About Richard Thieme

Richard Thieme (www.thiemeworks.com) 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. His speaking generally addresses “the human in the machine,” technology-related security and intelligence issues as they come home to our humanity.

Thieme’s early and creative use of the Internet to reach global markets earned accolades around the world. He is a member of the “cyber avant-garde,” according to CNN … “a prominent American techno-philosopher” according to LAN Magazine (Australia) … “a father figure for online culture,” according to the (London) Sunday Telegraph … “a keen observer of hacker attitudes and behaviors” according to Le Monde (Paris) … “one of the most creative minds of the digital generation” according to the editors of CTHEORY and Digital Delirium … “an online pundit of hacker culture” according to the L A Times … and “extremely subtle and deep” according to the Linux Journal.

Thieme has published widely. Translated into German, Chinese, Japanese, Slovene, Dutch, Hebrew, Danish and Indonesian, his articles are taught at universities in Europe, Australia, Canada, and the United States. His work has been frequently anthologized. His column, “Islands in the Clickstream,” was published in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Toronto, Djakarta, Dublin and Capetown and distributed to thousands of subscribers in 60 countries. Syngress, a division of Elsevier, published a collection in 2004.

Thieme’s passion for integrating technology and spirituality began in the eighties when he wrote “Computer Applications for Spirituality: The Transformation of Religious Experience,” an essay published by the Anglican Theological Review. He joined Bill Moyers and noted religious scholars in New York to explore religion and technology in the twenty-first century; a book based on that conference includes his 10,000- word essay “Entering Sacred Digital Space.” He spoke for the ARIL conference at MIT on spirituality and technology and has guest lectured at churches, synagogues, and interfaith gatherings.

In 2019, Thieme spoke for the twenty-fourth year for the Black Hat Briefings (intelligence and corporate security) and Def Con (Def Con 4 – Def Con 27), an annual computer hackers’ convention. as well as Black Hat Windows – Seattle, Black Hat Europe – Amsterdam, and for BH at GITEX in Dubai (he keynoted the first 2 Black Hats). He is returning to Def Con in 2021 for the 25th year. He provided three keynotes for the CSO Perspectives Road Show in Melbourne, Canberra, and Sydney Australia in September 2014. He keynoted O’Reilly Security NY in 2016. He engaged in a “fireside chat” with Dan Geer, CISO of CIA’s In-Q-Tel, as a keynote for SOURCE Boston 2013. He keynoted SOURCE Boston and SOURCE Seattle in 2016, SOURCE Dublin in 2017, and SOURCE Austin in 2018. He keynoted Thotcon – Chicago in 2014. He has spoken for security conferences such as NorthSec, Troopers (Heidelberg Germany), Toor Con, PumpCon, Interz0ne West, SecurityOPUS, Xmas Con (New Orleans 2600), RubiCon, HiverCon (Dublin), ShmooCon, NotaCon and RootFest. He spoke for ISACA and ISSA (Chicago – 4 times, Ohio Regional Conference, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, San Antonio). He keynoted Hacker Halted in Miami in 2012. He keynoted AUSCERT in Brisbane, Australia in 2005 2006 and 2007. He was invited to keynote again in 2011 and invited to do talks for local AUSCERT events in Perth and Brisbane in 2014. He keynoted govcert in The Hague in 2006 and in Rotterdam in 2009 and 2010. He keynoted Wireless Australia and the ID Management Summit in Sydney. He keynoted Microsoft Tech Ed in consecutive years in Eilat, Israel, and shared the keynote platform at MIS InfoSecWorld with Bob Woodward and NBC’s Roger Cressey. In 2007 he keynoted conferences in Auckland and Wellington NZ and was invited to return to keynote a corporate/government security conference in Wellington. He keynoted IT Defense in Berlin in 2009 and ReCon, a conference on reverse engineering, in Montreal Quebec in 2010. In May 2011 he spoke for the regional Infragard/ISSA Chicago quarterly meeting and keynoted the ITWeb Security Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa and Hack in the Box in Amsterdam. He provided a closing keynote for eComm in San Francisco (“a TED talks for communications”) in 2011. He keynoted Hack in the Box – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2011, 2013, and 2014 and keynoted HITB on its tenth anniversary in Amsterdam in 2019. He keynoted conferences in spring 2015 on metadata for the University of Texas – San Antonio and for Infosec Southwest in Austin Texas. He keynoted CONFidence in Krakow, Poland and Haxpo in Amsterdam in May 2015. In 2015 he keynoted CornCon1 in Davenport Iowa and Corn Con 2 in 2016. Also in 2015 he spoke at BruCon in Ghent, Belgium and keynoted Code Blue in Tokyo Japan. In 2016 he spoke at Bodyhacking 2016 in Austin, keynoted misc.con in Minneapolis, and was invited to speak at COSAC/SABSA in Ireland.) He spoke for CFI-CIRT in Toronto in March 2017 and keynoted Cyphercon in 2017. He keynoted the University of Wisconsin IT Management Council systemwide conference in La Crosse WI and the University of North Carolina – Charlotte Cyber Conference in October 2017. He spoke in the Tuesdays with a Scholar series of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in Minneapolis MN in 2018-2019, taught 3 four week classes for OLLI, and will present two lectires for OLLI in 2021. He keynoted SaintCon in Salt Lake City UT in September 2018, addressed the Wisconsin Forum in October 2018. He keynoted Qbitz in Montreal in June 2019. He spoke twice for Secure360 and keynoted the New York security conference HOPE in 2020. He spoke for the DCWC Roundtable in the Netherlands in November 2020 and provided a closing keynote for the 21st Annual Privacy and Security Conference in Victoria BC in 2021, his fourth keynote for the conference. He spoke twice again for Secure360 in 2021.

