Cybersecurity working day: I was sent to Padua to attend ‘Reaction – A day to face the rapidly evolving challenges of cybersecurity‘, a conference dedicated to cybersecurity companies. Usually, I attend these types of events to report on them in an article or by taking part as a moderator of a panel or workshop. In this case, the mission was different because I had to photograph the day’s guests and conduct video interviews with some of them. It was a different way of dealing with cybersecurity, a crucial issue for all businesses, which was explored by meeting the managers of the ten Italian companies that participated in the event.

After travelling on two trains and a city bus in preference to a very late taxi, I arrived at my destination, the hotel opposite Le Village by CA Triveneto, the event venue scheduled for the following day. The next morning, the alarm clock rang early because, besides the sacred breakfast, I had to get to the event venue and quickly figure out the best places to set up the equipment and carry out the video interviews. The first meeting was friendly because Antonino Caffo, 4iMag‘s colleague and moderator of the conference, was waiting for me. With him, I did the test shots and recorded the first clip, dedicated to the theme of the event and the various moments that would follow throughout the day (start at 10:30 am, close at 5.45 pm). It’s a good first, but it’s time to follow the proceedings.

Breaking the ice was the keynote speech by Massimo Tecchio, co-founder of Infonet Solutions, the company that conceived and organised Reaction, who welcomed the audience that filled the room. Afterwards, it was the turn of Matteo di Biagi, the Director of Le Village by CA Triveneto, who showed the growth figures of the startups in his portfolio (+44% average turnover from 1 January 2022 to 30 September 2023 and €6.1 million raised between equity fundraising, crowdfunding and subsidised finance). An interesting overview of how things are going (spoiler: well!).

Fraudsters and unreported violations

There were two appointments in the morning. The first one focused on the evolution of scams in the digital age and was presented by Moreno Morello, correspondent of Striscia La Notizia, a satirical and investigative TV programme broadcast on one of the main Italian TV channels since 1988. Morello has been part of it since 2023 to unmask fraudsters. During his speech, he told how the techniques of those who cheat unsuspecting citizens have evolved, alternating technical details with jokes that engage the audience.

The attack methods of the criminals were also the focus of the next moment, with Letterio Saverio Costa, Technical Director of the Veneto Postal Police, outlining the current IT scenario and the main cyber threats to people and businesses, adding that ‘many companies prefer not to report that they have been breached so as not to admit problems and to avoid image and reputation problems‘. With him on stage was Stefano Longo, Head of Sales at Microsoft Italy, who proposed an interesting comparison between cyber criminals and companies: just as the former have learnt to team up and communicate with each other to help each other, companies should do the same, starting with the training of their employees.  

At the end of this meeting, there was a break for lunch, which I skipped because, during that time, I had to record interviews with the conference guests, who were unavailable during the subsequent workshops. Disturbing the managers while they ate was not the best (sorry!), but I had no choice. Fortunately, I had their availability, so I arranged four interviews in quick succession: Massimo Tecchio, Stefano Longo, Francesco Seminaroti, District Sales Manager Italy Palo Alto Network and Simone Marcomini, Southern Europe Business Development Manager HPE Aruba Networking. At the end of the last clip, I was faced with some stuffed biscuits that delighted the palate, a sign that the gods were on my side that day.

Two workshops to take stock of the evolution of security solutions

Work resumed shortly with the ‘Securing services workshop: best practices for Enhanced Cybersecurity‘, with Caffo asking questions to Marco Compostella, Senior Channel Account Manager of Trend Micro, Marco Zennaro, Commercial Account Executive of Commvault, Andrea Mannara, Commercial Director of Bludis, Massimo Alì, Country Manager of Tenable Italia and Bruno Grollino, Regional Sales Director Italy, Malta, Cyprus of Pentera. It was an opportunity to discuss cybersecurity dynamics and business solutions, highlighting the need to integrate different services, the importance of controlling and managing IT infrastructures, and the need to rely on defensive systems capable of preventing and reacting to attacks in real-time.

Network, cloud, micro-segmentation, ransomware recovery and the farewell to silo logic for technologies in line with the evolution of cyber threats were the topics of ‘Security Infrastructure by Design: building a strong foundation for Cybersecurity‘, the second workshop with speeches by Marcomini, Seminaroti, Marco del Plato, Systems Engineer Manager at Nutanix, and Cristian Meloni, Zerto country Sales Leader at HPE. A combination of level-headed comments for a perspective on corporate security’s transition and how and why protecting against the pitfalls is becoming an increasingly central theme within companies and investments. It ended for me just in time to return to the station and catch the train to Rome at the end of an informative, useful and enjoyable day.