“Ex-NSA TAO | AI & Cybersecurity Researcher | Threat Intelligence, AI Security, Offensive Tradecraft & Detection Engineering””
I’m a cybersecurity researcher, former NSA TAO Technical Director, and current threat research leader with ~15 years of experience spanning offensive cyber operations, incident response, malware analysis, threat intelligence, and AI security.
Over the years I’ve worked everywhere from national security operations to startup environments, helping investigate real-world intrusions, build detection systems, reverse engineer malware, and respond to large-scale security incidents.
Today, a lot of my work focuses on the intersection of AI and cybersecurity:
I’m also the founder of TKOResearch, where I’m building high-assurance AI and forensic-grade security technologies.
I tend to approach conversations from a practical operator perspective rather than hype or fear. I’m especially interested in discussing:
I’m comfortable going both highly technical and high-level depending on the audience, and I enjoy conversations that mix engineering, security, strategy, emerging technology, and the future implications of AI systems.
TKOResearch helps startups and technology companies design secure cloud and AI systems through architecture reviews, security advisory, and adversarial analysis.
Kevin O’Connor knew he was a hacker by the time he was in Middle School. He went on to work for the NSA and is now director of threat research at Adlumin.
