Every SAINTCON opens with one or more keynote speakers chosen to set the tone for the year. Below is the lineup that’s stood at the SAINTCON podium across more than a decade of conferences. Speaker bios and links are preserved on each year’s archived site (linked from the Archives page). Recorded keynotes are collected in the SAINTCON Keynotes playlist on YouTube.
2025
- John Strand. Founder of Black Hills Information Security; SANS instructor. Long-tenured voice in offensive security and pen-testing curriculum. Watch on YouTube
- Jeff Moss. Founder of DEF CON and Black Hat. Cybersecurity advisor to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and ICANN. Watch on YouTube
- John Hammond. Cybersecurity researcher with Huntress; prolific educator on YouTube and CTF circles. Watch on YouTube
2024
- Jack Rhysider. Creator and host of Darknet Diaries, the long-running podcast on hacker stories and the cybersecurity underworld. Watch on YouTube
- Amanda Berlin. Co-founder of Mental Health Hackers and co-host of the Brakeing Down Security podcast. Watch on YouTube
- Dave Kennedy. Founder of TrustedSec and Binary Defense; creator of the Social-Engineer Toolkit (SET). Watch on YouTube
2023
- Nicole Beckwith. Cybercrime investigator and former police officer; advocate for connecting law enforcement and the security community. Watch on YouTube
- Joe Grand. Hardware hacker and engineer; founding member of L0pht Heavy Industries; host of Joe Grand’s Hardware Hacking Podcast. Watch on YouTube
2022
- Deviant Ollam. Physical security researcher; member of TOOOL (The Open Organisation Of Lockpickers). Watch on YouTube
- Stephanie “Snow” Carruthers. Chief People Hacker at IBM X-Force Red; social engineering specialist. Watch on YouTube
- Jayson E. Street. Author, hacker, world traveler; former VP of InfoSec at SphereNY. Watch on YouTube
2021
- LockPickingLawyer. Recovering business litigator turned full-time covert-entry researcher and YouTube educator. Watch on YouTube
- James Pope. Moved into information security after starting his career in the theater industry. Watch on YouTube
- Stephanie “Snow” Carruthers. Social engineering practice lead; DEF CON 22 Social Engineering CTF black badge winner. Returned to keynote in 2022.
2020
SAINTCON 2020 ran online as “Single User Mode,” with remote challenges and recorded content. The 2020 archive lists no keynote speakers for that year.
2019
- Sherri Davidoff. CEO of LMG Security and BrightWise; cybersecurity author and incident-response trainer. Watch on YouTube
- Russ Rogers. Retired as DEF CON Chief of Operations in 2016 after 19 years on staff; member of Microsoft’s Detection and Response Team (DART). Watch on YouTube
- Rachel Tobac. CEO of SocialProof Security; three-time DEF CON Social Engineering CTF winner.
2018
- Bonnie Anderson. Information Systems Department chair at the BYU Marriott School of Business; researcher on neuroscience and security. Watch on YouTube
- Richard Thieme. Author and professional speaker on the human side of cybersecurity and intelligence. Watch on YouTube
- NeverLAN CTF (Zane Durkin, Preston Pace, and Tanner Purves). Student organizers of the NeverLAN capture-the-flag competition, presenting “Teach them to Hack.” Watch on YouTube
2017
- Ryan Clarke. DEF CON Mystery Challenge creator and badge designer. Watch on YouTube
- Melanie Ensign. Security and privacy communications strategist; former head of communications for security and privacy at Uber. Watch on YouTube
- Neil Wyler “Grifter”. Threat hunter and incident responder; longtime DEF CON Network Operations Center (NOC) lead. Watch on YouTube
2016
- Clutch and Crypt. Researchers and DEF CON contributors. Watch on YouTube
- Steve Caimi. Industry Solutions Specialist at Cisco. Watch on YouTube
- David Mahon. Chief Security Officer at CenturyLink.
- Chris Czub. Security Research Engineer at Duo Security. Watch on YouTube
- Georgia Weidman. Penetration tester; founder of Bulb Security and Shevirah; author of Penetration Testing: A Hands-On Introduction to Hacking. Watch on YouTube
2015
- Bill McGee. Senior Manager, Cisco Security Business Group.
- Dan Bowden
- Don Welch
- Jim Stewart
- Seth Johnson
- Theresa Semmens
- Thomas Cheatham
- Troy Jessup (Jup1t3r). SAINTCON committee chairman and longtime UtahSAINT lead.
Earlier conferences (pre-2015) had their own keynote traditions. If you spoke or recall a keynote from those years and want to fill in a gap, drop a note in Discord.
