Dr Dennis Desmond | UniSC | University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

Dennis Desmond has spent the majority of his career in the counterintelligence discipline, first as a U.S. Army Special Agent, later as an FBI Special Agent, and finally, as a Special Agent with the Defense Intelligence Agency. Dennis is a veteran of Desert Shield, Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom IV, and V. As an FBI Special Agent, Dr. Desmond was assigned to the National Computer Crime Squad as a National Security Division detailee. Dennis specialised in international and state-sponsored cyber threats, especially those from Eastern Europe. Dennis also worked closely with the various intelligence community members on national security-related cybercrime issues. As a Senior Intelligence Officer with the Defense Intelligence Agency, Dennis served as a HUMINT support officer focusing on identity Operations and Identity. Dennis earned several awards and recognition of his establishment and leadership of a specialised cyber unit at Fort Meade, Maryland for the US Department of Defense. Dennis’s last assignment was with the US Special Operations Command as the Chief Identity Scientist supporting Special Mission Unit operations.

Dennis was selected to attend Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government as a National Security Fellow, attended the George C. Marshall School of Government in Garmisch, GE as a Senior Fellow, and has attended a variety of specialised law enforcement and intelligence training courses throughout the world. Dennis has also been an instructor for various U.S. Government agencies specialising in signature reduction, identity operations, and other intelligence related topics.

For his PhD, Dennis researched the processes used by criminals to launder cryptocurrencies from a human factors and sociotechnical systems perspective. He is also currently a researcher at the Centre for Human Factors and Sociotechnical Systems on darknet interventions under an ARC Linkage Grant. Dennis has extensive experience working with international law enforcement and intelligence agency personnel.