CYBER-DEFENCE FELLOWSHIPS: Pietro Moretto

• How did you find out about the CYD Fellowships and what motivated you to apply?

I discovered the CYD Fellowships during an informative meeting at ETH Zurich, and was motivated by the interesting projects and the opportunity to have supervision from security researchers.

• What was your CYD Fellowship project about?

My project aims to connect several independent components of Redkernel, a self-reasoning system for Automated Exploit Generation (AEG) for the Linux Kernel. This project fills the semantic gaps between the various analyses in Redkernel and implements several strategies to resolve and optimize the exploitability problem.

• What were the advantages of conducting your master thesis project at the CYD Campus?

I was able to use the infrastructure provided by the Zurich CYD Campus and discuss and interact with many experienced security researchers.

• Did you as a child dream of working in cyber-defence?

My passion for Cyber Security began during my final year of high school when I was selected to participate in the CyberChallenge 2020. After 3 months of training on various security topics such as binary exploitation, networks, reversing, and a lot of information overload, I was able to qualify for the final competition, solving Capture the Flag (CTF) challenges. This experience offered my first peek into security and immediately sparked curiosity.

• What is driving you to pursue research in cyber-defence?

The fact that it blends scientific thinking with technical work and allows me to tackle practical, real-world problems.

• What is the most important lesson you have learned in your scientific career so far?

If you stare long enough at a problem, eventually you will figure it out.

• What are you most proud of in your career to date?

I was lucky enough to travel and experience many different realities. This made me appreciate the journey and understand what I truly enjoy doing.

• Outside the lab, what do you enjoy doing most?

I believe everyone has a sort of creative side to express. For me, music is my passion, and I like to take a break from technical work by listening to music and playing drums and guitar.

• What were your expectations about the CYD Fellowships?

To experience research work firsthand, interact with and learn from security researchers, and have fun along the way.

• Could you share some tips with future applicants who are considering applying for the CYD Fellowships?

I think it’s important to share your motivation and explain why you believe in the project you want to work on.