Richard Thieme

Richard Thieme is an author and professional speaker focused on the deeper implications of technology, religion, and science for twenty-first century life.  He speaks professionally about the challenges posed by new technologies and the future, how to redesign ourselves to meet these challenges, and creativity in response to radical change.


He has been called “a father figure for online culture” (London Sunday Telegraph, "a keen observer of attitudes and behaviors" (/Le Monde/), and "one of the most creative minds of the digital generation" (editors of/ CTHEORY)/.


Thieme has spoken for fifteen years for the Black Hat Briefings USA and Def Con, an annual computer hackers' convention. He has also spoken for security conferences such as ReCon 2010 (Montreal), Troopers (Heidelberg Germany), HiverCon (Dublin), and ShmooCon. He keynoted AUSCERT in Brisbane, Australia in 2005-2006-2007 and  keynoted govcert in The Netherlands in 2006, 2009 and 2010. He keynoted Wireless Australia and the ID Management Summit in Sydney, Microsoft Tech Ed in consecutive years in Eilat, Israel, and conferences in New Zealand.


At DefCon VIII, he moderated a panel that included the Assistant Secretary of Defense, Dir. of Information and Infrastructure Assurance for DOD, and the Dir. of the Federal Computer Incident Response Team who came to “dialogue” with more than 5000 computer hackers. He was invited to moderate because, according to a National Security Agency veteran, “You’re the only one in the room with the acceptance and respect of both the hacking community and the Feds.”