The word hacker usually invites a frown from people, including parents, when their children are interested in it. But with changing times and increasing internet access, hacking has now become more than just an illegal activity. Enter Ankit Fadia, ethical hacker and author. Having recently written his 16th book ‘Social: 50 Ways to Improve Your Professional Life’, he explains the need for more people like him, and about security issues on the web in an interview to YUNUS Y. LASANIA.
How is the security for social networking sites on the internet? Given today’s wide access to learn hacking, is it easy for hackers to cause damage there?
The security for sites like Facebook and Twitter are quite high. If someone logs in your account, you get a message. Big companies take care of that aspect very well.
You even teach ethical hacking to students. So, in your experience, what is the perception about it in general, especially among parents?
Many times, my students have told me that their parents do not give them fees to learn ethical hacking, because they think it is an illegal act. So I tell them to show their parents on websites like naukri.com, that there is an actual industry that hires such people to protect websites.
Where do you see software and internet going in India in the next 10 years?
There are going to be more start-ups, and we shouldn’t be surprised if a big company like Google starts in India. Creativity is something that will come up soon.
Why hasn’t such a company come up until now, in spite of India being a software hub?
Well, entrepreneurship in India is not encouraged. There are money issues like companies needing investments which will bear results only in the future.
As an author, what do you feel about piratebay.org, which has been operating from different countries, after it was deemed unlawful and also about peer-to-peer sharing by users?
As an author, I feel that content should not be shared. Having said that, lot of things like movies for example, are very expensive. So the models have to change. However, when someone buys it and uploads it on the internet, it is accessible to thousands of people, and it is a matter of revenue. File-sharing and social marketing is used by upcoming artists, but once they gain fame, their attitude towards it changes.
