Hello, I'm
MSc Cybersecurity Graduate
Computer Engineering background, now focused on offensive security. I like taking apart networks and systems to understand how they break.
I'm a cybersecurity graduate with a Computer Engineering background. I work on the offensive side of security: figuring out how networks and systems can be broken, and how to fix them.
I've done this in a few settings: solving web challenges in CTFs, teaching students about web security, and building software with security in mind.
University of Padua · CyberChallenge project ↗
Sync Lab S.r.l ↗ · Padua
A tool I built for my MSc thesis using Playwright. It crawls a web app to find JWT tokens, then runs a set of attacks against them (like key and algorithm confusion) and scores how vulnerable each one is.
View project →An international Capture The Flag competition run by my team, pwnlentoni. I wrote challenges for it, built the exploitable scenarios, and wrote the official solutions and solve scripts.
View project →Italy's national cybersecurity training program for students. I did the offensive-security track at the University of Padua, placed 4th in the local competition, and made the UniPD team for the national finals.
Learn more →University of Padua · Italy
Grade 110/110
A two-year master's taught in English, about designing and evaluating secure systems: cryptography, network and information security, machine learning, and privacy.
View course ↗ View diploma ↗University of Helsinki · Finland
An exchange semester in Finland's computer science department, with courses on deep learning, web development, and web security.
View course ↗University of Padua · Italy
Grade 93/110
General engineering across computer science, electronics, networks, and automation, with a solid base in programming, computer architecture, and information systems.
View course ↗ View diploma ↗ITI Francesco Severi · Padua, Italy
Grade 88/100
Technical secondary diploma in IT and telecommunications, covering software development, databases, networks, and systems, with lab work on Windows and Linux.
View school ↗I was an active member of AGESCI, Italy's Catholic scouting association, from 2009 to 2021: community service, outdoor trips, and team projects. I still help out today by cooking for the scouts at their camps.
I volunteered for four years in two areas: peer education for young people on topics like sexual health and the Red Cross's humanitarian values, and psychosocial support, with training on how to help vulnerable people.
CTFs are where I practice the offensive side of security. I usually solve web, misc, AI, and OSINT challenges, finding and exploiting bugs in how something is built, usually with my team against the clock.
I use AI as a tool, mostly to speed up the boring parts: writing scripts, sifting through data, getting a first pass on a problem. I always check what it gives me, since it gets things wrong and I'm the one who has to understand the result. I'm also interested in how AI itself can be attacked, because a model you trust blindly is just one more thing that can break.
I'm open to cybersecurity roles, collaborations, or just talking about a security problem. Feel free to reach out.
leonardocosta330@protonmail.com