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Jeff Lanza  

Retired FBI Special Agent

Jeff Lanza was an FBI Special Agent for over 20 years, during which he investigated cybercrime, organized crime, human trafficking, and terrorism. Lanza has lectured at Harvard and Princeton Universities and written two highly reviewed books. He is featured in a Netflix documentary about the FBI and he often appears on national television news programs where he talks about the growing threat of cybercrime.

Lanza was chosen as the best speaker in the 50-year history of Kansas City’s prestigious Plaza Club. He is a professional speaker who has provided over one thousand presentations on the topics of cybercrime, leadership, crisis communication, ethics, identity theft, body language and more. His clients include 20th Century Fox Entertainment, UBS, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Nationwide, Citigroup, The Young Presidents Organization, American Century, Hallmark, H & R Block, Hess Oil, Standard and Poor’s, Financial Executives International, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo and others. He developed and presented a program on identity theft prevention which was used to educate a nationwide audience of Citigroup employees. His program on the topic of leadership integrity has been certified for education credits across the United States. Lanza was a headline keynote presenter at an international cyber security conference in Dubai in 2022. As a special guest and cyber security expert, he presented to employees and business clients of Optus Communications in Sydney, Australia in 2023.

Lanza was head of operations security for the Kansas City FBI and a graduate of the world-renowned John E. Reid School of Interviewing and Interrogation. He is a certified FBI instructor and has trained numerous government agencies and corporate clients on how to interpret and project body language for more effective interpersonal communication.

In addition to his latest book on the topic of cyber security, Lanza authored speeches for FBI executives and has been published in The Kansas City Star, Ingram’s Magazine and on the FBI National Web site.

Lanza consulted for academy award winning director Ang Lee during the production of Ride with the Devil, and he has provided regular consulting services for television and movie production in Hollywood at Steele Films and Granfalloon Productions. Lanza was a major contributor and appeared on camera in a recent episode of The History Channel’s, “America’s Book of Secrets”. He was featured in the companion documentary to the major theatrical release Runner - Runner, which stars Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake. Lanza has been featured in television commercials on the topic of fraud prevention.

Lanza was recruited by the FBI from Xerox Corporation, where he was a Computer Systems Analyst. He has an undergraduate degree in Criminal Justice from the University of New Haven (Connecticut) and a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the University of Texas.

Speech Topics


Crisis Communication

How to Feed the Media Without Getting Your Arm Chewed Off

When a crisis occurs in any company, across any industry, there are in reality two separate crises. The first is the immediate problem that caused the crisis in the first place. The second crisis can far outlive the first and potentially destroy a company. The second crisis involves the public's perception of what happened, how it happened and what was done to fix it and ensure their safety and well being.

The clear and concise communication of information to the media, who in turn delivers these messages to multiple audiences including the public, regulators, your stockholders and your board of directors, is of crucial importance.

This presentation instructs managers and communicators the importance of effective communication in a crisis and how to ensure this is accomplished in a media climate of instant traditional news and user generated news reporting through social media such as Twitter and YouTube.

This presentation includes specific instruction on how to deal with the media during a crisis, what they expect from companies, and how to develop and deliver clear messages that can mitigate the stresses that may be placed on the public as a result of your company's crisis.

Following the presentation, audience members will be able to:

  • Quickly determine what communication actions they should take during a crisis and what information is crucial to communicate to internal and external audiences.

  • Be able to effectively communicate in times of crisis through the development of key themes and messages.

  • Be able to prepare for media communications in live and taped segments and in confrontational and non-confrontational settings.

  • Be able to plan and implement a strategy for effective use of social media during a crisis.* Mr. Lanza has a unique connection to the Kansas City Massacre. Throughout his career as an FBI Agent, he held the badge that was once carried by FBI Agent Frank Smith, who was present at the Massacre in 1933.

Cyber Security, Identy Theft & Social Media

Staying Safe in a New Era of Communication

Monumental shifts in technology have dramatically changed the way we communicate. Facebook's 400 million users, if measured as a country, would be the world's third largest. The fastest growing category of Facebook users is not generation X or Y, it is baby boomers. Are they prepared to deal with increasing risks that social media present?

As with any other crime, more users mean more targets. Scammers and identity thieves are using social networking sites to target the unsuspecting who have let their guard down because they think they are talking to their "friends".

