Author

Filippo Moriggia

After more than 10 years of experience in the technical journalism with PC Professionale (the italian version of PC Magazine) and other newspapers of Mondadori group, Filippo Moriggia founded GURU advisor, the reference website for IT professionals, system integrators, cloud providers and MSPs. He has a Master of Science in Telecommunications Engineering and works as a independent consultant and contractor for different firms. His main focuses are software, virtualization, servers, cloud, networking and security. He's certified VMware VCA for Data Center Virtualization.

Here’s how to use SSL/TLS, S/Mime, certificates and public key cryptography in order to make Web services and email communications safer

Despite several technologies related to SSL/TLS protocols being attacked in the last 3 years, a good sysadmin or IT manager in 2016 can’t tolerate its organization still uses systems that transmit information in clear.
The use of Transport Layer Security (and its predecessor SSL) -it should be clear- it not enough to guarantee confidentiality of transmitted data on the Internet, and a quick bibliographic research shows the vast method of attacks to such protocols (like in this case and this other). TLS represents a first, fundamental security level for transmitted data, both for the access of a Web service of your company and the access to email via Webmail or IMAP/POP3/Exchange.
TLS acts as a tunnel and doesn’t modify the ongoing communication between client and server: it only adds a layer, indeed, that ciphers data between the source and the destination by using some key concepts at the basis of public key cryptography. Who has a server role needs a certificate, released by a certification authority or, in the worst case, self-signed: only who has purchased the certificate owns the private key that allows to encrypt the communication.

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Read more Safer emails and Web sites: get protected with SSL/TLS certificates

It has been almost a year since the announcement of the availability of Windows 10, the one that, according to Microsoft, will be the last release of an operating system (what will be from now onwards, are only updates). The most recent statistics are about 350 million devices equipped with it (as an upgrade or sold with 10 on board). In the last 50 days, stats are about an average of 1 million installations each day. The free update option should end in late July, and many people are acting to be prepared to this deadline.

Is Windows 10 ready for the Corporate/Enterprise world? Yes, for sure; as for most operating systems from the Redmond colossus, most critical problems are fixed within 6 months from the release date, therefore we shouldn’t expect any surprise about that. In order to help you to understand the potentialities and promises of the update, in this issue of GURU advisor you’ll find an in-depth article about security technologies used by Windows 10.


The update to Windows 10 is not mandatory, and, regardless being free, it can’t be taken with little care. The problem, as in most cases, is not the OS itself but the hardware. Upgrading on a previous generation machine could lead to several issues: non existent drivers, unsupported devices, worse performances than expected and plenty of bugs that can complicate the user experience more than expected. In such case, it’s better to opt to buy a new PC or to do an upgrade (ie. more RAM or an SSD unit in place of a spinning disk). Read more One month to the goal line: Windows 10 prepares to celebrates its first anniversary

Interview with Michael Shaulov – Head of Mobility Product Management at Check Point Software

During last Mobile World Congress we had a brief chat with Michael Shaulov, responsible for the Mobile section at Check Point and founder at Lacoon, the company -now owned by Check Point- that developed the attack prevention technologies now integrated in the Mobile Threat Protection packet.

Good day Michael, we are here at the MWC and everybody talks about mobile, but a recurring theme in our interviews is security. Which is the natural habit of Check Point…

Sure, Check Point with its products covers all possible needs in terms of security, from endpoint protection to messaging, up to mobile, naturally. Our products offer an integrated experience for whichever device you work with and in particular mobile device protection -which is more and more difficult and actual, also given the context we are talking about- is one of our points of strength.

How was the integration of the product developed by Lacoon, where you come from, and the world of Check Point?

Very well, actually. Today the package called Mobile Threat Protection is perfectly integrated with the Check Point offer and in particular with the products of the Check Point Capsule family, which offer an integrated and completely separated user experience also in a BYOD context.

