Christopher Hadnagy

Charitable foundation In 2017, Hadnagy founded the Innocent Lives Foundation (ILF), which has a goal of protecting children from online predators by identifying people who produce or trade child sexual abuse material. Staff and volunteers use open-source intelligence to gather information, and give it to law enforcement agencies in the United States. Hadnagy said in 2018 that the work had led to two arrests. In 2021, Vice reported that the Innocent Lives Foundation sold a set of Network Investigative Techniques, hacking tools for identifying anonymous individuals, to the FBI for $250,000. ILF also works to educate parents and guardians about preventing grooming and abuse of children.

Conferences Hadnagy contributed to DEF CON by helping create a social engineering capture the flag competition in 2009. He ran this competition and coordinated other social engineering education activities at the annual conference for several years. In 2021, he presented at Security BSides in Idaho Falls, Idaho, on the topic of cancel culture.

DEF CON ban and lawsuit The organizers of DEF CON permanently banned Hadnagy in February 2022 for code of conduct violations, a decision he publicly disputed. In June 2022, Security BSides in Cleveland, Ohio, featured Hadnagy as an unlisted speaker. In the course of litigation, specific details of the alleged misconduct were made public, including allegations from over a dozen people claiming a pattern of verbal abuse, outbursts of anger, and sexual harassment of female coworkers.

Books Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking (2010, Wiley Publishing, Inc.) Unmasking the Social Engineer: The Human Element of Security (2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.) Phishing Dark Waters: The Offensive and Defensive Sides of Malicious E-mails (2015, John Wiley & Sons Inc.), co-authored with Michele Fincher Human Hacking: Win Friends, Influence People, and Leave Them Better Off for Having Met You (2021, Harper Business)