by Ryan Trainor, Australian Anthill Magazine
When did you start hacking?
I got a computer at home when I was ten. The first couple of years I was just playing around, playing games, surfing the internet. At the age of 12 I suddenly got interested in hacking. I think the forbidden fruit always attracts, and hacking is something forbidden. You’re not allowed to break into systems and access other people’s files – that’s why I got into it.
At the age of thirteen I performed my first hack and defaced the Indian government website. I put up my own website instead of the VAW homepage. And, at the age of 14 I wrote my first book, the unofficial guide to ethical hacking, which became an instant best seller the world over. At the age of 16, after the September 11 attacks, the US Government intercepted an encrypted email and I was invited to decrypt it. That was a big milestone in my career. After that I got a lot of government work.
I have written seven books on computer hacking and one on mobile phone hacking. And I have started a consulting and training company in Malaysia. I’m also studying my Bachelors in Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University.
After September 11, how did the US Government get in touch you?
At the time, my books were widely available and I was running an extremely popular website, which is probably why they got in touch with me. I am not supposed to talk too much about it. But, the good thing and the bad thing about working with the intelligence or police agencies is that they never tell you whether what you did was really useful or not. So even to date, I have no idea if what I did was actually useful. But, since I have received a lot for projects since then, I guess that what I did was at least a bit useful.
How big a problem is hacking in the world at the moment?
I think that it’s a big issue of concern, because these days everybody relies on the internet. Just imagine your life where the internet stops working for a day. You’d be totally paralysed.
The problem is, most corporates don’t take security seriously enough – until something goes wrong. On most occasions, that’s too late.
How many hackers are actually out there?
I wouldn’t know the exact figure, but every school kid has, at least once, been fascinated by the term hacking and hackers. There are thousand of people who carry out hacking as a hobby, and very few of them actually take it up as a career. I would really like to see more people who start hacking as a hobby actually make it their career as well, because there is a huge market. Ethical hackers, or computer security experts, are in great demand worldwide.
