My first encounter with cyber security date back to my teenage years: it was then that I began to get interested in programming and computer viruses. This interest, combined with my fascination with robotics, prompted me to enroll at the Politecnico di Milano, where, during my first programming classes, I realized that all I wanted to do was writing code! Among the many classes I took, the most enlightening was undoubtedly the Software Engineering course held by Prof. Carlo Ghezzi, who in the following years became a real mentor for me.

In 1994, immediately after graduating with a thesis in Electronic Engineering developed as part of a collaboration with Cefriel, I decided to attempt the path of the PhD, despite the fact that it was very difficult to access the program. With great enthusiasm, I passed the selections and I was admitted under the supervision of Prof. Ghezzi. The environment was great and stimulating, as evidenced by the fact that today almost every one of my former colleagues occupy prestigious positions in the academia. It was a group of truly exceptional people, who taught me the love of research understood as a collegial experience and as a continuous osmosis of ideas.

After the PhD, I wanted to have an experience abroad and, thanks to my supervisor, I was able to get in touch with Prof. Dick Kemmerer of UCSB, who invited me to California for a six-month post-doc. I arrived there on October 1st, 1997 – I still remember it! – and the place struck me immediately, also because it was very close to the beach. In that time I developed an excellent relationship with Prof. Kemmerer, who became my second “academic father” after Prof. Ghezzi. Since I had a great time in California and the research projects I was working on had begun to receive significant funding, I decided to further extend my stay in the United States until, after two years as a post-doc researcher, UCSB offered me the job of Assistant Professor.

So in 2000 my career as a professor began, favored by the great trust that American universities place in young teachers. The idea is to give the “new generation” a lot of freedom of initiative, precisely because of their young age, their enthusiasm and their energy. It is an attitude from which, in my opinion, Italian university should draw inspiration. Young researchers are “thoroughbred horses” who have everything they need to make changes and for this they’re given the opportunity to teach what they want and how they want, exactly as it happened to me.

Another reason why I decided to stay in the United States is that over the course of my career I have had the opportunity to work with truly exceptional students and PhD candidates, to the point that my colleague Chris Kruegel and I decided to involve some of them in an entrepreneurial project because we were sure it would have greatly benefited from their enthusiasm and talent. That was the birth of Lastline, a company specialized in malware analysis that monitors the computer networks of companies to identify possible threats and diagnose any signs of compromise.

Lastline is an adventure that has lasted for more than ten years and that just last year, with its acquisition by VMware, entered in a new phase in its history. This has given my colleagues and I the opportunity to take a step back from corporate management and focus more on threat intelligence research.