Hack it Right
Ethical hacker and student of Lovely Professional University, Rohit Kumar, gets listed in the ‘Facebook-Hall of Fame 2018 ’, which recognises the world’s top 20 security researchers
After attending the two-day security conference ‘ BountyCon’ organised jointly by Facebook and Google in Singapore in March, Rohit Kumar, a second-year student of BCA (Hons) in computer application from Lovely Professional University (LPU), Punjab, was inspired to compete with the world’s top security researchers in live hacking events. “BountyCon was the first live hacking experience for me. I plan to visit different countries to compete with ethical hackers,” says Kumar, one of the few security researchers from Asia-Pacific to be invited for the conference.
Kumar, 19, started exploring ethical hacking in 2016 when a group of people hacked his website and web apps. He says, “I always used to think from user’s and developer’s point of view. I was good at finding developer’s weak points and mistakes. I worked with a lot of developers, and after a few years, I decided to explore what I can do in this field. So, I learnt PoC (Proof of Concepts) and other related things.”
He then interacted with the
world’s top ethical hackers and learnt about their approach. “I thought this is the right time to improve my skills in ethical hacking and cyber security. From the same day, I started automating most of the part and developed my own strategies and methodologies. I submitted nine security vulnerabilities within four days of my visit,” he says.
For Kumar, ethical hacking is a hobby and a good opportunity to earn bug bounties (monetary benefits) that helps him pay his colleagues and interns who are also part of the start-up. “You can say that bug bounty is a kind of funding source for my start-up,” he says. He has earned several bounties over the years for his exceptional work in bug detection from companies such as Facebook, Imgur, InVision and Shopify.
Sharing his views on career opportunities in ethical hacking in India, Kumar says, “Nowadays a lot of companies are shifting to responsible disclosure programmes or bug bounty programmes. Students can earn a good amount of money in this field. But, India right now is not focussed on ethical hacking. If you want to pursue a career in ethical hacking then you should look for a job out of India. Maybe in the future we will see the tech companies in India showing interest in ethical hacking.”
To become a smart hacker, all one needs is a good sense of how applications work, knowledge of data structures and network algorithms, and what could you do to go beyond the expected output.