Sergiu Popovici

IT Management

• did it for the first time in 1999, when I was running a branch of an Austrian company in Iasi, Romania;
• worked as a Team Leader at SoftConstruct, Germany until 2005;
• running an own company, being implied in all the activities;
• worked in project management (currently doing this for Xivic) many times.

Analyst-Programmer

• I started programming when I was 10, which means 1988; that makes soon 20 years of experience. It became shortly a passion, in 2 years I had the first prize, a 3rd position in a regional contest. Later, when I was 17, I had a 4th position in a nation wide programming contest;
• in the last 2 years of my studies and then, while working for 2 local internet providers, following with PCNET (the largest ISP in Romania at that time), I had the chance to learn in detail about the UNIX system (especially Linux); my previous programming knowledge evolved, helping me to better understand how they work (as a programmer and not a regular user);
• during time, I learned a lot of programming languages; this was very easy for me, due to my analytical skills. I consider a programming language a way of expressing, of writing the algorithm;
• I developed from very simple programs to really complex one (e.g. the complete management system of the clients for the largest Romanian ISP, from web interface).

System/Network Security

• starting Highschool time, I started studying more than was teaching to us about operating systems and how they function inside. That’s how I got to learn asm, interrupt programming etc;
• I am a sendmail contributor, due to security flaws I found in 1996;
• good knowledge about types of network attacks and how to prevent them;
• network security trainings made at Network Box Hong Kong in 2004;
• knowledge of web-type attacks (e.g. injections).

System/Network Administrator

• I started from small, got to work for the largest ISP in Romania, which I left when going to work for foreign companies (economical reasons). While working for PCNET Data Network in Bucharest, I used and learned about the highest technology available, I have been trained by CISCO Swiss, I was there when the first time in Romania the VoIP technology has been tested and we also did the first ADSL implementation. I really learned how to use to the maximum of performance Linux, Sun and Windows servers. Networking (hardware): I have made (together with 1 colleague) the network structure for Radio Hit. I also had to do maintenance and extend already existing networks while working for Avatti Industries, Store Communication, the Technical University, PCNET and Softconstruct GmbH;
• Novell Servers: I learned about them during the studies; I did administration while working for Avatti Industries, Radio Hit and also while helping professor Munteanu doing his teaching;
• Windows servers: I first time did windows server administration while working for Avatti Industries (Windows NT), a small server. I got in touch with the real use of them while working for PCNET Data Network, learning how to exploit them to the maximum of performance;
• UNIX/Linux servers: since I first time got in contact with these operating systems, I never stopped using them: home on my machine as workstation, at work as a development, hosting or routing server. Because at the beginnings there were no “click and configure” interfaces, I became a “console guy”; therefore, I know each file on the system and its meaning. I learned even more about them while working for internet service providers, of how to tune them for the maximum of performance and security;
• Computer operating: working on this IT field, I have also been a regular user, not only an administrator or a developer. And because I always want to know everything about the machine I use, I got the understanding of how the systems function and not only about their services. Of course, I know word, powerpoint, excel, adobe photoshop, macromedia products and other similar tools, used in the production environment.