Expert Bio

Ken Westbrook is a Distinguished Fellow at the Wilson Center. Mr. Westbrook is one of the foremost experts on cybercrime that is affecting consumers in the United States. His research has documented the sharp rise in cyber-enabled financial crimes and best practices to combat this new threat to our society and our nation’s security. He is the founder and CEO of Stop Scams Alliance, a nonprofit whose mission is to significantly reduce scams in the United States through a comprehensive, systemic approach involving public-private partnership and cross-sector cooperation from technology, telecom, financial institutions, consumer advocacy groups, and government. The focus is to stop scams at the source, before they reach the consumer in the first place.

Mr. Westbrook served for 33 years at the Central Intelligence Agency, including four years in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). Mr. Westbrook served in multiple senior analytical and executive positions, including Chief of the Nuclear Weapons Security Task Force and Deputy Chief of the Interagency Balkan Task Force. As Director, Business and Information Strategy, he conceived and led a major overhaul of the information technology used by CIA’s analytic directorate. 

Mr. Westbrook capped his intelligence career by serving as the US Intelligence Community’s  Director of Information Sharing and Mission Requirements. He led numerous projects that significantly improved information integration, sharing, and protection. The White House chose Mr. Westbrook to lead a group to recommend improvements to federal information security in the wake of the WikiLeaks disclosures. He received numerous IC awards, including the National Intelligence Superior Service Medal and the William L. Langer award, the highest commendation offered by CIA's Directorate of Intelligence.

After retiring from government service, Mr. Westbrook served as a strategy consultant for the US subsidiary of SAP. He also worked as a strategy adviser for Oracle Corporation, the world’s second largest software manufacturer. At Oracle, he was a co-inventor of a patent-pending security capability. Mr. Westbrook subsequently joined the adjunct faculty at Georgetown University, where he created and taught a graduate-level class in Information Management.

Mr. Westbrook graduated from Pomona College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations. He also holds Master’s degrees from the US College of Naval Warfare (National Security and Strategic Studies) and from Georgetown University (Government).

Major op-eds and publications include:

• “Why the US already knows how to fight cyber scams”
• “What the US Can Learn from Australia's Scam Crackdown”
• “Cyber-Enabled Financial Crime is Surging: How to Fight Back”
• “As Scams by Foreign Organized Crime Soar, Here’s How America Must Respond”
•  “Scams are the policy problem no one is talking about”
• “Scams Against Americans are Skyrocketing. The US Tech Sector and Government can Turn the Tide”
• “Foreign Criminals are Scamming Americans out of Billions of Dollars. Is it a National Security Threat?”