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John Sileo

Helping Organizations Protect Their Profits, Privacy and Reputation

Helping Financial Advisors Educate Their Clients to Better Protect Themselves

No one is in a better position to educate financially savvy customers about protecting identity and net worth than bankers, brokers, agents, accountants and full-fledged financial advisors.

Not only do you serve as your client’s trusted advisor and have their “financial ear,” but you also have an ethical responsibility to help them protect their wealth against crimes like identity theft, online fraud and cyber extortion.

Having lost his multi-million-dollar business and two years of his life to cybercrime, John shares his remarkable story to connect with audiences at a deeper level and clarify the why of cybersecurity. Whether live hacking an iPhone to humorously illustrate a point or sharing the emerging cyberthreats to your industry, John’s specialty is engaging the audience as he educates.

In addition to his role as a keynote speaker, his expertise in cybercrime lands him regularly on shows like 60 Minutes and Anderson Cooper, as a contributor to articles in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today, and in front of audiences from the Pentagon to Amazon to small-town America.

What Makes John a Different Keynote Speaker

  • John’s not just an expert on security, but at presenting relevant content memorably.
  • His keynote & deep-dive speeches are highly interactive, keeping the audience engaged.
  • John’s lessons come from first-hand experience, which helps him connect authentically.
  • His keynote speeches are non-technical, highly actionable and leadership oriented.
  • He effortlessly links personal and workplace defense, so your audience “owns the data”.
  • John’s impact flows from an emotional connection with your audience
  • Blockbuster Cybersecurity in a Zero Trust World
  • The Art of Human Hacking: Social Engineering Self Defense
  • Building a Bulletproof Culture of Security: A Crash Course for Savvy Leaders
  • Think Like a Spy: Identity Theft &Online Privacy Protection
  • Financial Wellness Events Build Trust & Loyalty w/ Clients

“Having John educate our clients on identity theft prevention and online privacy proved to be one of the most profitable financial seminars we’ve ever hosted.”
Linscomb & Williams

Sileo’s security awareness training stopped $300,000 in fraud just days after his presentation.”
Disney/Partners FCU

No techno-babble here, just hard-core solutions delivered with great energy.”
Million Dollar Round Table

“Who thought this incredibly hot topic could be so much fun? Our attendees raved about John’s humorous style.”
Institute of Internal Auditors

John’s Client List Includes…

Financial

  • Ally Financial
  • Ascendant Compliance
  • Association of Investment Management Sales Execs
  • Association for Financial Counseling & Planning Ed-Department of Defense
  • Baird Wise Investor Group
  • Botsford Group
  • CO PERA
  • CO Public Plan Coalition
  • Deluxe
  • Direct Response Forum
  • Emmerich Group
  • Experian UK
  • Financial Planners Association (Northern Alabama)
  • Financial Planners of Orange County
  • FPA Houston
  • FSC Securities Corporation
  • H.Beck, Inc.
  • Lincoln Financial Group
  • Linscomb & Williams
  • Million Dollar Round Table
  • Murray Risk Management
  • National Association of Personal Financial Advisors
  • Natl. Association of Pers. Fin. Advisors (NAPFA)
  • Nucleus Financial
  • Preview Properties
  • Principal Financial Group
  • Schwab
  • Securian
  • Texas Municipal Retirement System
  • Van Wyk Risk & Financial Management
  • Visa Pre-paid Forum

 

Banks and Credit Unions

 

  • Richwood Marketing
  • CUES: Credit Union Executive Society
  • Farm Credit Bank of Texas
  • Northwest Farm Credit Service
  • CO Bank
  • Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis
  • First Federal Savings Bank
  • FCC Services
  • Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati
  • Credit Bank of Texas
  • Firstrust Bank
  • Performance Bankers
  • Security Services FCU Latino Luncheon
  • First National Bankers Bank
  • ACI Worldwide
  • National Association of Federal Credit Unions
  • City National Bank
  • Partners Credit Union
  • NJ Credit Union
  • National Marine Bankers Association
  • Missouri Credit Union Association
  • Mid Atlantic CU Association
  • IBC Bank of Austin
  • Federal Reserve Bank
  • Fifth Third Bank
  • First Premier Bank
  • Longs Peak Credit Union
  • Treasure State Bank
  • Wyoming Credit Union League
  • Beehive Credit Union
  • Granite Credit UnionSuncorp Credit UnionUtah League of Credit UnionsNortheast Denver Federal Credit UnionDenver Water Credit Union
Travels From:  Colorado
City:
$20,001 to $30,000

Biography

John Sileo lost his multi-million-dollar startup, his wealth, and two years of his life to cybercrime. It began when a hacker electronically embezzled from the company’s clients using John’s identity. John was initially held legally and financially responsible for the felonies committed. The losses not only destroyed his company and decimated his finances, but consumed two years of young fatherhood as he fought to stay out of jail.

