Munich Datageeks June Edition

We are thrilled to announce our next Meetup on June 26th at PAYBACK.

Format:

• 2 talks (each ca. 40 min incl. discussion)
• Time for networking + food + drinks before, in between and after the presentations
• Talks are held in English
• We will be taking photos and/or film footage at the event. These will be used to share news about our meetups and to publicize upcoming events.

The lineup:

First talk:
Inna Khamenya & Federica Manzi - AI in the Booking Loop: Quality Assurance for Campaign Targeting at PAYBACK

Abstract:
The AI Booking Assistant is a quality assurance tool developed at PAYBACK to validate audience targeting formulas in campaign booking workflows. By comparing natural-language briefings with technical definitions, it detects inconsistencies and missing criteria. Combining language models with a curated knowledge base and human-in-the-loop evaluation, this solution marks a significant step toward fully automating audience selection based on marketing intent.

Bio:
Inna is a Data Scientist at PAYBACK, Germany’s leading bonus program and largest multichannel marketing platform with over 33 million active customers. As part of her role, she is supplying the platform with machine intelligence. Before that, Inna was a Senior Data Analyst focusing on PAYBACK Partner consulting and new analytics product development.
Federica is a Junior Data Scientist at PAYBACK, Germany’s leading bonus program and largest multichannel marketing platform. During her Master’s in Computational Linguistics and Natural Language Processing, she had the opportunity to explore a wide range of language technologies, with a particular focus on applied machine learning and the intersection of linguistics and AI. At PAYBACK, she contributes to the development of use cases that leverage NLP techniques, especially Generative AI.

Second Talk:
Marleen Steinhoff - When MFA Isn't Enough: Dissecting a Sophisticated Phishing Campaign Targeting University Infrastructure

Abstract:
This presentation analyzes a recent security breach at our university, showing how attackers bypassed Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to access Microsoft 365 accounts. We'll cover our response strategy, including deploying decoy accounts and creating custom response procedures. The talk explores how we detected the attack using honeypot accounts, contained the damage, and coordinated our response efforts using incident response playbooks. We'll also discuss what could have happened without proper mitigation to illustrate the wider impact of these attacks. Attendees will learn practical steps to protect their organizations from similar authentication vulnerabilities and implement effective security measures.

Bio:
Marleen is a PhD candidate in Cyber Security at Munich University of Applied Sciences. Her research focuses on improving how Machine Learning systems support Cyber Threat Intelligence—collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data about cyber attacks.