June 15, 2022

Eric O'Neill: Former FBI Agent, Author of Gray Day and the Subject of Universal Studios’ feature film, Breach

1 hour 20 minutes

In this week’s riveting episode, Marcus has a fascinating discussion with Eric O’Neill, former FBI counter-terrorism and counterintelligence operative. Eric played a major role in the arrest, conviction, and imprisonment of one of the most notorious spies in U.S. history - FBI agent Robert Hanssen - who was spying on behalf of the Soviet Union and Russia. Eric’s first-hand accounts of some of his day-to-day activities are events that movies are made of. He has written about his experiences in Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America's First Cyber Spy. Eric is also a public speaker and security expert who lectures internationally about espionage and national security, cybersecurity, fraud, corporate diligence and defense, hacking, and other topics.

In this episode you will hear:

My job at the FBI was to go undercover. I never came out of cover.

There were foreign intelligence officers (spies) who sometimes were some of our own who were spying for other countries.

My father told me “You have to chase your dreams, whatever they might be.”

I’m going to stop spies & terrorists before they kill our citizens.

I was at Quantico [Marine Corps Training Base]. You earn it and you feel like you earned it.

When my wife and I were dating and people would ask me what I do, I would say “I work for the Justice Department as a Geo-Political Analyst.” That would immediately end the inquiry.

There was an instance where a high-level spy was about to be arrested, and disappear, which told us there was a mole in our intelligence community.

The FBI went on a 22-year manhunt for a guy code-named Gray Suit, the biggest spy in U.S. history.

Each time you go after somebody who might be the target you’re after, you give them a derivative code name.

What made Robert Hanssen such a successful spy, is that he was a hacker. He learned how to break into computer systems.

When the FBI had not given him the role he wanted, he volunteered his services to the Russians and gave up 2 of our top spies in Russia for no money to prove he had access. One of them was executed, and the other was sentenced to hard labor.

Analysts are the cream of the crop in figuring out how to catch spies.

Hanssen was the best, most notorious spy in US history. He was the Michael Jordan of the spy world. Nobody did the damage he did.

I was always a bit of a hacker – fascinated by computer systems. Breaking security, not to steal, but so I could understand how to make them stronger.

My mother holds the record for the most time watching the movie “Breach.”

...more

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By Marcus Luttrell

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