Hallucinations, Hustlers & Human Hacking: AI’s New Role in Social Engineering

Hallucinations, Hustlers & Human Hacking: AI’s New Role in Social Engineering by Erich Kron Once upon a time, the average phishing email was easy to spot. They were packed with misspelled words, strange fonts, and more red flags than a bad Tinder date. Then AI showed up. Now, attackers have an army of tireless chatbots that can spin believable pretexts, mimic executive tone, and even translate and localize scams, all in the time it takes to make a cup of coffee. Generative AI and large language models (LLMs) have taken traditional social engineering and supercharged it, making it faster, more personalized, and alarmingly convincing. Here’s the digital version of Fast and Furious, and we aren’t all family here. In this talk, Erich Kron dives into the fascinating (and slightly terrifying) intersection of AI and human manipulation. From deepfakes that “Zoom bomb” boardrooms to voice-cloned voicemails from your “CEO,” we’ll explore how threat actors are more easily turning hallucinations into hustles, and why awareness programs and human-risk management must evolve just as fast. You’ll walk away with: • A deeper knowledge of AI-powered social engineering campaigns • Practical defense strategies to reduce human risk in the age of synthetic deception • Insights on where AI can actually help defenders (spoiler: it’s not just for writing policy documents) • A few laughs, because if we can’t laugh at the end of the world, what’s the point? Whether you’re a CISO, a security awareness professional, or just someone who doesn’t want to be conned by a chatbot, this session will make you rethink what it means to “trust but verify” in the AI era.