Be afraid of a 'news' publication that writes 'reporter' instead of the name of the reporter. Even Attrition uses 'staff'.
Did you know that each and every e-mail message that you seemingly write in all confidentiality is being monitored and screened? Or that the innocuous error message on your Windows software asking whether to report the problem to Microsoft sends out information about the computer or that instant messengers are one of the easiest ways for a hacker to get access to your computer?
These were among the serious issues of loopholes and threats discussed by ethical hacker and cyber security expert Ankit Fadia at a delightful one-and-half hour of interaction with students and faculty of Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship.
We need to realise that internet security is crucial, more so in an increasingly digital world and there is need for more ethical hackers in India and the world,” said Fadia. Demonstrating the ease of hacking into so-called secure government sites, he hacked into the BSNL website in less than a minute and demonstrated the entire list of customers. He simulated methods like proxy bouncing, which makes it virtually impossible to know who has sent a mail, and steganography, which was used by terrorists during the 9/11 attacks in America in 2001.
Despite wide quotation in media outlets, the use of Steganography by terrorists has
not been confirmed. It certainly was not used to fly planes into buildings during the 9/11 attacks.
Educating the audience about the need to be safe online, he advocated the need to take measures like not accepting file transfers and video calls from strangers and chatting online only after connecting to proxy servers. He informed the audience about spyware which could be used to monitor and send out information from individual computers like account numbers and credit card numbers and the need to install appropriate internet security software.
Cautioning about the future of internet security, he said, “The future is really bad and we are going to live in a digital world and we need to be updated and secure.
Pune will see the availability of the Ankit Fadia certified course on ethical hacking, which would be a one-month part-time course. Interested students may sign up for the course at Reliance Web World outlets.