Ben Owen

Why organisations work with Ben Owen

• He has spent more than two decades on the operational side of intelligence, from sniper duties in Iraq to leading covert teams against counter-terrorism, counter-proliferation, and counter-espionage targets. Few cyber speakers can speak from that side of the line.
• He runs live OSINT demonstrations from the stage, exposing what an attacker can assemble about a named executive in minutes. Audiences leave with a visceral understanding of their own exposure, not a slide on the threat landscape.
• As co-founder of The OSINT Group and Co-Director EMEA for Fortalice Solutions, he advises corporates and high net worth principals on digital risk every week. The keynote content is drawn from current casework, not historical anecdote.
• His Hunted profile gives him cultural reach that board members already recognise, which lowers the resistance non-technical executives bring to cyber conversations.

Biography highlights

• Co-founder, The OSINT Group, an intelligence-led cyber security consultancy.
• Co-Director, EMEA Region, Fortalice Solutions, the global cyber and intelligence firm founded by former White House CIO Theresa Payton.
• Former British intelligence officer, with operational experience in counter-terrorism, counter-proliferation, and counter-espionage.
• Former sniper in the British Forces, deployed to Cyprus, Kuwait, and Iraq.
• Lead hunter and Head of Intelligence across the UK, US, and Australian versions of Hunted (Channel 4, CBS, Channel 10).
• Quoted by The National and Transport + Energy on online fraud and EV charging cyber risk.

Biography

The attack surface that matters to senior leaders is no longer the corporate firewall. It is the LinkedIn post that confirms a travel date, the loyalty programme that leaks an address, the family member whose social profile fills in the gap. Adversaries assemble these fragments into a picture. Most boards have never been shown that picture.

Ben Owen has spent his career on the other side of it. He served as a sniper in the British Forces in Cyprus, Kuwait, and Iraq, then moved into the British intelligence services, where he led covert teams running counter-terrorism, counter-proliferation, and counter-espionage operations. Twenty-five years of operational work sits behind the keynote.

He now co-runs The OSINT Group, an intelligence-led cyber consultancy, and serves as Co-Director EMEA at Fortalice Solutions, the firm founded by former White House CIO Theresa Payton. Current client work, on high net worth principals, corporate executives, and institutional risk, supplies the material for his speaking. Television audiences know him as a recurring hunter across the UK, US, and Australian versions of Hunted; corporate audiences see the same skill set turned on their own organisation.

On stage he runs live demonstrations. A volunteer’s name and employer are usually enough to build a profile in front of the room. The point is not theatre. It is to compress the gap between abstract cyber briefings and the operational reality a board now has to govern.

Key speaking topics

• Cyber security as a board-level risk
• Open-source intelligence and digital footprint exposure
• The human element of modern cyber threats
• Executive and principal protection in a digital environment
• Counter-fraud and social engineering
• Operational leadership under pressure
• Surveillance, evasion, and the Hunted methodology

Ideal for

• Boards, CISOs, and CROs commissioning a non-technical reset on cyber risk
• Executive offboarding, principal protection, and family office audiences
• Sales kick-offs and client events where a recognisable name needs to land a serious message
• Industry conferences on financial services, energy, transport, and professional services

Audience outcomes

• A working picture of what a determined adversary can learn about a named executive from open sources alone
• Specific changes to personal digital hygiene that materially reduce exposure within a week
• A vocabulary for boards to interrogate their cyber and intelligence functions without retreating into IT jargon
• A sharper sense of where social engineering and OSINT meet, and why the human layer is now the primary breach vector