On April 17, 2015, during the 2015 edition of the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Francesco Ongaro from ISGroup was the protagonist of the conference “The hacking landscape”, held from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM at the G. Alessi Service Center. The talk, included in the “Hackers’ Corner” track, offered a reflection on the transformation of the collective imagination linked to the hacker figure, influenced by the intrusion of money into underground circuits. Ongaro discussed the social impact of technology and the growing vulnerability of systems, offering a critical perspective on the future of digital security.
During his presentation, Ongaro defined himself as “uno smanettone italiano” (an Italian tech enthusiast) and traced a historical and conceptual overview of the hacker world, analyzing the birth of the first groups in 1975, the evolution of hacker ethics, and the growing demand for professional figures in information security. He addressed topics such as the definition of vulnerability, the causes of cyber attacks, and the ineffectiveness of defenses against threats like phishing, fake antivirus, and cryptolocker, emphasizing the absence of definitive solutions. The intervention had a critical tone, also highlighting the poor economic valorization of sector professionals, even in the United States.
The official profile published on the festival website credits Francesco Ongaro as an Italian information security expert and founder of the independent USH team under the aegis of ISGroup, recognizing him as one of Italy’s top experts in network and web application penetration testing, with hundreds of technical activities carried out for strategic companies in the public, financial, insurance, and media sectors.