I was amused by the recent buzz in my college about Ankit Fadia coming on Friday to deliver a talk on “Ethical Hacking”. I saw posters all over college claiming that he was the “World’s first Ethical Hacker”, which is a joke at best. Ethical hacking was an art known to many much before he gained prominence in the field of computer security. Of course, I have nothing against him; he is defintely an exceptional young achiever (Yep, I think he’s just 19 years old now!), with his 5 books on computer security selling like hot cakes both in India and abroad.

I think all that hype is because of the corporate that is financing his visit here: Reliance Infocomm. They recently launched a training program at all their Webworld outlets across the nation: “Ankit Fadia Certified Ethical Hacker”, which is why he is coming to India in the first place. The launch of such a program is also amusing to many, after all we don’t see educational programs that are named after a person everyday. I can just imagine how unprofessional “Bill Gates Certified Software Engineer” would sound. I guess this sort of stuff happens only in India!