David is a cybersecurity authority whose mission is to drive the industry forward and make the world a more secure place. In addition to creating two large-scale cybersecurity firms, David has testified before Congress on issues of national security and has appeared as a subject matter expert on hundreds of national news and TV shows.
CISSP, OSCP, OSCE, GSEC, MCSE, ISO 27001
Prior to creating TrustedSec, David was a Chief Security Officer (CSO) for Diebold Incorporated, a Fortune 1000 company. As a forward thinker in the security field, David has had the privilege of speaking at some of the nation’s largest conferences, including Microsoft’s BlueHat, DEF CON, Black Hat, and DerbyCon, which he co-created in 2011 and expanded into DerbyCon Communities.
David is a regular contributor and subject matter expert on cybersecurity stories for Fox News, CNN, Bloomberg, BBC, and other high-profile media outlets. Further, his tools have been featured on a number of TV shows and movies, and he served as Technical Consultant for the critically acclaimed Mr. Robot TV show.
David served in the United States Marine Corps (USMC), focusing on cyber warfare and forensics analysis activities, including two tours to Iraq. David also served on the board of directors for (ISC)2, which is one of the largest security collectives and offers certifications such as the CISSP.
In an effort to advance the industry, David co-authored ‘Metasploit: The Penetration Testers Guide’ and co-founded the ‘Penetration Testing Execution Standard’ (PTES), which is the industry standard for penetration tests and has been adopted by the Payment Card Industry (PCI). David is the creator of several popular open-source tools, including ‘The Social-Engineer Toolkit’ (SET), PenTesters Framework (PTF), Artillery, and Fast-Track. In addition to focusing on research, David has released a number of security advisories, including zero-days.
David Kennedy’s passion for the information security industry is the reason TrustedSec was born. He wanted to build an organization that helps others in a profound way, serving as technical security experts and advisors to companies of all sizes and industries.
In addition to his formal achievements, David donates his time and wisdom by speaking with civic leaders and students about the importance of security. Bedford High School, David’s alma mater, named its Kennedy Center for Gaming and Leadership in his honor.