ICS0018 CotW seminars

The idea

The Crook of the Week seminars are meant for student presentations/talks about famous social engineers of the past. Each seminar will host up to four 15-minute presentations by different students, plus discussion. The main points of the presentation are

• to introduce the person (biography)
• to explain the motivation behind his/her actions
• to study the modus operandi (ways) of social engineering by this person
• to outline the main human weaknesses the person exploited (cognitive biases, automatic thinking etc)
• to summarize the main lesson the person teaches us

A successful presentation will result in passing the course if the attendance criteria (5 out of 8 lectures and seminars) is met. To register a presentation, please send an e-mail to Kaido, stating the chosen time and person to cover. There are only 16 presentations in total - first come, first served! Others would have to resort to other tasks to pass the course!

The Crooks

Note: the list is not exhaustive - feel free to suggest others!

• Carlo Ponzi
• Victor Lustig
• Frank Abagnale Jr
• Mark Abene (Phiber Optik)
• Kevin Mitnick
• Susan Headley (Suzy Thunder)
• Kevin Poulsen (Dark Dante)
• Bernie Madoff
• Elizabeth Holmes
• Sam Bankman-Fried
• Mythical and literary characters: Jacob (Old Testament), Odysseus, Iago, Grima Wormtongue...
• BYOC (Bring Your Own Crook): introduce a well-known crook from your home country (as we are a very international bunch)!

The Seminars

The CotW seminars will have the following schedule:

• Tuesday, March 4, at 10:00:
  • Alexandar Ivov Nikolov - Kevin Mitnick ✓
  • Aleš Sršeň - Frank Abagnale Jr ✓
  • Felix Mengele - Anna Sorokin (BYOC Suggestion) ✓
  • Tom Konstantin Ege - Jan Marsalek (BYOC Suggestion) ✓
• Tuesday, March 11, at 10:00:
  • Jakub Fleislébr - Elizabeth Holmes ✓
  • Theodor Degen - Sam Bankman-Fried ✓
  • Najaf Alkhazov - Matthew Weigman ✓
  • Timo Uustal - Victor Lustig ✓
  • (extra) Davyd Viniarskyi - Brett Johnson / ShadowCrew ✓
• Tuesday, March 18, at 10:00:
  • Deborah Allan Chapkovski - Mark Abene (Phiber Optik) - POSTPONED TO EXTRA SEMINAR
  • Thomas Dourgarian - Billy McFarland (BYOC) ✓
  • Karol Keelmann - Bernie Madoff ✓
  • Miriam Popič - Grima Wormtongue ✓
• Tuesday, March 25, at 10:00:
  • Jan Polách - Viktor Kožený (BYOC Suggestion) ✓
  • Mattia Roveri - Niccolò Machiavelli (BYOC) ✓
  • Max Renner - Susan Headley ✓
  • Simon Jäschke - Carlo Ponzi ✓

Note: the check mark (✓) after the presentation denotes successful completion.

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