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Read more Complete mobile devices protection with Mobile Threat Protection

It feels like yesterday that GURU advisor went online, and we’ve already published issue 8.. What do you expect in the upcoming months? We have plenty of ideas that we are developing as quick as possible. We’ll soon add a page dedicated to event in the IT world: seminars, fairs, product presentations, courses, webinars. I invite you to send us your recommendations at the email address This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Another argument we really feel is about Managed Service Providers: in our vision, product and software resellers representing the spine of the IT world now have to evolve with an approach closer to the cloud. Becoming a service provider capable of taking on all the company needs in spite of an all-embracing monthly fee. This approach requires both a different way of working and interacting with clients and specific tools that can help the overall management. In this sense, the United States are way ahead than us, so there are many products of this kind that we’d like to talk about. In the next issues we will focus on these topics and provide further information to let you understand pros and cons of such approach.

Naturally every time one faces a different business model it’s important to ponder about legal aspects, too. And not only that: lots of you are perhaps thinking about moving your clients’ machines into the cloud and directly or indirectly managing them with a single tenant or multitenant architecture, and would like to understand whether to obey some laws or regulation in order to proceed. Some others suggested to pay the ransom for a ransomware attack while not being really conscious about possible consequences. Everytime we talk about these (and others) topics it’s really important to understand, from a legal standpoint, what is the best approach in order not to incur in risks or even felonies (like paying a ransom!), thus avoiding to put your business at risk.
Starting with the next issue,a lawyer will help us with some specific articles, trying to explain us in the clearest and simplest way the different topics.
If you have any questions regarding the subject, feel free to ask us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

And now, enjoy this shiny new issue 8!

VM Explorer is a software that has been developing by the Swiss Trilead since 2007 and count more than 10.000 worldwide clients. This number is going to increase, mostly considering the growing authority gained after the recent acquisition by HPE, as Roberto Beneduci of CoreTech, the historic distributor of the brand in Italy, confirmed: “With respect of the same period in 2015, in the first three months of 2016, the number of VM Explorer licenses sold has more than doubled.”

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A well justified acquisition
HPE already had an Enterprise tier backup software, the HPE Data Protector Suite and has, with its server, 60% of the VMware OEM market. With VM Explorer HPE can offer its clients an easy, robust and cheap solution, uniquely dedicated to the backup of virtual systems, very different from Data Protector, which is a solution addressed to a different client tier (infrastructures with thousands of VMs). With this move HPE can now offer all its clients of the Small and Medium Business tier (<100 VMs) a less complicated offer and, under certain aspects, more appealing that the widespread solution by Veeam.

Read more VM Explorer: the new tool by HP Enterprise for VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V backups

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Word of the Day

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The acronym PtP (Point-to-Point) indicates point-to-point radio links realized with wireless technologies. Differently, PtMP links connects a single source to...

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Hold Down Timer is a technique used by network routers. When a node receives notification that another router is offline...

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Issues Archive

  •  GURU advisor: issue 21 - May 2019

    GURU advisor: issue 21 - May 2019

  • GURU advisor: issue 20 - December 2018

    GURU advisor: issue 20 - December 2018

  • GURU advisor: issue 19 - July 2018

    GURU advisor: issue 19 - July 2018

  • GURU advisor: issue 18 - April 2018

    GURU advisor: issue 18 - April 2018

  • GURU advisor: issue 17 - January 2018

    GURU advisor: issue 17 - January 2018

  • GURU advisor: issue 16 - october 2017

    GURU advisor: issue 16 - october 2017

  • GURU advisor: issue 15 - July 2017

    GURU advisor: issue 15 - July 2017

  • GURU advisor: issue 14 - May 2017

    GURU advisor: issue 14 - May 2017

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  • BYOD: your devices for your firm

    The quick evolution of informatics and technologies, together with the crisis that mined financial mines, has brought to a tendency inversion: users that prefer to work with their own devices as they’re often more advanced and modern than those the companies would provide. Read More
  • A switch for datacenters: Quanta LB4M

    You don’t always have to invest thousands of euros to build an enterprise-level networking: here’s our test of the Quanta LB4M switch Read More
  • Mobile World Congress in Barcelona

    GURU advisor will be at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from February 22nd to 25th 2016!

    MWC is one of the biggest conventions about the worldwide mobile market, we'll be present for the whole event and we'll keep you posted with news and previews from the congress.

    Read More
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