"My entire background for the last 15 years has been computer hacking. However, I don't think there is any thriller fiction written on that particular subject, as yet. The novel will have a love story set against the Indian backdrop, and will revolve around hacking in a big way. I will be releasing it sometime next year," says the master at ethical hacking.
The thriller fiction will be the 17th book from Fadia, and the third as part of the three-book deal that he has signed with Penguin Books India. While Penguin had released the first book 'Faster 100 Ways to Improve your Digital Life' in July 2013, Fadia launched the second book 'SOCIAL: 50 Ways to Improve Your Professional Life' in Hyderabad today.
SOCIAL puts one on a path from being an employee to a personal brand. Fadia gives away simple technology tips, Internet apps and social advice on how one can enhance his/her personal life. Tips also include making an elevator pitch, getting more out of conferences, explaining complicated data clearly, and obtaining more followers on social media.
Quoting a central government report that states that there would be a demand of 470,000 cyber security professional in India by 2015, as against the 100,000-odd underground (cyber criminals) and ethical hackers now, Fadia says that the government needs to take more proactive measures, including training the police and setting up more cyber investigation cells across the country to curb the cyber crime menace.
"Unfortunately, there are very few colleges in India that offer any courses on cyber security. I think, educational institutions need to start such courses," says this 28-year-old tech junkie, who offers the Ankit Fadia Certified Ethical Hacker course through which he has trained over 20,000 people since the last seven years.
Stating that new age wars would have huge cyber elements, and could actually cause a lot of repercussions across countries, like Russia's attack on Estonia in 2007, where the entire Internet in that small Eastern European country was disconnected, Fadia says that the governments have to train the right people and put them in the right positions in various departments.
"The governments have to train people in intelligence gathering and predictive analytics. Besides, they should adopt some counter strategies to retaliate cyber attacks," he adds.
Wi-Fi Hyderabad a good initiative
On the Telangana government's plans to make Hyderabad a Wi-Fi city, a la Bangalore, Fadia says there are a lot of positives to it as it would increase efficiency and provides access to services and information to the common man, on the go.
"However, I came to know that they are planning to give free access for the first six months.How will they verify the identity of the person who is using the Internet? It is important for the government to implement identity verification through an SMS to maintain the user logs," Fadia says.