In Canada, in addition to keynoting ReCon and NorthSec (Montreal), he keynoted the Privacy and Information Security Congress 2011 (Ottawa), the 13th Annual Privacy & Security Conference 2011 in Victoria B.C. and lectured on “Designing the Future” at the University of Calgary in 2013 as an invited speaker in their “Design Matters” Lecture Series. He keynoted the 17th Annual Privacy and Security Conference in Victoria BC in 2016 and moderated a panel on biohacking. He returned to keynote the 19th Annual Privacy and Security Conference in Victoria in February 2018. He spoke at CFI-CIRT in Toronto in June 2017.

He spoke in London in August 2012 for “The Real Truth: A World’s Fair,” hosted by the Raven Row Gallery and curated by Suzznne Treister of Hexen fame, a project about surveillance, national security, and the future. He keynoted a conference on “Untimely Stories” at the Muzeum Sztuki in Lodz Poland on how European artists might reimagine “Europe” as prior concepttions disintegrate. He has spoken in 14 countries and has been invited to speak in 12 more.

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.”

About fifteen years ago, a friend at the National Security Agency suggested that he could address the issues they discussed in a context of “ethical considerations for intelligence and security professionals” only if he wrote fiction. “It’s the only way you can tell the truth,” he was told. Three dozen published short stories and one novel later, the result of that advice is Mind Games, published in 2010 by Duncan Long Publishing, FOAM, published in 2015 by Exurban Press, and a novel receiving 5-star reviews, Mobius: A Memoir, published in 2021 (Exurban Press) Mind Games, an anthology of nineteen stories, illuminates four kinds of “non-consensual realities:” the world of hackers; the worlds of intelligence professionals; encounters with other intelligent life forms; and deeper states of consciousness. In addition, his topic for Def Con 22 (August 2014), The Only Way to Tell the Truth is in Fiction: The Dynamics of Life in the National Security State has been watched several thousand times. His latest novel, Mobius: A Memoir illuminates the career of an intelligence professional over several decades and the “blowback” of that career into his personal life.

Clients include: National Security Agency; the Pentagon Security Forum; the FBI (internal presentation + 3 Infragard conferences); the US Secret Service; Los Alamos National Laboratory; US Department of the Treasury; GE Medical Systems; Medtronic; Microsoft; Johnson Controls; Thunderbird School of Global Management; IT Defense (Berlin); Ajilon; OmniTech; Strong Capital Management; Neohapsis; Network Flight Recorder; Merge eFilm; System Planning Corporation (SPC); International Intelligence Ethics Association; Cypress Systems; Ross Systems; Institute for Applied Network Security (IANS); Information Systems Security Assn. (ISSA); Assn. for Investment Management and Research (AIMR); Alliant Energy; Wisconsin Electric; UOP (Union Carbide and Allied Signal); Firstar Bank; Financial Services – Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC); Psynapse/Center for the Advancement of Intelligent Systems; MAPICS; MIS Training Institute WebSec, HealthSec, and InfoSec Conferences; Influent Technology Group; Case Management Society of America); The CMA Group; Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co.; Advanced Health Care; Navy Federal Credit Union; Arthur Andersen; Credit Union Executives Society; Graduate School of Banking; Allstate Insurance; American Council of Life Insurance; Conference of State Legislatures; Society for Technical Communication; the Attorney General of the State of Wisconsin; the Governor’s Conference on Economic Development;

numerous colleges and universities, including the U of Wisconsin (Madison, Eau Claire, LaCrosse. Milwaukee, Parkside, Washington County and Stout campuses) and the University of Wisconsin – Waukesha Distinguished Lecture Series; University Research Park; Marquette University; Loyola University – Chicago, University of Chicago – Ryerson Astronomical Society; University of Calgary; Alverno College; Cardinal Stritch University; Mount Mary College; Wisconsin Medical College; Illinois Institute of Technology; Purdue University – CERIAS; the Technology, Literacy and Culture Distinguished Speakers Series of the University of Texas; and as the Nathan B. Stubblefield Distinguished Lecturer in Telecommunications Systems Management at Murray State University. He keynoted a conference on meta-data for the University of Texas – San Antonio in March 2015 and keynoted the University of Wisconsin IT Management Council systemwide conference and the University of North Carolina – Charlotte Cyber Conference in 2017. He spoke at St. Thomas University in the Twin Cities in September 2018.

