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FC (Freaky Clown)      

Ethical Hacker & Social Engineer

FC is the author of the upcoming book "How I rob banks", and advises organisations on how to create a secure, safe environment.

Author, keynote speaker, Co-Founder of Cygenta and former Head of Offensive Cyber Research at Raytheon. As an ethical hacker for the last three decades, FC has helped thousands of banks, governments and other organisations advance their security.

He has shared his expertise in mainstream media, including the BBC and ITV, as well as popular industry podcasts such as Darknet Diaries (EP66). He has also been featured in printed media around the world educating people about cyber security from a hacker’s perspective.

His time as the Head of Offensive Research at Raytheon enables him to bring to bear his knowledge of how nation states and the intelligence community work with cyber weapons and how to defend against them. The decades he has spent legally breaking into organisations, both physically and digitally, has taken him around the globe in the fight against cybercrime.

Whilst FC is his memorable real name (it really is what's on his passport!), he is often better known by his hacker handle 'Freakyclown'. The name that was given to him by bullies as a schoolboy has now been turned into a positive alter ego for FC to educate the world on cyber security issues.

Born in the UK, FC and his wife Dr. Jessica Barker now live in Las Vegas, USA with their cat Bubble.

Speech Topics


How I rob banks

An eye-opening, informative and entertaining session that takes you on a light-hearted trip through the security issues, both physical and electronic, that have enabled this ethical hacker and social engineer to compromise the world’s largest banks and organisations. Using tales from the front line, FC takes you through the lessons to be learned from an ethical hacker with a penchant for breaking into the impossible. Join him on a rollercoaster ride of epic security fails and grandiose plans, including lock picking, kidnap, police chases and multi-million-pound bank heists.

The (nation) state of cyber security

This talk brings the audience up to speed on the cutting edge of cybercrime. What is the current state of the possible if you are not just a hacker, but a nation-state backed hacker group that has nearly unlimited resources? FC leverages his work within the intelligence and defense communities and brings to light the most recent attack vectors.

How a hack works: Spearphishing with demo

Year on year, phishing attacks keep on growing. In this session, we discuss and demonstrate the who, how and why of social engineering. We cover how phishing attacks work, the human factors behind them and what we can do to mitigate against them. Including a demonstration of a spear-phishing email attack (from the attacker and victim side), this session demystifies cyber insecurity and tackles both the human and technical elements at play.

This presentation can be delivered in partnership with Dr Jessica Barker.

How a hack works: Ransomware with demo

For the last few years, ransomware attacks have continued to rise. Often untargeted, and unforgiving, research suggests that the majority of victims pay the ransom – and, consequently, the payments being demanded continue to grow. we explore what ransomware is, how it is spread and what individuals and organisations can do to protect themselves from it. Including a demonstration of a ransomware attack, this session enables participants to understand one of the biggest current cyber security threats and what they can do immediately to safeguard data against it.

This presentation can be delivered in partnership with Dr Jessica Barker.

Artificial Intelligence broken down

This talk gives a great overview of the state of AI, covering the good the bad and the ugly of AI driven technologies. Find out how they work, where they work and how they are being hacked. FC uses his expertise to take apart many of the myths around AI and helps generate a discussion around the use of AI and its future problems.

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