Ankit Fadia, well known ethical hacker and computer security intelligence consultant

Ankit Fadia is an Indian computer security consultant based in Silicon Valley, USA. He has authored several books on computer security. Fadia is currently pursuing his Bachelors in Management Science & Engineering at Stanford University.

Fadia was educated at Delhi Public School. He started a website called “HackingTruths”, which he claims was judged as the “second best hacking site in the world by the FBI”. He claims that when he was 14, he trashed the front page of an Indian magazine’s website. He then sent an e-mail to the editor confessing to the hack, suggesting counter measures. At 15, his book on Ethical Hacking made him the youngest author to be published by Macmillan India. He claims that in 2001, he discovered links between the Chinese government and the China Eagle Union, a cracker group responsible for defacing many U.S. web sites. He stated that the “long-term goal of the Chinese government is actually to take over the internet and control all parts of the internet”. However none of these claims have been proved by substantial
evidence so far.                                                                                                        

                                                                                           

Breaking into computer systems which once was a pastime for geeks, has become a full-fledged career option. Ethical hackers are in demand from government as well as private sector. Ankit Fadia, well known ethical hacker and independent computer security intelligence consultant tells Piyali Mandal how hacking can be a rewarding career option. Excerpts:

How far is hacking an acceptable career option in India? 
Ethical hacking is a career option worth exploring. In recent years, there has been an alarming increase in the number of cyber crime cases on the Internet. Hacking email accounts, stealing and intercepting sensitive data, abusive emails, trojan attacks and espionage are some of the many concerns that have started affecting email users. All these threats have increased the demand for ethical hackers who test security systems and look out for critical vulnerability, albeit for a good purpose.

Are their formal courses available? 
Usually, companies hire geeks and train them. But there are courses available and any engineering graduate can select between a six months and a one year Post-Graduate Diploma programme. One needs to be computer savvy and gadget friendly to be in this field. One should have keen interest in the Internet and have basic knowledge of networking and programming to stay updated. After pursuing a course in ethical hacking, students can join organisations as security analysts and grow to becoming Chief Information Officers.

Are ethical hackers in demand?
Currently, there is a huge gap between the demand and supply of ethical hackers in India. This is because there is a shortage of skilled people, poor pay packages and growth opportunities. According to NASSCOM, demand for ethical hackers is estimated at over 77,000 in India every year. Against this, India produces only 20,000-25,000 ethical hackers. So there is a big gap to be filled.

Which sectors require them?
The demand for ethical hackers is coming mostly from the government agencies. People have woken up to realise the importance of cyber security experts especially after the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008; Chinese cyber attacks on different countries and bomb blasts in different parts of India. Also, organisations including banks, hotels, airlines, telecom companies, IT and IT enabled services companies, outsourcing units, retail chains and Internet firms are seeking ethical hackers to check for vulnerability within their own systems.

How attractive are the pay packets?
Though it is a matter of pride to be able to help the Indian government, the projects are not as financially rewarding. In the private sector however, starting salaries in India range between Rs 3 lakh to Rs 4.2 lakh per annum and can go up to 32.5 lakh per annum

Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology

From TEDIndia: Pranav Mistry demos several tools that help the physical world interact with the world of data — including a deep look at his SixthSense device and a new, paradigm-shifting paper “laptop.”
More amazingly, at the end of the video during the Q&A, Mistry says he’ll open-source the software behind SixthSense, to allow others to work on the technology and realize its full potential. Verily, bring it to the masses! How very bold! MIT intellectual property personnel are groaning.

Several questions come to mind:

• What are the challenges to bringing this to the masses?
• Where do you think such a technology is most likely to be deployed first?
• Will Mr Mistry himself benefit from this, or will it be the next tier of technology companies that will profit most?
• Why did it take a kid from India, doing graduate work at MIT, to develop this?
• Why didn’t a company like Microsoft, with billions of dollars of R&D funding, not come up with this?
• And finally, how do we leverage this to help bring clean water to kids, or provide a decent education to girls in rural India?
• What questions do you have?

In the video, Mr Mistry talks about kicking around a virtual ball on the floor of the Boston Red-line! One of these days, I hope to see him on the Red-Line! Yaay!

The Amazing Future Technology - "Mactini"

 A Peter Serafinowicz Show Christmas Special is featuring a short clip dedicated to a new, fictional Apple product – the Mactini. The clip is a parody of Apple's guided tour of the MacBook Air, emphasizing the company's habit of reducing the number of controls (buttons) on its products.

