Social engineer · Keynote speaker Behavioral security

I emailed the White House. They replied in minutes.

Then I did it to Wall Street CEOs, the Governor of the Bank of England and the White House - time after time, it worked. The talk is me working through it honestly: how it happened, how it actually felt, and the uncomfortable, very human reasons it kept working.

Book me to speak → See what I talk about

James Linton being interviewed on a podcast — In the studio

James Linton delivering a keynote, his press coverage on the screen behind him — In the studio

Spoken at & worked with

UberSiemensMercedes-BenzUS Secret ServiceUK NCSC

As featured by

BuzzFeed NewsCNNJimmy Kimmel

01 / THE TALK

No polished hero’s tale. That’s the point.

A first-person journey from office prankster to fooling some of the most powerful inboxes on earth - honest about the thrill, the panic, and the very human psychology that made it all work. Fair warning: it’s a little rustic. That’s rather the point.

The story

How an office prankster with no security background ended up in the inboxes of CEOs, bankers and the White House - and the moment it stopped feeling like a game.

The honest bit

The thrill, the panic, the paranoia that followed - and what the way my own brain works had to do with why any of it worked at all.

The live teardown

The actual emails I sent - Goldman Sachs, Citibank, the White House - pulled apart on screen, and what AI changes from here.

02 / THE FRAMEWORKS

The ideas behind the work.

The talks come from somewhere: frameworks built to explain how manipulation actually works - and to teach people to see it before the click.

Behavioral security framework↗

ASK&DO

Every request has a grammar. A universal model for tracing the gap between what is asked and what gets done - across people, messages and AI agents. Includes a live grammar lab where you can compose a request and watch the risk shift.

james-linton.com/ask-doExplore →

Live team format↗

BATTLEPHISH

Phishing awareness as a team competition: everyone attacks, everyone defends, then everyone learns why the message worked. The battle is the hook - the learning is the outcome. Built on Ask&Do thinking.

james-linton.com/battlephishExplore →

Solo security game↗

INBOX ARENA

A five-minute solo drill. Attack, defend and read the ask behind six inbox encounters - score, streak and a rank to share. No account, no money, just your judgement.

james-linton.com/inbox-arenaPlay →

Editorial field note↗

BETWEEN ASK & DO

Why believable lures feel true. Four situations people actually fall for, what each one borrows and what it quietly takes - and the equation behind inherited trust. The thinking the other three are built on.

james-linton.com/between-ask-and-doRead →

03 / THE STORY

From pranking the powerful to working with the people who protect them.

It started as an experiment in 2016: a lookalike email address, a message to a senior White House official, a reply within minutes. I wasn’t exploiting software. I was exploiting culture.

That realisation took me from the headlines to briefing the US Secret Service and collaborating with the UK’s NCSC - and today, to building tools at QuilrAI to fight the threats I once demonstrated.

04 / WRITING

Written while I was working it out.

Before there were frameworks there were notes - me trying to explain to myself why any of this worked. Rough in places, and left as they were.

Hacking a Hacker

I tried to introduce myself to the winners of a social engineering competition by phishing them. It worked. Neither of them has spoken to me since.

Inbox Hypnotism™

The name I gave the trance you fall into blasting through your inbox - and why it is exactly the state a scammer needs you to be in.

Design & UX is cyber body language

We read emails with our eyes before we read them with our heads. What a message looks like is doing more of the persuading than what it says.

All writing →

05 / BOOK

“A talk people quote back to you for weeks.”

Honest, funny and genuinely useful - part storytelling, part live demonstration, tailored to executives, technical teams or all-staff sessions.

Formats Conference keynote Internal all-staff Executive or board briefing

Running time

45 minutes plus 15 minutes of Q&A. Adaptable between 30 and 60 minutes.

Delivered in person or virtually.

What I need

A screen with HDMI, a lapel or handheld microphone, and a presenter clicker. Slides run 16:9.

No security knowledge assumed in the room.

Book me to speak → Download one-sheet ↓

Or email directly: j@james-linton.com