Hyderabad institute to train ethical hackers

Tuesday, 22 April 2003, 19:30 IST   |    4 Comments
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HYDERABAD: A school to train "ethical hackers" is to be established in what is believed to the first initiative of its kind in South Asia. The school is being promoted by Hyderabad-based e2 Labs, which designs national security infrastructure solutions for governments, corporate houses and domestic users. Making this announcement on Monday, Ankit Fadia, a 17-year-old student who has authored a book on ethical hacking, and e2 Labs CEO, Zaki Qureshey said the school was aimed at IT professionals, system administrators, students, decision makers and those concerned about the security of network infrastructure. The school will explain the techniques used by hackers to assess and attack corporate networks. The course curriculum will also cover legal issues. Fadia, who is a consultant to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and several other organisations, felt that though India was one of the leading software powers, it lagged in computer security. According to a report by Ernst & Young, India is the most vulnerable country for cyber attacks. The country lacks any awareness about computer security or professionals and experts who can protect the networks and counter hacking. Fadia pointed out that Pakistani hacking groups were hacking 50 to 60 Indian websites every year. The training at the school will be conducted in three modules with the fee structure ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 75,000 for weekly or monthly courses. A three-month long diploma course has also been designed. According to Fadia, the country could no longer afford to ignore this crucial issue at a time when it was facing threats from a number of terrorist groups. He said the key security institutes and laboratories were increasingly becoming targets of hackers, who are also stealing sensitive information. The security and law enforcing agencies, Fadia believed, were also not equipped to deal with such threats. He pointed out that in the terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament, the investigating agency found an encrypted message. "This aspect becomes even more important in times of war. The country that uses encrypted messages and protects its cyber space will win the war," Fadia contended. Asked if the school will end up producing more hackers, Fadia argued that nobody would be able to protect his cyber space without knowing the techniques used by hackers to pre-empt or counter attacks. On a countrywide tour to create awareness about computer security, Fadia said the demand for ethical hackers was on the rise worldwide. Ethical hackers are becoming a mainstay of the effort to secure corporate networks. He felt that each website should have four to five professionals dealing with Internet security.
Source: IANS