The Peter Serafinowicz Show is a BBC Two comedy sketch show, written by and starring Peter Serafinowicz, a British comic actor, writer, voice artist, and composer. His latest bit features the actor dressed up like an Apple employee and doing a guided tour of the Mactini, an ultra-portable computer that doesn't compromise functionality, while reducing all its controls to a single button.

Serafinowicz assures Mac fans that the single key found on the Mactini “performs all the functions of a regular keyboard,” complementing Apple's style of touting its products.

“For instance, if I want to type the letter A, I press it once [audience laughs]. For the letter Z, I press it - you guessed it - 26 times,” and even more laughter bursts among the members of the audience. And yes, you guessed it, the guy actually starts the button-mashing, and eventually the letter Z appears on the small screen of the Mactini. We reckon it's using Apple's standard backlit display, with just one LED providing the light.

The real kicker comes when Serafinowicz decides to go deeper into the functionality of the Mactini and starts showcasing its punctuation abilities. For a simple comma, users must “hold [the button] down for four seconds, release it for two, and then... ra ta ta tat [presses the key repeatedly in a timely, rhythmic manner].”

The user guide, as you would imagine, is a several thousand-page long bible. You might need a crane to move that thing about. “The Mactini is also a fully integrated entertainment system. It's perfect for listening to music, watching movies, or even giving a business presentation,” Serafinowicz says during his guided tour, showing off the respective capabilities.

Moreover, while the Mactini already looks like it doesn't have any competition, the device becomes obsolete before the commercial is even over, because of a smaller, more compact device called, you guessed it...

Are there Stars in our Skies ?

Would you like to become a star watcher ? Not the kind who hangs around the set of a Hollywood movie ,but one who looks at the heavens.This is what astronomers do ,and much more,They study whole galaxies ,as well as planets,moons, and other residents of the solar system . Their research can cover such topics as the origins of the universe ,how galaxies form and change, the structure of stars and planets... Things too far away to see without sophisticated scientific instruments . And they sometime study the physics too small to see, even with the help of the best technology.

If working as an astronomer sounds interesting, you may want to check out what you need to do become one. You need at least an undergraduate college degree, and most likely a doctor's degree.A thorough knowledge of astronomy ,math,and physics is essential, and you have to keep up to date with new information and discoveries . You have to love and be good at research, because you are going to have to come up with good ideas for new projects. You will need to be self motivated,detail-oriented,and accurate,and have good organizational,technical,computer,and problem solving skills.

Astronomers study the surface of rocky planets, and so do geologists.the general requirements for being a geologist are similar to those for an astronomer .,its just that the scientific focus in different.Geologists studying rocks that spacecraft bring back from Mars or fragments of space rocks that fall to earth help us understand how the solar system may have formed billions of years ago.

In yet another space-age job,as an aerospace engineer you may help design a space probe that gathers data and samples in place no human can venture . An aerospace engineer has to be excellent at solving problems that harsh conditions of the solar system create. Aerospace engineers often have undergraduate degrees in math or physics,or electrical or mechanical engineering. They may continue their education as high as a doctorate in aeronautics or rocket science.

But even you have no desire to make a career in space study, you can still enjoy yourself aiming a telescope at the heavens in your backyard or in an observatory.

After all, we are made of Stardust !

Ovonic Unified Memory

The use of phase-change chalcogenide alloy films to store data electrically and optically was first reported in 1968 and in 1972, respectively. Early phase-change memory devices used tellurium-rich, multi-component chalcogenide alloys with a typical composition of Te81Ge15Sb2S2. Both the optical and electrical memory devices were programmed by application of an energy pulse of appropriate magnitude and duration. A short pulse of energy was used to melt the material, which was then allowed to cool quickly enough to “freeze in” the glassy, structurally disordered state. To reverse the process, somewhat lower amplitude, longer-duration pulse was used to heat a previously vitrified region of the alloy to a temperature below the melting point, at which crystallization could occur rapidly. Differences in electrical resistivity and the optical constants between the amorphous and polycrystalline phases were used to store data.

During the 1970s and 1980s, significant research efforts by many industrial and academic groups were focused on understanding the fundamental properties of chalcogenide alloy amorphous semiconductors. Prototype optical memory disks and electronic memory device arrays also were announced, beginning in the early 1970s. Rapidly crystallizing chalcogenide alloys were later reported by several optical memory research groups. These new material compositions, derived from the Ge-Te-Sb ternary system, did not phase segregate upon crystallization like the earlier Te-rich alloys, but instead exhibited congruent crystallization with no large-scale atomic motion.

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