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Rediff.com » Business » Most wanted in India: Ethical hackers!

Most wanted in India: Ethical hackers!

October 21, 2015 12:07 IST

Hackers have begun to emerge from the shadows of suspicion, says Dhruv

Munjal.

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of 9Most wanted in India: Ethical hackers! - Rediff.com Business

21-Oct-15http://www.rediff.com/business/report/pix-special-most-wanted-in-india-ethical-hackers/2...

IMAGE: Ankit Fadia has written books on cyber-security yet yet his own site has been

hacked at least nine times. Photograph, courtesy: Ankit Fadia/Facebook

Ankit Fadia, the ethical hacker, deeply divides public opinion. H e has been described as a

child prodigy and a securitycharlatan.

H e has written books on cyber-security and offers online courses on the subject, yet his own

site has been hacked at least nine tim es,including once by a Pakistani hacker collective, and on

at least two occasions,the website was taken over by spam m ers selling Viagra.

H is claim s ofbeing consulted by FBI and CBI rem ain unverified, though security agencies are

unlikely to advertise such engagem ents.

But all that scepticism did notstop the Narendra M odi governm ent from appointing him a

brand am bassador lastm onth for its Digital India cam paign.

It was tacit acknowledgm ent ofhacking as an acceptable activity -a legitim ate career option,

an honest way toearn one's livelihood.

IMAGE: India's smart small entrepreneurs have started to train youngsters in hacking.

Photograph, courtesy: Ankit Fadia/Facebook

Even before this official approval could be stam ped, India's sm art sm all entrepreneurs had

seen the opportunity and started to train youngsters in hacking, and com panies had begun to

em ploy them .

Inside a slenderclassroom at the Net H ub com puter institute in New Delhi's South Extension,

abespectacled red-turbaned m an writes furiously on a white board.

H isstudents frantically take down notes to keep up with him . H is squeaky voice is occasionally

punctuated when a student raises his hand and asks a question.

"Som ebody out there will be sm arter than m ost. But you have to be sm arterthan him ," he

spells out the m agic m antra, as the enraptured group listenskeenly.

At Room an Technology next door, a m arble staircase opens into anarrow, dingy corridor

where the institute holds its classes. Students, in asm all group, are staring intensely at their

com puter screens-they have been given a test they need to finish in 30 m inutes.

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IMAGE: India needs lakhs of ethical hackers. Photograph: Reuters

The classroom s here are tiny, and no chair is unoccupied. The teachers havelittle tim e to talk

to outsiders. M ore students, carrying backpacks, saunter in as I m ake m y exit.

M ost students at these institutes, all in their lateteens or early twenties, will go on to becom e

experts in cyber-security, while som e will pick up the skills to get the thrills of a joyride in

cyberspace.

M ohit Chaudhry of Net H ub, dressed in a navy blue shirt and beige trousers,his table

bedecked with a line of Apple products and a splashy silver watch on his wrist, says earlier he

would get "people who wanted to get into hackingbecause it was a hobby for them . Now, they

want to m ake a career out of it".

Net H ub offers graduate students a host of certified hacking courses thatstart from about Rs

30,000 (for a 40-hour course).

IMAGE: Whistleblower Edward Snowden sharpened his hacking skills at Koenig Solutions.

Photograph, courtesy: Koenig Solutions

Therem ay be nothing fanciful about these schools but they have given India a rock-solid

reputation for training in hacking.

Koenig Solutions, nestled in a relatively quiet corner of west Delhi's M oti Nagar, is the place

whereNational Security Council contractor-turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden sharpened

his program ing and hacking skills in Septem ber 2010.

Folks heredownplay the Snowden connection, but then hackers prefer to fly under the radar -

it's a part of the work ethic.

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It is clear that Koenig attained criticalm ass a while ago. The beige sofas in its waiting lounge

are elegant and the airconditioning just right.

A section of the walls is painted in fulgent red,with m assive television screens gently hanging

on them . Koenig offers ethicalhacking courses in as m any as 80 classroom s. It is hard to find

an em pty seat in the evening.

India is in the m idst of the Internet revolution:e-governance, e-com m erce and net banking are

expanding by the day. W hile thishas m ade life easier for people at large, it has posed a serious

securitythreat.

IMAGE: They check the information technology systems for breaches and weak points and

then secure them. Photograph: Reuters

Casesof data theft, defacing of governm ent and university websites, and hacking of social

m edia accounts for sheer adventure are ram pant.

The proof of m aliceon the Internet was blatantly exposed this past week when cyber crim inals

duplicated the em ail address of Oil & Natural Gas Corporation and convinced a Saudi Arabia-

based firm to transfer Rs 197 crore (Rs 1.97 billion) to theiraccount.

In June, a group called Team Unknown hacked into the website ofapp-based taxi aggregator

Ola, gaining access to sensitive credit card inform ation of custom ers and unused vouchers. The

com pany later denied anybreach.

According to a report published by security services firm FireEyeearlier this m onth, India is

quickly becom ing a "strategic target" for cybercrim inals, with nearly 38 per cent of Indian

organisations being at thereceiving end of som e form of cybercrim e in the first half of 2015.

Thisis where the hackers com e in. They check the inform ation technology system s for

breaches and weak points and then secure them .



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But their num bers are woefully short of the dem and. In 2013, theUnion m inistry of

inform ation technology estim ated that India would require up to 500,000 cyber security

professionals by 2015-a goal that has been far from fulfilled.

According to Sandeep Sengupta, founder of the Indian School ofEthical H acking in Kolkata,

that num ber is around 40,000 at present.

In spite of the shortfall, the rise of ethical hacking in India has been undisputed. Institutes

such as Net H ub and Room an are proof of that.