But John’s story has a happy ending and has become a worldwide catalyst for change. Since being found innocent of all crimes (and the real hacker put in jail), John has made it his life’s work to share hard-earned wisdom as a cybersecurity expertaward-winning author60 Minutes guest, and keynote speaker. His happy clients range from the Pentagon to Amazon, small associations to enterprise organizations. His mission is to keep others from becoming the next disastrous data breach headline. John specializes in the human elements of cybersecurity and uses disarming humor, audience interaction, and cutting-edge research to keep his training relevant and entertaining.

John is President & CEO of The Sileo Group, a Colorado-based technology think tank, and serves on a variety of boards. He graduated with honors from Harvard University and was recently inducted into the National Speakers Hall of Fame. John finds his greatest joy in spending time with the loves of his life: his wife, two daughters, and mini golden doodle. And yes, life’s bumps have shaped him into a slightly over-protective but well-intentioned helicopter dad.

Presentations

Hackers don’t just adapt to change; they bank on it. Has your mindset evolved? The rapid expansion of remote workforces, ransomware gangs, cloud jacking, IoT hacking, supply chain attacks, social engineering, insider theft and disinformation campaigns have altered the way we must defend our data, reputation, and profits. A faulty adage asserts that humans are your weakest link when in reality, they can be your greatest defense. Cybersecurity doesn’t grow from shinier tools, but from the powerful intersection between human beings and technology.

In his highly-interactive keynote presentations, John leverages potent lessons learned from losing everything to cybercrime as well as a humorous live-hacking demonstration to build a Blockbuster Framework for analyzing, organizing, and communicating your powerful cyber-defense strategy. Don’t underestimate the ROI of a cybersecurity speaker who generates momentum and buy-in among the heroes who handle your mission-critical data every day. Because when it comes to the latest cyberthreats, you can’t possibly do everything — but you must do the right things.

Your Cybersecurity Keynote Will Be Customized, But Content Covered Will:

  • Clarify white-hot topics, including: post-pandemic cyberthreats, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, supply chain attacks & disinformation

  • Create authentic ownership and “buy-in” of audience members about taking responsibility for security
  • Answer the critically important “WHY” of security training before explaining the “HOW TO”
  • Convert “humans as your weakest link” into your greatest competitive advantage
  • Build a tactical whitelist of critical data, necessary computer security conversations and next steps
  • Live-hack an audience member to demonstrate the power of hacker tools

  • Prioritize threat trends, such as ransomware, cyber blackmail, Internet of Things, and Denial of Service (DDoS)
  • Detect, reflect and react to social engineering & fraud tools from phishing to pre-texting
  • Interact directly with the audience to cement learning with entertainment
  • Leave your audience energized to immediately change behaviors and implement key learnings

Anti Fraud training 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 – has to be interactive – to be effective. To put it simply, this session makes security fun, so that it sticks. Additionally, your audience must experience manipulation, deception and fraud first hand before their behaviors are ripe for change.

In this continually-interactive social engineering defense 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. Safe data is profitable data, whether it’s a client’s credit card number, a patient’s medical file, an employees benefit plan or sensitive intellectual capital. By the time John finishes his entertaining closing story, your audience will be fully empowered to detect and deter social engineering, fraud and deception.

Your Social Engineering Training Will Be Customized to:

  • Create authentic ownership and “buy-in” of audience members about taking responsibility for security
  • Answer the critically important “WHY” of security training before explaining the “HOW TO”
  • Understand how manipulative triggers work, including: cortisol flushing, trust exploitation, ego stroking, greed appeals…
  • Convert “humans as your weakest link” into your greatest competitive advantage
  • Distinguish weapons of deception (evil) from tools of influence (good)
  • Live-hack an audience member to demonstrate the power social engineering
  • Identify the most common strategies of social engineering
  • Detect, reflect and react to fraud tools ranging from phishing to pre-texting, whaling to coat-tailing
  • Interact directly with the audience to cement learning with entertainment
  • Leave your audience energized to immediately change behaviors and implement key learnings

Security awareness starts at the top. Cyber criminals 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. Ransomware Gangs encrypt your non-personal-but-mission-critical data and demand a ransom. In the meantime, you end up the next disastrous headline – reputation damaged, customers fleeing. Cyber crime and corporate data breach are a huge financial cost and legal liability to organizations. This does not have to be your fate, but you must progress beyond security awareness and into action.

