The predictions

Seven predictions,
set down in writing in 2023.

Pieces written when the conclusions were not yet obvious. Some of the predictions came true; others have been flagged for three years and nobody has done anything. Both are here, because listing only the ones that landed would be picking your own cards.

It happened
September 2023
“Blockchain is overrated: a distributed, encrypted database delivers nearly the same outcomes, and the word itself mainly serves to attract investment.”

ThenThe NFT market evaporated and most corporate blockchain projects were quietly shelved.

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June 2023
“Artists should encrypt their own work to stop AI systems harvesting it. Only then will anyone be forced to ask permission.”

ThenEight months later the same argument ran in Il Sole 24 Ore. Since then copyright against model training has become one of the largest disputes in technology, and protecting content from scraping a requirement the market asks for.

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May 2023
“We will need a way to certify whether a work was made by a person or by a machine.”

ThenTransparency obligations for generated content and provenance standards entered the European regulatory agenda.

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August 2023
“Security is not a technical detail to delegate to the IT department: it is the leadership that has to answer for it.”

ThenNIS2 and DORA turned that recommendation into an obligation, with responsibility falling personally on whoever runs the organisation.

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Still open
June 2023
“There is no sense in requiring multi-factor authentication if account recovery then runs through another mailbox.”

Three years onIt is still the case almost everywhere. A lock on the front door and the back window left open: it remains the most widespread and least discussed weakness in authentication.

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June 2023
“A service should be able to verify whether an address has multi-factor authentication enabled before accepting it.”

Never builtIt remains an open idea, and one to handle carefully: knowing how well protected someone else's account is is itself information open to abuse.

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July 2023
“Digital security should be taught in schools the way we teach children to look both ways before crossing the road.”

Not yetIt is not a subject in any national curriculum, while the age of the first device keeps falling.

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Published work

Articles, interviews and talks.

Twenty-three appearances between 2019 and 2026, in date order: newspapers, trade press, radio, television and blogs.

24 August 2026
DORA: security has to move inside the documents
The Signal · in Italian
7 August 2026
File-centric Zero Trust: protecting data beyond the network
Agenda Digitale · in Italian
30 July 2026
Beyond the password: the story, told by Andrea Bettini
To Be Continued · Sole 24 Ore
27 July 2026
Cybersecurity: companies are compliant. The data is not.
Il Sole 24 Ore
July 2026
Beyond the Perimeter: file-centric data protection
CyberGrant
July 2026
Booking, Eataly, Trenitalia: why the stolen data was readable
CyberGrant
June 2026
The Eataly breach: choosing what to encrypt is a decision about what you are willing to lose
Wired Italia
18 June 2026
Human error cannot be eliminated, but data can be protected
Corriere della Sera
January 2026
Rethinking data loss prevention: why NIS2 demands a new model
CyberGrant
November 2025
Atlas just launched. And right now it is reading your screen.
CyberGrant
12 February 2024
Copyright under attack from ChatGPT. Can it be protected?
Il Sole 24 Ore
2024
Protecting intellectual property in hybrid work. Cyber Crime Conference
Talk · in Italian
10 March 2022
How Moscow is preparing to leave the internet: what RuNet is
Corriere della Sera
March 2022
The Kremlin's plan to disconnect Russia from the internet. Interview
Linkiesta
2022
The war in Ukraine: effects on cybersecurity and European digital sovereignty
Cybersecurity360
26 January 2019
Personal data: the real security emergency is on our own computers
Linkiesta
2019
Data sovereignty: why Italy risks falling behind
AdnKronos
Profile
The incredible story of Valerio Pastore
FIRSTonline

Also published in: Corriere Comunicazioni, ICT Security Magazine, CyberSecurity Italia, Agenzia Repubblica.