Richard Thieme

About Richard Thieme

Richard Thieme is an author and professional speaker focused on the deeper implications of technology, religion, and science for twenty-first century life.

Thieme’s creative use of the Internet to reach global markets has 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 and… “an online pundit of hacker culture” according to the LA 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 numerous universities in Europe, Australia, Canada, and the United States. His work has been frequently anthologized. His column, ‘Islands in the Clickstream’, has been published in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Toronto, Djakarta, Dublin and Capetown and distributed to subscribers in 60 countries.

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.

Thieme has spoken for twelve straight years for the Black Hat Briefings (intelligence and corporate security) and Def Con, an annual computer hackers’ convention. He has also spoken for security conferences such as Toor Con, PumpCon, Interz0ne West, SecurityOPUS, Xmas Con (New Orleans 2600), RubiCon, HiverCon (Dublin), ShmooCon, NotaCon and RootFest. He keynoted AUSCERT in Brisbane, Australia in 2005 and 2006 and returned to deliver a closing speech in 2007. He keynoted govcert in The Hague in 2007. He keynoted Wireless Australia 2006 and the ID Management Summit 2006 in Sydney. He keynoted Microsoft Tech Ed in consecutive years 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 will return to keynote a corporatre/government security conference in Wellington in 2009. He keynoted IT Defense in Berlin in February 2009. He has been invited in addition to speak in Oslo, London, Riyadh, Dubai, Singapore and Beijing.

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 officer, “You’re the only one in the room with the acceptance and respect of both the hacking community and the Feds”.

Clients include: GE Medical Systems; Medtronic; Microsoft Israel; Johnson Controls; the Pentagon; the FBI; the US Secret Service; Los Alamos National Laboratory; US Department of the Treasury; 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; 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; Alverno College; Purdue University – CERIAS; and the Technology, Literacy and Culture Distinguished Speakers Series of the University of Texas.