We generally understand the term ‘hacker’ as referring to someone who circumvents computer security and gains unauthorised access to computers and remote networks. However, hackers are also those highly talented programmers and skilled system designers who find bugs, create fixes and save people a lot of money. Those who fix security issues and debug programmes are sometimes known as White Hats. Find out how some of these White Hats, ethical Indian hackers have found favor with internet giants Facebook, Twitter and others in the recent times.
This 20 year old computer engineering student from Kerala spotted a bug in the Facebook code that made it vulnerable to certain attacks from hackers looking to take control over Facebook pages. This helped prevent a huge potential security breach and as a reward, Arun S Kumar received about 10.7 lakhs or $16,000.
It was launched in 2011 and aimed at eliminating bugs in the system while rewarding those who spotted those bugs. Arun has been rewarded under this programme previously and has pocketed about 30 lakhs for his uncanny ability to spot these weaknesses.
This Bangalore hacker also found a Facebook bug; this time in the login system that would permit hackers to access not only users’ details and photos but also credit card and other payment details. Anand Prakash who is a security analyst with Flipkart received about Rs 15 lakhs ($15000).
Laxman Muthiyah is another Indian who received a reward under Facebook's bounty programme; this time for spotting a photo deleting bug. He bagged USD 12,500 for his efforts when he pointed out the glitch via his blog post entitled How I hacked Your Facebook Photos.
Twitter also has their Big Bounty programme that rewards people for uncovering bugs. Indian ethical hacker Avinash from revealed that Vine’s source code was practically open (anyone could copy/ duplicate it) and was awarded $10,800 (Approx ₹6.8 lakh) for this discovery.
While Indian hackers such as Ankit Fadia, Rahul Tyagi, Pranav Mistry, Koushik Dutta and others have made quite a name for themselves, other talented ethical hackers are making their presence felt too.
While Indian tech companies are known to penny pinch when it comes to online security issues, American companies are more generous. Manish Bhattacharya one such bounty hunter who made lakhs by pointing out a remote login glitch in Google and many others as well, which have helped him pay off his loans.
Indians have made over Rs 5 crores hunting down FB bugs. According to Facebook, India has long topped the list of 127 countries whose researchers contribute to our bug bounty program.
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