Frank Abagnale | Catch Me If You Can | Talks at Google
Why Hacker News recommends it
Praised as a charismatic, engaging talk with practical security lessons, like why credit cards protect you better than debit cards.
What it is
Frank Abagnale, the real subject of Catch Me If You Can, speaks at Google about his life as a con man turned FBI fraud and cybersecurity expert, including advice on fraud, breaches and credit cards.
Recommended by 8 HN commenters across 7 different months, 2018 to 2023.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec willvarfar · 2018-01 · on “Elizabeth Warren's bill would fine the next Equifax for data breach”
I bumped into this talk today: Frank Abagnale: "Catch Me If You Can" [this video] He became an FBI agent and works with data breaches. So after entertainingly describing his life story he does mention the Equifax breach at the 37m mark. He paints a very negative picture of Equifax. Its well worth watching the whole thing, and not just skipping to his FBI Agent opinion of Equifax.
Strong rec dmcdm · 2019-02 · on “How A Young Woman Followed Two Hackers' Lies to Her Death”
He did a talk at Google where he asserted basically the same thing: [this video] Great talk by the way, he's an incredibly charismatic and well spoken story teller, also a consultant for the FBI and a successful businessman - which makes you think about just how important likability and charisma are both to being a successful social engineer and being successful in-general. People will let you stray pretty far from reality if they like you - Holmes, Abagnale, and apparently Troy Woody (at least to this poor girl). Eventually reality catches up, one way or another.
Strong rec ai_ia · 2019-03 · on “Golden Rules for Making Money (1880)”
Offtopic, Frank Abnegale ( Catch me if you can fame ) also says the same thing in his [1] lecture at Google. The whole lecture is also pretty interesting. One of the best google talks I have seen. [1]: [this video]
Strong rec tchalla · 2021-05 · on “New book contends that Catch Me If You Can is mostly made up”
Frank Abnagale's Comments on the movie and book (2002) [0]. I don't know if his story is true or not. But regardless of his story, his talk at Google is one of the best ones I've heard [1]. > I was interviewed by the co-writer only about four times. I believe he did a great job of telling the story, but he also over dramatized and exaggerated some of the story. That was his style and what the editor wanted. He always reminded me that he was just telling a story and not writing my biography. This is one of the reasons that from the very beginning, I insisted the publisher put a disclaimer in the book and tapes. [0] [LINK] [1] [this video]
Recommends 52-6F-62 · 2018-01 · on “Elizabeth Warren's bill would fine the next Equifax for data breach”
* not in current use according to Equifax. I'm hesitant to take their word at face value, as they've tried to mitigate the entire situation via PR already and claim many users [who were affected] were not affected. However the site was still live, and exposed to the public web. It's only unrelated to the specific event in the United States, but clearly indicative of a pattern of negligence. I also wanted to add that the software in question that was compromised was a free and open source solution[0], not some top-dollar security program. And it was breached by relative simple XSS attack that even may have been carried out automatically. Beyond that it could just as likely have been a script
Recommends virde · 2018-10 · on “Ask HN: What are some of the best technical talks you've heard?”
Technically not a tech talk but since it was at Talks at Google, this one: Frank Abagnale: "Catch Me If You Can" | Talks at Google - YouTube [this video]
Recommends fatline · 2019-06 · on “I just had over a thousand Euros stolen and Revolut is siding with the thief”
very sorry to hear that. Debit cards are convenient etc, but they don't offer much in terms of fraud protection. The general suggestion is to always use a credit card instead so that you don't expose your own money to theft, but the bank's. This is among the most important learnings you can get from Frank Abagnale's talk at Google ( [this video] )
Recommends chris_f · 2021-03 · on “I tracked down my impostor”
This is an interesting talk by Frank Abagnale (the real life person the story was based on) at Google. [this video]