[Fsf-friends] Ankit Fadia : The real picture

Prabhat Sandheliya prabhat.news@[EMAIL-PROTECTED]
Wed Apr 5 15:30:47 IST 2006


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 :
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html<http://www.catb.org/%7Eesr/faqs/hacker-howto.html>

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 :
http://www.outpost9.com/reference/jargon/jargon_69.html

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 copy
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 www.winguides.com and compare the
material with his first book. Oh God !  this is the clear violation of
intellectual property rights of the website. Please inform the webmaster. I
have done it already.

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 !!!


Prabhat.

PS : I am sending this mail to Mr Fadia, Reliance web world, most of Linux
mailing lists and all of my friends. Please post your comments at
lug-indore at googlegroups.com


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