Publications

The Best of Islands in the Clickstream – 2021 (Exurban Press)

Mobius: A Memoir – a novel 2020 (Exurban Press)

“The Road to Resilience: Strategies for Playing Through the Pain” – ICS2.- Nov-Dec 2018

a review of “UFOs: Reframing the Debate”  Journal of Scientific Exploration, fall 2018

A Richard Thieme Reader – a 5-volume e-book anthology of fiction and non-fiction on Kindle, spring 2016

FOAM – a novel (Exurban Press: September 2015)

Mind Games, A Collection of Nineteen Stories of Brave New Worlds and Alternate Realities Duncan Long Publications, April 2010

Richard Thieme’s Islands in the Clickstream, a collection of non-fiction, Syngress Publishing (a division of Elsevier), July 2004.

UFOs and Government: A Historical Inquiry (Anomalist Books: San Antonio, TX: 2012) by Michael Swords and Robert Powell, with Richard Thieme, Clas Svahn, Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, Bill Chalker, Barry Greenwood, Jan Aldrich, and Steve Purcell – a team effort by a collection of veteran UFO historians and researchers who spent four-plus years researching, consulting, writing, and editing to develop a work of historical scholarship on government response to the UFO phenomenon from WWII to the present. Recommended by CHOICE for inclusion in all academic libraries, currently in 100+ university and public libraries.

“Silent Emergent, Doubly Dark” in Subtle Edens (editor Allen Ashley, Elastic Press: Norwich UK: 2008)

“I Remember Mama” in New Writing, Volume One: An Anthology of Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction, and Drama From Press Americana (2013)

“Entering Sacred Digital Space” published in New Paradigms for Bible Study: The Bible in the Third Millennium from T. & T. Clark, Ltd., June 2004.

“Identity/Destiny” published in Prophecy Anthology, Volume 1″  a full-color book featuring sequential art by artists such as Shannon Wheeler, Scott McCloud, Sho Murase, Yuko Shimizu, Nathan Fox and Bernie Mireault by Sequent Media (2004).

“The Changing Context of Intelligence and Ethics:  Enabling Technologies as Transformational Engines” in Defense Intelligence Journal. Published in an adapted version in the proceedings of the New Paradigms for Security Workshop (NPSW 2008) and at the Ethical Spectacle (January 2009 – www.spectacle.org/ as “Changing Contexts of Security and Ethics: You Can’t Have One Without the Other.”

Short stories in Analog Science Fiction, Ascent, The Puckerbrush Review, Timber Creek Review, Porcupine, Zahir, The Future Fire, The Ranfurly Review, Bewildering Stories, anotherealm, Pacific Coast Journal, The Potomac Review, Red Wheelbarrow, Karamu, Combat, Heartlands, The Circle Magazine, The Listening Ear, Words on Walls, Nth Degree, Down in the Dirt, EWG, Phrack, Cantaraville (Eight), Chaos Theory: Tales Askew, Wanderings Magazine, BigCityLit, Adelaide Literary Magazine, Review Americana, The Scarlet Leaf Review

articles in: Forbes, Salon, Information Security, SIGNAL, American Center for Democracy, Review Americana, The Gardian (Infragard), Secure Business Quarterly, Cyber Defense Magazine, ICS Squared, LAN Magazine, Village Voice, LA Weekly, South Africa Computer Magazine, Wired, Counter Punch, The Pedestal Magazine, Common Dreams, alternet, Internet Underground, National Catholic Reporter, Anglican Theological Review, Asia Times Online, .net, Internet Today, Pravda, rebelion, ATTAC Madrid, Computing Japan, Business Times of Singapore, Convergence (Toronto), Computer Underground Digest, CTHEORY, DoubleClick, Ethical Spectacle, Small Business Times, Computer Mediated Communication, Skeptica (Denmark), Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Informatiebeveiliging (Netherlands). Now Magazine (Toronto), Future Briefs, Access Control & Security Systems, The Bangladesh Report, Phrack, The Witness, Interesting Times
articles anthologized in Digital Delirium, Cyber Reader II, Cyberculture (UK).

fiction anthologized in CyberTales: Live Wire; Chaos Theory; Distinguished Writing: A Master‘s Journal; Whortleberry Summer; Autumn Glory; and Subtle Eden (November 2008, London, Elastic Press). Non-fiction anthologized in New Writing, Volume One: An Anthology of Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction, and Drama From Press Americana

the short stories Gibby the Sit-down King, published in the Timber Creek Review, and The Man Who Hadn’t Disappeared, published in Karamu, were nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Contact

Richard Thieme
https://thiemeworks.com
[email protected]
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