This presentation covers the world of fraud in social media, identity thieves, and cyber-crime with a special emphasis on the increasingly popular networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Without being overly technical, the program is informative and entertaining and will help the audience employ best practices to be safe in Web 2.0 and beyond.

Following the presentation, audience members will be able to:

  • Identify specific ways criminals obtain personal information from individuals on social networking sites.

  • Identify practices to prevent personal information from being compromised.

  • Prepare specific actions to take if your personal information is breached.

  • Take specific steps to avoid being the victim of identity theft, cyber fraud and social networking fraud.

Stopping Identity Theft Before it Stops You

Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States. Victim's lives can be turned upside down by the time-consuming, hassled-filled experience of repairing their good name. This presentation focuses on identifying how criminals steal identities and demonstrates the simple steps individuals can employ to keep their identities safe. The presentation assists employees in identifying and protecting personal information in their personal lives and helps keep them safe from the plethora of scams and frauds that pervade our society. It is focused on a solution oriented approach based on real life examples. During the presentation, Mr. Lanza provides numerous resources and specific tips and recommendations.

Following the presentation, audience members will be able to:

  • Identify specific ways criminals obtain personal information from individuals

  • Identify information management practices to prevent personal information from being compromised.

  • Prepare specific actions to take if your personal information is breached.

  • Check and monitor a personal credit file and determine the personal necessity of fraud alerts, credit monitoring, and credit freezes.

Simple Safeguards

Stopping Identity Theft Before it Stops Your Business. Organizations at all levels are a repository of personal information. That information, whether it is stored electronically or physically, is the target of identity thieves. One of the fastest growing crimes in the United States, identity theft can have dire effects on the victim and the entity whose security was breached. The audience will leave with a better understanding of the four key components of an effective security program: physical, personnel, information and computer. They will be empowered with a more complete knowledge of what they can do to protect the personal information of their business and specific actions they can take to reduce their vulnerabilities to information breaches.

Following the presentation, audience members will be able to:

  • Develop and implement an effective corporate and departmental security policy that helps deter and prevent identity theft.

  • Implement effective procedures and techniques to protect digital media from identity theft.

  • Implement effective procedures and techniques to protect physical documents from identity theft.

  • Minimize the risk of an employee's misuse of stored personal information.

Lost Trust

How to Prevent the Extinction of the Ethical Business Leader. This presentation provides an educational framework which will help the audience remain personally vigilant against ethical lapses in relation to their corporate responsibility. A personal commitment to a high standard of ethics and integrity is extremely important to protect the future of any organization. While chronicling failures of integrity from the cubicle to the executive suite, this presentation provides a positive framework for ethical leadership in any organizational role.Examples from the real world helps participants use the power of long-term thinking, projective empathy, and courage to navigate toward personal and corporate goals with their morality and integrity intact.

Following the presentation, audience members will be able to:

  • Recognize and help impede the effect of four factors that lead to unethical behavior.

  • Prevent unethical behavior through recognition of early warning signs in the life cycle of lost integrity.

  • Foster a culture of personal and corporate integrity by helping their employees adapt a long-term philosophy, projective empathy and ethical decision making in difficult and ambiguous situations.

  • Facilitate the affirmation of ethical leadership in all corporate roles through a renewed sense of accountability, truthfulness, a commitment to priorities and a well defined mission.

Hoodlums to Hackers

How Crooks Beat the System And What We Can Do To Stop Them. This presentation is an informative and descriptive account of crime and justice in America. Jeff Lanza, whose FBI badge is connected to the historic Massacre, describes the evolution of criminal behavior throughout the years. His presentation enlightens the audience on how criminals, fraudsters, scam artists and computer hackers have taken advantage of vulnerabilities and weak defenses to commit their crimes and what we can to mitigate and prevent today's crime problems on a personal and business level.

Following the presentation, audience members will be able to:

  • Identify specific ways criminals take advantage of weak defenses and exploit vulnerabilities to commit crime.

  • Incorporate specific steps that can be taken at the personal level to protect themselves from new and emerging crimes.

  • Incorporate specific steps that can be taken at the business level to protect an organization from new and emerging crimes.

  • Be better protected against crimes involving frauds, scams, identity theft and computer crime.

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