Dear All,
Yesterday (03-04-2006)I attended a seminar by a so-called "Hacking Guru" Ankit Fadia, at DAVV, Indore (MP) auditorium. I just want to share my feelings with you.
The Seminar was a complete failure, though it was attended by about well over 100 people, but was a complete disaster.
The very first thing by which I was offended badly was using the sacred word "Hacking" to demonstrate something we, the hackers, call cracking. The seminar topic was "Ethical Hacking", now I want to ask Mr Fadia, what is unethical about hacking ? Hacking is very positive word and there in no need to put "Ethical" before it. By the way his seminar topic should be "Ethical Cracking".
If you really want to become a hacker, please read an article by a real hacker, Eric Steven Raymond (ESR). The man who changed the history by writing a paper "Cathedral and Bazaar". please read the article here :
The people who can not differentiate between hacking and cracking, should read an article by the GOD of hackers Richad M Stallman (RMS), the man who started GNU movement all by himself. The gcc (compiler), gdb (debugger), emacs (editor) are some of the most popular softwares in the world written by him. Please read the article here :
The things Fadia demonstrated were ancient techniques used by crackers to break into some one's machine. Now a days even 10 year olds can download these tools from Internet to control others' machines. Can we call them hackers ?? If he calls it hacking, I doubt if he understands the term even "Cracking", leave hacking altogether. This childish behavior is called script kiddie.
IP spoofing, SQL Injection, password cracking softwares, Trojan horse programs, these are the tools of cyber criminals. So I wonder what is the significance of the term "Ethical" here ??
In the entire session I kept waiting for some program or utility, written by himself. But I don't thing he had something like this to share with audience. The entire session was demonstration of third party utilities, and the saddest thing was no mention of the name of any author of any utility. He didn't care to give some credits to the utility developers. What a shame !!!
Mr Fadia, I real hacker always respect the creativity of others, and before using their work proper credits are given, this is the hacker's attitude. It's not like that, you download something from Internet, use it and forget the person, who made it. That's pretty mean.
Second most annoying thing was that he calls himself a "hacker" and was using a Windows XP operating system ????
I have been in to computers for the past 10 years and I never come across any real hacker who uses Windows. I met Brian(Apache creator), Andy Cleen, Alon cox, Rusty (all networking gods), RMS (the GOD himself) but all of them were using some or other form of Unix or Linux.
Come on, MR Fadia, Windows is the worst OS in the world, full of security holes, so what is the point to break into a Windows machine ???? What do you want to prove ????
He only once mentioned Linux, just to tell how you can use it's live CD to boot a Windows machine and cracke the password.
Actually, before attending the seminar, I Googled a lot about Fadia and his work. But what I could find was self acclaiming statement by Fadia about himself and his future and just crap, crap and crap by technology illiterate Indian news papers' reports.
I just want to share my findings with you.
Vulnerabilities patches by Fadia = 0 (He may know how to break in, but doesn't know how to fix up) Bugtraq id's by Fadia = 0 Hacking / Security tool by fadia = 0 ( He simply Goolge and download the tools from Internet, that's not cracking. Actual cracker is the programmer, but Fadia never ever gives due credits. Now that's not hacking, that's stealing) Any open source software by Fadia = 0 (He is afraid of suggesting Linux to people, 'coz it's secure) Any Linux or Windows software security patch = 0 Any recommendation or recognition by Real Hacker Community = 0 (They laugh at him. He is just a kid) Software / Cryptography patents by Fadia = 0 Algorithms by Fadia = 0 Any official citation by FBI/CIA/CBI for Fadia = 0 (They don't even bother about any explanation) Any confirmation of his self-claims = 0 (Nobody, expect him knows, if they are real) Any confirmation of him decrypting Osama's message = 0 (Hahahahahahahaha) Any original technical tutorial or book by Fadia = 0 (He simply steal the things and never he never ever gives due credits to the original
authors.) Any originality in his tutes or books = 0 (Hahahahahahaha) Skill level of Fadia = Only God knows !!!
I tried to read a few books by him, but to my wonder some part of his books are nothing but simple "copy and paste" material from well known sites for Windows registry editing. Please visit
I was astonished by the course he came to promote here, "Ethical hacker certified by Ankit Fadia" ! He sill is child in hacking field, and he is giving the certificates for hacking ????? And worst thing, Reliance web world is promoting it. What a shame !!! Have all gone mad ? Can't they see ?
Unfortunately, question and answer round was cut from the seminar, that's also because of Fadia arrived there one hour late. Well, that's India's celebrity style statement. Otherwise, I would have asked all these questions to him there only.
Anyways, I went to him at the end of the seminar, and asked if Windows is so vulnerable, can he suggest audience to use Linux rather than Windows. And the reply came was straight "NO". What a shame ???
I understood the reason, why he said no. The reason is same why Microsoft does not patch up it's OS. Plain economics. If you make system secure with Linux who is going to ask for people like Fadia, so called "security expert" ???
I want to make an appeal to all of you, please make all of your friends aware of these facts. Let one should not get undeserved advantage. I also want to appeal news papers, please do not make a hero out of nothing. Stop polluting the honest media by prejudiced reports.
And at the end I want to tell Mr Fadia, that I don't have any personal problem with you or your achievements, but please behave properly in hacking community. We hackers are very positive people we never ever try to harm anybody, until he comes to our or our philosophy's way. Please stop calling your self a hacker, if does not understand the hacker culture.
And for god sake, stop behaving like a child, now you are in college, so GROW UP !!!