Christopher Burgess: Writer, Speaker, Pundit & Commentator | Shining light upon safety, security, intelligence, privacy and national security issues.
Christopher Burgess (@burgessct) is an award-winning writer and speaker on the topics of safety, security, intelligence, privacy, and national security. His byline columns cover outcomes, strategy, tactics, modus operandi, nation-state activities, and erudite research, with emphasis on what the CISO/CSO/CIO/CEO needs to know: the ever-present insider risk management, the prevalence of espionage, and of course the machinations of Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea.
He is also an advisor, consultant, and advocate for effective security strategies, be they at the office or at home. He has deep expertise in intelligence, counterintelligence, competitive intelligence, big data solutions, big data analytics, information security, online safety and security, compliance, and privacy on a global scale.
Should your organization require a writer, speaker or advisor, please contact him via email (christopher@burgessct.com)
He has appeared on CNN, News Nation, BBC, I24, China News, Bloomberg, CBS, NBC, ABC, and others, providing his commentary and analysis. Additionally, he has lectured and presented before government, academic, and business organizations around the globe.
He previously held the position of Senior Security Advisor to Cisco and served 30+ years within the CIA. He has traversed the startup world as CSO, COO, and CEO.
Upon his retirement from the CIA, he was awarded the Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal. Upon his retirement from Cisco, they gifted him a fine Stetson and a bottle of single-barrel Jack.
His freelance work has seen his articles and opinions appear in CSO Online, Clearance Jobs, CIO, Security Boulevard, Sophos Naked Security, Blackberry/Cylance, IBM Security Intelligence, Securely Travel, Palo Alto Networks (internal), Cisco Security Blog, Huffington Post, RSA Conference, and more.
From 2023 through 2025 he wrote a monthly blog for DTEX Systems and hosted their “Conversations from the Inside,” a monthly program on LinkedIn where insider risk thought leaders discussed issues of the day (available on Spotify). He also hosted a weekly program, “Classified Chronicles,” on ClearanceJobs Live (members only), where he discussed national security issues.
He co-authored the book Secrets Stolen, Fortunes Lost: Preventing Intellectual Property Theft and Economic Espionage in the 21st Century (Syngress, 2008). He contributed to Bringing the Social Media Revolution to Health Care, published by the Mayo Clinic (2012). And he wrote the English and Spanish editions of Senior Online Safety (Prevendra, 2014 and 2015).
The world hasn’t slowed, nor has he. Burgess has eschewed retirement and is pursuing consulting, lecturing, freelancing, and several literary projects (seeking representation). His current literary projects are:
- The Trusted and Valued Insider (Threat/Risk): Leveraging his depth of knowledge and experience dealing with insider risk/threat over the course of the past 40+ years, a multi-volume insider risk canon.
- The Quiet War Chronicles: Understanding that political ideology changes, in the same fashion as water erodes the granite. This geopolitical fiction captures the slow drip by drip erosion of society.
- Russia’s American Seed: Drawing on decades of counterintelligence experience with Russian operations, this espionage thriller examines the long-game cultivation of deep-cover assets and “seeds” embedded within American institutions, where trust is weaponized and partial victories mask enduring threats to national security.
- Secrets Stolen, Fortunes Lost: Navigating the Perfect Storm of Intellectual Property Threats (2026 Edition): He is working on a revised and updated version of the original (published in 2008), bringing the prescience seen in 2008 to the reality of 2026 and offering insight into the future.
- The Truth Traveler’s Compass: Sorting Donkey Dust from Gold Dust in the Age of AI: An everyperson’s guide to navigating the accelerating flood of AI-generated misinformation and discerning truth in an era of deepfakes and synthetic content.
He resides in “Slower Lower Delaware,” where he moves at the most appropriate speed, with his 5-year-old German Shepard companion. He can be spotted crabbing on the Little Assawoman Bay and occasionally breaking out a move on the dance floors of the dive bars of Fenwick Island, Delaware and Ocean City, Maryland.
A chronology of his writing (2006-2026) is available Burgess Writing Chronology
