These Hyderabad techies hack from the right side

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.

“Depending on the type of agreement with the client, we keep testing their security walls, trying to penetrate into their systems from time to time. Banks would require testing every week while for some companies we do it once a month. If we find loopholes we alert them,” he says.

“These software companies have software programmes, database like lakhs of names and details of credit card holders, codes of new software products being developed etc, in their systems. If there are loopholes in the system, a hacker can steal this data online and cause immense losses. Mischief mongers not only steal data but also destroy systems by releasing viruses. Our job is to guard against this,” says Ashish Pathak, an ethical hacker.

With instances of cyber geeks and hackers penetrating the best protected systems and websites, companies are not only guarding against database painstakingly accumulated over several years or new programmes and codes being stolen, they are also wary of anyone using their networks for Terror purposes like sending emails. “It is bad for the company’s reputation if data is stolen,” says Alfred David, a consultant ethical hacker.

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