Eric O'Neill

Eric O'Neill - cybersecurity expert, legendary FBI operative, attorney, and founder of The Georgetown Group and Nexasure AI — works with organizations to protect themselves against cybercriminals, whose total thefts constitute the world’s third largest economy.

O'Neill is an in-demand speaker. With his lively style and stories from the dark web, Eric delivers bespoke keynotes on the rise of sinister cyberattacks, AI-generated threats, and more—including how to keep your money and your reputation safe. Engagements include Acronis, Allstate, AT&T, Bayer, Dell, FedEx, Honeywell, McKinsey, SalesForce, universities, and numerous associations from IIA to YPO.

O'Neill began his career in the FBI as a graduate of the FBI’s Intelligence Program. He spent the first five years as a field operative in a special surveillance group tasked to surveil and monitor foreign, national, and domestic terrorists and spies.

O'Neill transitioned from “ghosting” targets from the shadows to direct undercover work with a singular assignment—with little backup or support: Catch his new boss, Robert Hanssen, a 25-year veteran of the FBI, in the act of espionage with the Russians. Hanssen died in a supermax prison last year at the age of 79.

O'Neill’s edge-of-your seat story is featured in the dramatic thriller, "Breach," starring Ryan Philippe and Laura Linney. The film is set inside the FBI, the gatekeeper of the nation’s most sensitive and potentially volatile secrets, and it reveals the story of the greatest security breach in US history. During the Hanssen investigation, O'Neill worked directly undercover with the spy within the FBI’s Information Assurance Division, created to protect all classified FBI intelligence. Read about it in O'Neill’s acclaimed book, "Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America’s First Cyber Spy" (Crown).

After serving as a national security strategist for several companies, O'Neill founded The Georgetown Group which has become a premier investigative and security consultancy in Washington, DC. The firm specializes in counterintelligence operations, economic espionage, cybersecurity penetrations, AI-fueled attacks, internal investigations, and security risk assessment.

O'Neill is also a media commentator. He and his work have been covered by CNN, C-Span, Fox, NPR, Newsweek, TechCrunch, “Fresh Air with Terry Gross,” World News Now, Access Hollywood, and more.

O'Neill is an honors graduate of Auburn University and George Washington University School of Law. His next book is "The Invisible Threat: Secrets from a Spyhunter in an AI World" (HarperCollins 2025).