Hi, nice to meet you. I'm a software developer and security researcher working in Palermo, Italy.

My interests, randomly sorted, are:

I've also got some strong opinions about information security, and in 2005 I created NoScript, a little piece of software which is still alive and kicking today: NoScript makes Firefox and Chromium based browser much safer, is built into Tor Browser, and makes web pages load faster too!

My geek code is -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12 GCS/CM/H/MU/SS/TW/O d---(++) s: a+ C++++$ ULS++++$ P--- L++++$ W+++$ K--- w---(++)$ M PS++ PE-- Y++ R-- !tv b++++ DI++ G e* h++ r y++**
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------ You can ungeek it here, and/or read on my...

Geek Bio

I was born in 1972 and have been enjoying computer programming since my unforgettable dad - an electronic engineer - gave me a Commodore 64 as my 11th birthday present (yeah, more than 40 years of happy programming).

I started with Basic. After a while need for speed pushed me to 6502 assembly. When I bought an Amiga I became a C adept. Then I've been coding in C++, Rexx, Bash, until I discovered the Web with HTML, JavaScript and Perl.

InformAction At least I've fallen in love with Java and started my own company, not before having done my homework with Visual Basic, SQL and even Cobol/CICS.

Today I'm fluent in PHP, Python and Rust, InformAction became Hackademix and I do security & browser stuff in the Tor Project applications team.

I've been teaching Web Programming at the University of Palermo for some years, until I found myself not patient enough to be a good mentor, so I left to develop Free Open Source software full time.

But if you stumbled upon this page you rather know me as an author of browser extensions (AKA add-ons).

The first one I've ever developed was called FlashGot and worked as a "bridge" between the Firefox web browser and about 30 different external download managers. FlashGot was born as a simple answer to a very personal need of mine, but soon become the most downloaded Firefox extension, with several millions of users, until Mozilla killed in 2016 by deprecating XPCOM add-ons.

Of course the piece of software I'm most known for is NoScript, a whitelist-based security tool which basically disables all the executable web content (JavaScript and Java by default, but also Flash and other plugins on demand) and lets the user choose on the fly, with a single click, the "trusted sites" where these potentially dangerous technologies are allowed.

NoScript also pioneered several additional protections against web-based attacks, such as the first (and nowadays only standing) client-side XSS filter.

PC World editors have kindly mentioned the usefulness of NoScript many times, and they included it in their "The 100 Best Products of the Year" 2006 list. I guess it's the only Italian item there ;)

That's (almost) all. Thank you very much for being still awake at the end of my pompous exposition.

P.S.: despite appearances, I've got a private life too. I'm into martial arts, music (composing, playing instruments, singing) and ranting about tech and political issues.