Dave Kennedy

5 out of 5

Founder of Binary Defense & TrustedSec

Strongsville, OH, USA

Dave Kennedy Biography

Dave Kennedy is on a mission to advance the cybersecurity industry on a global scale. As Binary Defense Co-Founder and Chief Hacking Officer, his experience and expertise guide cybersecurity solutions, including the development of proprietary managed detection and response technology. Named one of the Top 10 IT Security Influencers in the World by CISO Platform, Kennedy has more than 20 years of experience in the security industry.

Prior to forming Binary Defense, Kennedy founded TrustedSec, an information security consulting company located in Fairlawn, Ohio. The company specializes in attack simulations with a focus on strategic risk management. Kennedy previously worked as the Chief Security Officer for Diebold Incorporated, an international Fortune 1000 company, where he developed a global security program that handled all aspects of information security and risk management.

Before his work in the private sector, Kennedy served in the United States Marine Corps, and he made two tours in Iraq. He specialized in cyber warfare and forensics analysis activities for the U.S. intelligence community.

As an author and creator of several open-source tools, Kennedy has made his mark on the cybersecurity industry. He was a founding member of the Penetration Testing Execution Standard, which has been adopted by the Payment Card Industry and the Data Security Standard Guidelines for Penetration Testing. He co-authored "Metasploit: The Penetration Tester's Guide" and co-created the Penetration Testing Execution Standard. He created the Social Engineer Toolkit, the PenTesters Framework, the Magic Unicorn Exploitation Framework, Artillery, and Fast-Track.

Kennedy has appeared as a guest on multiple news networks, including Fox News, CNN, CNBC, and MSNBC. His tools have also been featured on the History Channel and the popular USA Network television series Mr. Robot, where he assisted with content.

As a recognized leader in the industry, Kennedy has presented at international security conferences, including Microsoft’s Bluehat, DEF CON, Blackhat, and Grace Hopper. He is also the co-founder of DerbyCon, a nine-year-old large-scale security conference in Louisville, Kentucky.

In addition to his formal achievements, Kennedy donates his time and wisdom by speaking with civic leaders and students about the importance of security. Bedford High School, Kennedy’s alma mater, named its Kennedy Center for Gaming and Leadership in his honor.

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Speaker profile last updated by AAE Talent Team on 06/16/2025.

Dave Kennedy Speaking Topics

  • Abnormal Behavior Detection in Large Environments

    Attack patterns are something that when it occurs is extrinsic (not natural) behavior in a infrastructure. Understanding what attack patterns look like and building an understanding of how to detect them with what you already have is possible. Most preventative technology tries in some extent to detect extrinsic behavior in an environment but falls short because of the continual changes in attack patterns and commoditized detection (sigs, etc). This talk dives into looking at what you already have in your infrastructure that you can use for intrinsic (natural) detection capabilities that doesn't rely on a specific signature, but more so on how attackers go after an organization. As an industry, we need to be detecting the extrinsic occurrences in our networks which exhibit abnormal behavior. During this presentation, we'll be covering a large percentage of techniques used by attackers, and how to detect them with what you currently have in place at your organization today.

  • Compromise Analysis – Why we’re seeing so many breaches.

    After looking at a number of compromises dating the past several years, there are a number of commonalities between each of them and steps that could have been used to prevent. Information security isn't a practice that will always be successful in defending however, there are key indicators of compromise to look for when an attacker is attempting to compromise an organization. During this presentation, we’ll analyze a number of data breaches and look at how a number of the breaches have occurred and how an information security program can be structured in order to defend against a lot of the attacks. Most of the causes are directly related to the human element and directly phishing. This talk will dive into how phishing techniques work, and what you can do to prevent this from happening in the future.

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Dave Kennedy Videos

Meet Dave Kennedy – Chief Hacking Officer, Binary Defense

Meet Dave Kennedy – Chief Hacking Officer, Binary Defense

Dave Kennedy is on a mission to advance the cybersecurity industry on a global scale. As Binary Defense Co-Founder and Chief Hacking Officer, his...

Exploits, Research, Tools, and the Impact to Security | Dave Kennedy

Exploits, Research, Tools, and the Impact to Security | Dave Kennedy

David Kennedy is the founder of TrustedSec, Binary Defense Systems, and DerbyCon. TrustedSec and Binary Defense are focused on the betterment of ...

Dave Kennedy, TrustedSec - Business Security Weekly #116 ...

Dave Kennedy, TrustedSec - Business Security Weekly #116 ...

We welcome David Kennedy, founder and CEO, at TrustedSec to discuss " Investing in the right technology and resources"! To learn more ...

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  • What topics does Dave Kennedy speak about?

    Dave Kennedy is a keynote speaker and industry expert whose speaking topics include Cybersecurity, Security & Defense, Technology
  • Where does Dave Kennedy travel from?

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Dave Kennedy is a keynote speaker and industry expert who speaks on a wide range of topics such as Abnormal Behavior Detection in Large Environments, Compromise Analysis – Why we’re seeing so many breaches., Building Defense on Known Good, The Hacking Age and Moving Ahead and Beyond Common Tool Detections. The estimated speaking fee range to book Dave Kennedy for your event is $20,000 - $30,000. Dave Kennedy generally travels from Strongsville, OH, USA and can be booked for (private) corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances. Similar motivational celebrity speakers are Rachel Wilson, Brett Johnson, Eric O'Neill, Dr. Eric Cole and Rachel Tobac. Contact All American Speakers for ratings, reviews, videos and information on scheduling Dave Kennedy for an upcoming live or virtual event.

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