Therehas been a m ushroom ing of ethical hacking training institutes in areas such as

Pitam pura, Patel Nagar and Rohini in the national capital in the last few years.

Fadia says that thingshave changed dram atically since he started out.

"Earlier, hacking waslim ited to only a few students from top colleges like the IITs and NIITs.

Now,with greater awareness and the pitfalls of the technology world, that trend is changing."

There is a little doubt that ethical hackers have greateracceptability than a decade ago.

H owever, the stigm a attached with a "hacker"refuses to fade away com pletely.

IMAGE: People must understand that there is nothing wrong in hacking.

Photograph: Reuters

M ostem ployers choose to call them "risk-assessm ent" or "cyber-security" experts. Social buy-

in is not yet absolute, and industry leaders are desperate to turn around the negative im age of

the profession.

"The word 'hacker' hasalways had a negative m eaning. In actuality, a 'hacker' is som eone who

can build stuff and solve real-life problem s," says Sachin Gupta, the 25-year-old founder and

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CEO of H ackerEarth, a Bengaluru-headquartered online platform for developers from across

the world.

"The term 'ethical hacking' had to be devised to separate the good from the bad."

Earlier this year, H ackerEarth posted apetition on www.change.org-aim ed especially at the

m edia-to highlight the difference between a "hacker" and a "cracker": a "cracker" is som eone

who is adept at security breaking,whereas a "hacker" prevents such incidents, says the

petition.

IMAGE: Saket Modi, ethical hacker and CEO of Lucideus Tech.

Photograph, courtesy: Saket Modi/Facebook

SaketM odi, ethical hacker and CEO of Lucideus Tech, a cyber-security consultancy that helps

som e of the biggest banks in the world secure their data, says the generalperception of a

hacker m ust change.

"A hacker is som ebody who can m akeanything do som ething that it is not m eant to do," he

says.

"Peoplem ust understand that there is nothing wrong in hacking. For m e, Steve Jobs rem ains

the greatest hacker of our tim e."

M odi proudly adds that he has adedicated team of hackers that prevents fraud. "W e hack for a

living and we areproud of it."

There is evidence that perceptions are changing and hackerscould soon be m ainstream .

Rishiraj Sharm a is perhaps India's youngestindependent ethical hacker and cyber security

consultant.

At 18, hisservices have been acknowledged by m ore than 50 com panies, including Google,

M icrosoft and Nokia. The m om ent he starts talking about what he loves doing, theboyish

enthusiasm is palpable.



IMAGE: Rishiraj Sharma is perhaps India's youngest independent ethical hacker.

Photograph, courtesy: Rishiraj Sharma/Twitter

But theam ateurishness dissipates quickly, giving way to a stern, unbiased professional voice.

"At present," he says, "hacking is an unavoidable part of anytechnology that deals with

inform ation, people or data. This is why there isspecial em phasis on 'security'."

The hacking sector, in the last few years, has grown faster than technology itself. Sharm a says

that is due to theunique nature of the profession.

"The hacking ecosystem is sim ple butunique. A hacker is always above all security m easures,

since he has to alwaysbe first," he says.

"A secure system /network can only be developed afterall the possible m ethods to hack it have

been accounted for."

An invention is useless unless it is fully secured. H ence, job opportunities in the cyber security

sector have opened up. Com panies such as Tech M ahindra, KPM G,Snapdeal and Flipkart

regularly hire professionals for their cyber-security vulnerability threat and assessm ent

operations.

"But such people are notthe easiest to find," says an executive of one such com pany.



IMAGE: India is not yet up to speed with the kind of talent that is required to thwart

serious cyber-attacks. Photograph: Reuters

In spite of the growing interest, India is not yet up to speed with the kind of talent that is

required to thwart serious cyber-attacks.

M ost successfulhackers operate individually and are seldom available to big com panies to

tacklesecurity threats.

M oreover, the lack of talent com ing through is a graveconcern.

"H acking," says Trishneet Arora, a young ethical hacker who headsTAC Security Solutions, "is

a lot like acting.

You have both m ediocre aswell as brilliant actors. It all depends on how good you are." (The

20-year-old's outfit claim s it has provided security services to CBI, Punjab Police, Reliance

Industries and Am ul in the past.)

M odi adds that becom inga hacker requires enorm ous intellect, which is rare to find. "At the

end of theday, you have to be better than the person who originally developed a program . And,

everybody can't do that."

That's why cyber security expertRakshit Tandon feels that ethical hacking m ust m ature and

evolve.

"Foryoungsters, hacking is still all about the 'thrill' factor. They want to see m agic on their

screen. That has to change. Intruding on other people's privacym ust stop."

IMAGE: Trishneet Arora, a young ethical hacker who heads TAC Security Solutions.

Photograph: Reuters

Forthat to change, the industry needs an urgent overhaul in the way youngsters are trained

and nurtured.

For long, the industry has been grappling with onem ajor problem -the lack of good teachers.

Sengupta says that he has been recruiting for the last 16 years, but still finds it difficult to the

find theright m em bers for his team .

H e adds that at his institute, m ore than 500 ethical hackers are trained every year who can also

teach, but that num ber isstill not sufficient. "In the near future, every com puter will require an

individual guardian. This dem and will only grow," says Tandon.

Fadia tellsm e that the one thing m issing from the hacking ecosystem is a full-fledged

governm ent-recognised hacking institute .



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"A university that can offer atwo-year m aster's degree in cyber security, or even a PhD, will be

a gam echanger. I hope the governm ent com es up with som ething like that," he says.

Ethical hacking in India m ay have m ade large strides, butthere is still som e distance to cover.

Dhruv Munjal

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most wanted in india: ethical hackers!

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