Christopher Hadnagy

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Christopher J. Hadnagy
General Keith Alexander (left) offers Chris Hadnagy the NSA Director's challenge coin at DEF CON 20[1]
Born
Christopher James Hadnagy
OccupationsInformation technology consultant, author
Organization(s)Innocent Lives Foundation, Social-Engineer, LLC
Websitewww.social-engineer.com

Christopher James Hadnagy is an American author and information security consultant. He specializes in social engineering and has taught classes, conducted trainings, and written books on the topic. He established the Innocent Lives Foundation, which aims to identify online predators. He coordinated events at DEF CON about social engineering for several years. In 2022 the DEF CON organizers banned him from the conference based on reports of code of conduct violations.[2][3] He denied wrongdoing and sued the organizers for defamation.[3][4] A judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2025.[4][5]

Career

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Hadnagy is the founder and CEO of Social-Engineer LLC,[6] a company that provides consulting and training related to social engineering.[7] The company's services include penetration testing using social engineering techniques.[8][9] He established Social-Engineer.Org, an IT security education website.[10] Hadnagy has developed a social engineering framework, published a newsletter, and hosted a podcast focused on the subject.[9][11] As of 2021–2022, he is an adjunct professor at the University of Arizona College of Applied Science and Technology.[12]

He was previously the operations manager at a security training company, Offensive Security.[13] Before that, he worked in sales consulting, sales training, and technology services.[14][15][16][17]

Charitable foundation

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In 2017, Hadnagy founded the Innocent Lives Foundation, which has a goal of protecting children from online predators by identifying people who produce or trade child sexual abuse material.[18][19] Staff and volunteers use open-source intelligence to gather information, and they give it to law enforcement agencies in the United States.[19][20] Hadnagy said in 2018 that the work had led to two arrests.[21] In 2019, 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.[22][23][24]

Conferences

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Hadnagy contributed to DEF CON by helping create a social engineering capture the flag competition in 2009.[25] He ran this competition and coordinated other social engineering education activities at the annual conference for several years.[26][1] In 2021, he presented at Security BSides in Idaho Falls, Idaho, on the topic of cancel culture.[27][28]

DEFCON ban and lawsuit

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The organizers of DEF CON permanently banned Hadnagy in February 2022 for code of conduct violations, a decision he publicly disputed.[3][29][12][28] Hadnagy was previously a member of the review board for the Black Hat conference, and he left or was removed from the board after DEF CON published its ban.[30] In June 2022, Security BSides in Cleveland, Ohio, featured Hadnagy as an unlisted speaker.[27][31][12] Controversy surrounding his participation led to several other speakers withdrawing from the event, and the event organizer apologized and resigned.[27][31][12][3]

Hadnagy sued DEF CON in August 2022 for harm to his reputation (Case No. 2:23-cv-01932-BAT).[32][3][33][34] On February 21, 2025, lawyers on behalf of DEF CON and its founder, Jeff Moss, filed a motion for summary judgment, requesting oral arguments.[2] The motion included details of harassment allegations against Hadnagy.[2][5] Hadnagy filed a motion for sanctions and civil contempt against Moss and DEF CON related to confidential information in the exhibits attached to the motion,[2] which the judge denied on April 14, 2025.[35] On May 13, 2025, the judge dismissed Hadnagy's lawsuit with prejudice because he could not prove the claims against him were false.[4][5][36]

Books

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Hadnagy has authored several books on social engineering:

  • Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking (2010, Wiley Publishing, Inc.) Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).[28]
    • Second edition: Social Engineering: The Science of Human Hacking (2018, John Wiley & Sons Inc.) Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).[6][37]
  • Unmasking the Social Engineer: The Human Element of Security (2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.) Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  • Phishing Dark Waters: The Offensive and Defensive Sides of Malicious E-mails (2015, John Wiley & Sons Inc.), co-authored with Michele Fincher Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).[38]
  • Human Hacking: Win Friends, Influence People, and Leave Them Better Off for Having Met You (2021, Harper Business) Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).

References

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