winning author of more than four books
Security expert on Rachel Ray, Anderson Cooper, Dr. Oz, and Fox & Friends
Makes cyber security fun, so that it sticks
Live-hacks iPhones and humans on stage
CEO of The Sileo Group, a hi-tech think tank
Contributor to USA Today, the Washington Post & Kiplinger

Everything John does revolves around his family. In addition to working every day with his Mom and Dad (it was their business he destroyed, so it was the least he could do to employ them), John limits his travel so he can spend more time watching The Bachelor with his highly-spirited daughters (which he will deny, if asked), snowshoeing the Rocky Mountains with his adventurous wife, and training for his 3rd-degree black belt in taekwondo (where he’s regularly thrashed by teenagers half his weight). John does in fact like piña coladas and getting caught in the rain. He’s more into bourbon and red wine than he is into champagne. Even though he graduated with honors from Harvard University (I know, we can hardly believe it, too!), he agreed to name his cairn terrier “Oreo” because that’s what his girls wanted. John is more interested in making friends than in making money, but he loves making his living as a speaker and author.

Videos

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The Hacker’s Blacklist: Critical Cybersecurity Threats & Solutions

To avoid becoming the next disastrous data-breach headline, you must foster a healthy culture of security that addresses both the technological and human elements of data defense. Change happens when you create energy and buy-in among the people who handle your mission-critical information. When it comes to the latest data security threats, you can’t possibly do everything—but you must do the right things. This cyber security training crash course forges a high-level, non-technical path through the often confusing web of human decision making, cyber defense, mobile technology, IoT, social media and cloud computing—critical components of your success. This highly-interactive presentation builds on John’s experience losing everything to cybercrime, continues with a live hacking demo of an audience member’s smartphone and ends with an actionable Roadmap of Next Steps.

C-Level Cybersecurity: Building a Bulletproof Culture of Security

Security awareness starts at the top. Cybercriminals lust for your corporate data. Competitors bribe your disgruntled employee for a thumb drive full of confidential files. Social engineers exploit your executives’ social media profiles – a veritable “how to” guide for network security access. Hackers “sniff” unprotected IP addresses and cloud traffic you didn’t even know existed. Cyber extortionists encrypt your mission-critical data and demand a ransom. In the meantime, you end up the next disastrous headline – reputation damaged, customers fleeing. Cybercrime and corporate data breach are a huge financial cost and legal liability to organizations. This
does not have to be your fate. As a leader, you must learn to cope with a wide range of cyber threats with little to no technical background, limited resources and almost no lead time. The answer lies in your preparation and strength of culture. This presentation aims at leaders looking to imbue their culture with security strategies from the boardroom to the break room. John leverages his work with clients like the Pentagon and Schwab to help you develop a prioritized punch list of critical action items.

Think Like a Spy: Personal Identity Theft Protection

Identity theft training is no longer optional. Every move you make in the digital world can be tracked, hacked, recorded and exploited. Threat sources like smartphones, the Internet of Things (IoT), wearable technology, cloud computing and social media have shifted the competitive landscape in favor of cyber-savvy users with strong identity theft training. Due to the power of personally identifying information (PII) and the rapid rate at which information is being compromised, we must leverage the very latest prevention tools to protect everything from our Social Security numbers to bank accounts, from passwords to confidential emails. John delivers these identity theft countermeasures in a highly interactive, disarmingly humorous presentation inspired by his personal loss of more than $300,000, his business and two years of his life to data theft. In Think Like a Spy, John focuses specifically on identity theft prevention tools that apply to every individual in your audience.

The Art of Human Hacking: Social Engineering Self Defense

Anti-fraud and social engineering training only work when your people experience it in person. Human beings can be the weakest link or the strongest competitive advantage in the security and profitability of your information assets. But people are the most commonly underutilized, least expensive weapon in your fight against cybercrime. Social Engineering Training too often fails because of Death by PowerPoint. Fraud training needs to be engaging and interactive to be effective. To put it simply, this session makes security fun, so that it sticks. In this continually-interactive session, John goes deep into social engineering tools and tricks used to separate you from your critical data. By building System-1, Reflex-Based Awareness around how tools like social media, trust shortcuts, ego stroking, greed appeals, and cortisol flushing enable social engineers, John will dramatically reduce the human element of your threat footprint. By the time John finishes his entertaining closing story, your audience will be fully empowered to
detect and deter social engineering, fraud and deception.