Shekhar K stirs to life only around midnight. With a mug of strong coffee in one hand he works the laptop preferring the quiet of the night to do what he is best at: break into the computers and networks of two software multi-nationals based in Hyderabad. As he probes for loopholes in the systems of the IT giants to break-in and access valuable data, he calmly says, “I am paid to do this.”

Shekhar is one of the 3,000-odd people in Hyderabad who make a living out of ethical hacking. They are the gatekeepers of the hundreds of software companies, including giants like Infosys, Satyam, Wipro, IBM, in the city. These highly-paid hackers are used to continuously attack and seek out vulnerable points in their systems and networks through which illegal hackers can break-in and steal software programmes, data and codes for software products that are worth millions of dollars.

Though they prefer to work anonymously, with at least one attempt made every hour to hack the servers of IT companies, banks, corporates, and even state police computers, ethical hacking is a profession that is fast picking up in Hyderabad which houses 1,600 IT companies with incalculable mega bytes of priceless data.

“Besides having their own security analysts, top companies engage ethical hackers to attack their systems and look for loopholes which hackers can take advantage of. We legally try to hack into their computers with the knowledge and agreement of the client. If there are any leaks in the system, we make suggestions to plug them,” says N Gautam, director of ETA NetServe, a Polish ethical hacking company based in Hyderabad.

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