Righard Zwienenberg
Senior Research Fellow
ESET
About
Righard Zwienenberg began his work with computer viruses in 1988 after encountering his first virus issues at the Technical University of Delft. This experience sparked his interest in virus behavior, leading him to study and present solutions and detection methods ever since. Over nearly four decades, he has worked for various companies, including CSE Ltd., ThunderBYTE, Norman, and currently ESET. He has also held or continues to hold positions in several industry organizations, such as AMTSO, AVAR, the WildList, IEEE ICSG, and serves on the Advisory Board for Europol's European Cyber Crime Center (EC3) and Virus Bulletin. He also runs his own computer security consultancy company (RIZSC). Zwienenberg has been a member of CARO since late 1991. He is a frequent speaker at conferences, including Virus Bulletin, EICAR, AVAR, FIRST, APWG, RSA, InfoSec, SANS, CFET, ISOI, SANS Security Summits, IP Expo, government symposia, SCADA seminars, and other general security events. Beyond his professional work in security, his hobbies include playing drums, performing magic, modeling balloons, restoring ancient computers, and much more.
Sessions
The (Non)Sense of AI
What you will learn:
The (Non)Sense of AI challenges attendees to distinguish capability from marketing, automation from intelligence, and innovation from operational reality, while offering pragmatic guidance for building, securing, and using AI systems responsibly in an increasingly agentic world.
SESE: Social Engineering Second Edition The next frontier of security is…
What you will learn:
In the presentation, we will show some older, several newly evolved social engineering attempts with involved, and of course take a peek into the future, where AI, and surely Quantum Computing, will create a Third Edition of Social Engineering. This future promises even more complex threats that challenge the boundaries of identity, authenticity, and trust. As we look ahead, SESE serves as both a warning and a guide, advocating for stronger digital literacy, adaptive defenses, and a forward-looking approach to cybersecurity in an age where machines can manipulate at the speed of thought.