08-16, 16:00–16:50 (US/Eastern), Marillac Auditorium
As a former CIA officer who exposed the agency’s torture program, John Kiriakou paid the price with his freedom. In addition to disclosing wrongdoing, he understands surveillance from the inside. This talk brings together that firsthand knowledge with a challenge to the hacker community: we must pursue a cybersecurity model rooted in cooperation, transparency, and peace rather than conflict.
This talk will explain how today’s digital ecosystems - including both software and hardware - are vulnerable not only to technical compromise but also to political manipulation. The threats we face are not just from malicious actors or hostile governments, but from within our own systems. Co-opted code, opaque procurement processes, and surveillance-by-design continue to erode public trust. It is time to reclaim the hacker ethos and direct it toward a global cyber peace movement. Here you will learn why hackers, technologists, and civil society must lead this effort, and how the only sustainable security is one built collaboratively, with integrity and purpose.
John Kiriakou is a former high-ranking CIA counter-terrorism officer and the first U.S. official to confirm CIA torture of detainees. Punished for being a whistleblower, he served nearly two years in a federal prison. He also exposed the CIA’s role in the secret rendition and torture of Canadian citizen Maher Arar in Syria. Since his release, he has become a leading advocate for transparency, civil liberties, and whistleblower protections. He is the author of several books and regularly speaks on topics related to surveillance, intelligence overreach, and ethics in national security. John co-teaches cybersecurity and anti-surveillance seminars with Yale Privacy Lab founder Sean O’Brien and continues to challenge the culture of secrecy and unaccountable power in the intelligence community.
website: johnkiriakou.com
website: ivycyber.academy