But how are you, a leader within your organization, supposed to cope with such a wide range of cyber threats when you have little to no technical background? The answer lies, as does so much of your success, in your preparation and strength of culture. It is imperative in the information economy to train your workforce on how to protect the information assets that fuel your success, whether they are digital, physical or intellectual. Build security awareness training into your daily operations from the boardroom to the break room and watch your risk footprint diminish. In this presentation, John leverages his experience working with clients like the Pentagon and Charles Schwab to give you a prioritized punch list of action items to reduce your chances of a costly data breach.

  • Create authentic “buy-in” of audience members about taking responsibility for high-quality Security Awareness Programs
  • Map a clear path to a Culture of Security
  • Understand the subtleties of security awareness training
  • Gain board “buy-in”, budget and staff accountability
  • Effectively nudge awareness into permanent transformation
  • Identify and prioritize top cyber threats

  • Turn theoretical solutions into actionable security strategies
  • Leverage keystone defense habits to cement change
  • Incorporate security by design so that it becomes “business-as-usual”
  • Convert “humans as your weakest link” into your greatest competitive advantage

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, prompting a question: Are you in control of your data, or are you being controlled? Due to the power of personally identifying information (PII) and the rapid rate at which information is being compromised, we must leverage 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 to data theft. Identity theft is America’s fastest-growing crime for more than a decade running. It affects not only individuals and families, but also has costly liability implications for every organization (data breach, corporate espionage, cyber extortion). Good online privacy habits lead to safer data among your attendees and within their organizations. Safe data is profitable data. In this speech, John focuses specifically on identity theft protection tools that apply to every individual in your audience.

  • Create authentic “buy-in” of audience members about taking responsibility for high-quality Security Awareness Programs
  • Map a clear path to a Culture of Security
  • Understand the subtleties of security awareness training
  • Gain board “buy-in”, budget and staff accountability
  • Effectively nudge awareness into permanent transformation
  • Identify and prioritize top cyber threats
  • Turn theoretical solutions into actionable security strategies
  • Leverage keystone defense habits to cement change
  • Incorporate security by design so that it becomes “business-as-usual”
  • Convert “humans as your weakest link” into your greatest competitive advantage

No one is in a better position to educate financially savvy customers about protecting identity and net worth than bankers, brokers, agents, accountants and full-fledged financial advisors. Not only do you serve as your client’s trusted advisor and have their “financial ear,” but you also have an ethical responsibility to help them protect their wealth against crimes like identity theft, online fraud and cyber extortion. Here’s the good news: by hosting financial seminars targeting identity theft, online privacy and social engineering self-defense, you create a safer, more loyal customer.

John has delivered cyber-specific financial seminars to more than 100,000 FI customers. His financial presentations cover the most relevant aspects of identity theft prevention, online privacy, social media exposure, mobile technology, cloud computing and Internet banking and investing. Imagine your customer, fully educated about how to protect their financial and informational assets and attributing their increased security to your brand. They will be happier, less likely to defect to automated investment tools and less susceptible to fraud. Safe customers are profitable customers.

  • Phone-related investment and IRS fraud
  • Banking and investing from mobile devices
  • Safely storing financial documents in the cloud
  • Protecting online accounts with robust password protection tools
  • Create authentic ownership and “buy-in” of audience members about taking responsibility for security
  • Live-hack an audience member to demonstrate the power of hacker tools
  • Utilizing two-factor authentication to bullet proof investment accounts
  • Financially motivated phishing, SMiShing and Vishing scams
  • Utilizing account monitoring to detect and stop financial fraud
  • How to leverage security education to deepen your customer relationship

Areas of expertise

  • Identity Theft
  • Online Privacy
  • Digital Reputation Management
  • Business Fraud Defense
  • Social Media Privacy
  • Cyber Data Security

Related Speaking Topics

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