Samy Kamkar is a renowned cybersecurity researcher, entrepreneur, and former hacker who is an authority on cybercrime, hacking, and exposing systemic vulnerabilities. His career trajectory, which includes co-founding the unified communications company Fonality Inc., is defined by his ability to identify and exploit security flaws, demonstrating a profound technical mastery over network security and reverse engineering.
Kamkar gained notoriety at the young age of 20 when he unleashed the Samy worm on MySpace in 2005. This single act crippled MySpace servers and exposed major security vulnerabilities, making him one of the most famous hackers in history. His ability to create such high-impact exploits, however, evolved into a constructive mission: he now helps businesses discover their own systems' vulnerabilities, transitioning his skills from disruptive hacking to defensive security research.
As a leading privacy and security researcher, Kamkar is the creator of several groundbreaking tools that reveal system weaknesses. Evercookie exposed vulnerabilities in NSA systems, while his research was instrumental in revealing the unlawful mobile tracking practices of iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone devices, leading to major lawsuits and a privacy hearing on Capitol Hill. This commitment to exposing critical flaws for the public good underscores his influence in the privacy sphere.
Kamkar continues to innovate at the cutting edge of security. He created SkyJack, a custom drone capable of hacking and taking control of nearby Parrot drones, which he made publicly available just before Amazon unveiled its drone delivery service, Amazon Prime Air. His 2016 release of PoisonTap demonstrated a simple, yet highly effective method for hijacking secured and encrypted computers. His presentations provide organizations with a chillingly real and actionable understanding of their cyber vulnerabilities and the strategic importance of advanced security.
