It's time for cops to get tips on ethical hacking

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

Forwarded By: "Berislav Kucan BHZ" <bhz () net-security org>

http://www.timesofindia.com/270800/27info2.htm

Anantha Krishnan M

Sunday
27 August 2000

BANGALORE: For once, the roles were reversed for the men in khaki. So
were some IT head-honchos. They were grasping the nuances of hacking,
byte by byte. Among the listeners were top cops with the Bangalore
city police and bigwigs from India's Silicon Valley. And, the man on
the podium was white-hat ethical hacker Tom Cervenka, popularly known
as Blue Adept.

Tom, who was in town to conduct a workshop on `Hacking portals and Web
sites--Prevention and damage-control' organised by the Internet
Component Management Group (iCMG), enlightened his spell-bound
audience on the modus operandi of ethical hackers with great
expertise.

With the government giving the go-ahead to the IT Bill in Parliament,
the legal aspect of hacking and related issues are yet to addressed.
So, Tom's mission was to spread the need for ethical hackers.

BV Naidu, director of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), said
he was impressed with the master hacker. "The idea to meet Tom was to
create an awareness among our officers on the happenings on the
Internet. Since, everyone is becoming Net-savvy, it's important for us
to know the good things and bad things on the Web. It was definitely a
session with a difference," Naidu said.

According to EV Ramana Reddy, Karnataka's IT director, the hack-talk
did pep up most of his fellow colleagues. "We got introduced to
ethical hacking. We were keen to know more about Net security."

All participants saw the imperative need to be equipped for future Net
calamities. Though the discussion mostly revolved around ethical
hacking, some of the listeners were hell-bent on finding out the
availability of a specific mechanism to track illegal activity on the
Net.

"The Internet doesn't have any jurisdiction, area or space. But, we
the policemen have all the three. Since, we were interested in
policing the cyberspace, we wanted Tom to share the know-how on a
software for the cybercop," VV Bhaskar, DGP (COD and economic
offences) said, adding, "Lawlessness on the Net can cause major
problems in the future. To arrest this, the Bangalore police is
interested in a monitoring system."

SK Balaraman, DIG (state crime records bureau), felt the need to
legalise ethical hacking so as to put an end to increasing cyber
offences. "Tom briefed us all about the hacking business. With most of
our departments going online, we were quite fascinated with his
demonstrations," he said.

Hack-man Tom, sporting his favourite black T-shirt, seemed to be in
his elements. "The talk ended with a positive note seeking better
relationship with white-hat hackers and institutions. I go back to my
workplace with a good news for fellow ethical hackers that India is
waiting for us."

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