After two weeks I joined the Master in Cyber Security at the University of Liverpool, I already observe many changes incoming in my professional life.
Many people asking me about my personal experience and my professional life and I even like to write something off topic from Technology Integration.
My journey in the technology started in 1990, during that period I was studying Biology at the University of Parma in Italy.
I exactly remember all the escalation of events, it was a very exciting period for me, my parents didn’t agree with my passion so I needed to fight a lot to achieve my ideas.
During that period I didn’t have any experience with computing or programming, my father gave a Compaq DeskPro 286e to my brother for his promotion, nobody was using this computer, they were thinking it was just broken.
I started it and he gave me the classic system error because the operating system was missing, I started reading the manuals, I was fascinated by the idea of learning what exactly the object in front of me was.
After one hour of struggling I restarted the computer and I saw the MS-DOS prompt blinking, the joy in me was enormous, I start reading the instructions of any MS-DOS command, the DEBUG command opened my mind, I started opening executable and overriding the interrupts and registers and experimenting any kind of thing, from formatting the track 0 in a floppy disk to producing a sound, I was anytime more hungry to know.
In the first, I started learning the Assembler and after the more evolved languages like C and Clipper but the main trigger for me was a program I wrote in NewLisp.
The program I wrote was an attempt to create a programme with a kind of intelligence and consciousness>
This program, without any kind of data or information and after many questions like, who are you and who am I, it was able to understand that I was Nino and it was Computer, this experiment definitely pushed me in the world of technology.
I started my career as a developer and I evolved in many other roles but without losing my passion for coding, in my opinion, the act of developing and coding is the most powerful aspect of IT.
We can create and extend anything we like and nobody can stop us doing that, is one of the powerful expression of freedom in our world with Art and Writing.
In my job I normally cover roles as Architect, Technical Lead, and Senior Developer altogether.
Because my age and experience many people recommend me to join more high-level roles like management but I can’t, I am a developer in my heart, always hungry and foolish (Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005).
The natural evolution of the business and family requirements pushed me in the Microsoft stack and I opened my first company in Italy in 2000, providing my expertise to Cartier.
In 2003 I started a close collaboration with many important education centers in Italy, providing first-class training in a wide range of technologies areas, development, security, databases, web development and more other topics.
In 2005 I joined an important relationship with Microsoft, I constantly collaborate with them as Virtual Technology Specialist, Technology Evangelist, and Mentoring.
I currently have a very strong relationship with many internal teams and Program Managers in Italy and Redmond in some specific areas, Integration and Azure Cloud and I normally work with them to improve products and technologies.
Because my passion for sharing my knowledge and expertise, in 2006 I received the prestigious Microsoft MVP award, the award can be only received by Microsoft and it needs to be renewed every year, I am still Microsoft MVP and member of this amazing family.
Six years ago a started a personal project involving other my dear friends around the world, Italy, Portugal, Netherland, United Kingdom and Norway, we created a technical crew focused on integration and we started creating small conferences around the Europe, using our personal funds.
At the end of the first year, we have been able to organize a conference in the Microsoft HQ in London with 200 people, our names came out in Microsoft Redmond and around the world, and we are still great friends and we are still organizing conferences.
I think that in my career I used any relevant programming language, platform and operating system, form Assembler to the actual C# and Python, from Microsoft Windows to Solaris, Unix, Linux, I like to use the proper technology to solve the specific problem and I don’t believe in the using of a unique branding platform or company provider.
In my opinion, the technology needs to be at the service of the human been and when it is not able to provide the proper support then, it needs to be able to adapt itself for the best result.
If a specific technology is not able to adapt itself then it is not a good technology to use.
When I think about myself in front of the Compaq DeskPro 286e I couldn’t imagine myself at this point and having the fortune to follow the entire evolution of IT, and when I think about the progress of IT in the last twenty years, I am fascinated by some aspect and worried for others.
I see the young generations joining this progress quite easily but I don’t see the same for the older, the progression is very fast and many people are not able to follow that.
The life is every day faster because governed by faster machines, some people lose the feeling of what is real and what is not, some other are governed by their devices and they are not able to recognize that.
I appreciated the words mentioned by Kathleen M. Kelm from University of Liverpool, “the decentralization causes a lack of security” and I agree with that, with the cloud we are able to centralize more our data domain but we also have a massive decentralization due to mobile devices and social networks.
People share information conscienceless and without any real knowledge about the real implication of that.
The young generations are often victims of this conscienceless using the social networks.
Cyber Security is a key topic, many companies don’t consider this argument in the proper way until they need to face the problem in the real scenario but, in this case, it is often too late.
By my personal experience, if I need to measure the level of risk a company has in order to be hacked, the 45% is related to the technical side, the rest of 55% is related to the human side.
One of the best exploit in the hacking history has been made by Kevin Mitnick, one of the most famous hacker ever, he has been able to get the source code of the MicroTAC Ultra Lite cell phone because an employee provided to him the username and password to access the source code repository (Q&A: Kevin Mitnick, from ham operator to fugitive to consultant – www.cnet.com)
The technology is now driving everything, money, food, people and lives and many people don’t have an idea about how much they expose their personal information every single day.
I don’t see any real education program able to support these people to better understand how to use their devices and their information.
I think the government should organize more public initiatives in favour of this important topic.
References
(Kevin Mitnick) Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Mitnick
(Q&A: Kevin Mitnick, from ham operator to fugitive to consultant – www.cnet.com) – https://www.cnet.com/news/q-a-kevin-mitnick-from-ham-operator-to-fugitive-to-consultant/
