[ISN] The digital hacktivist

From: InfoSec News <alerts_at_private>
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:53:50 -0600 (CST)
http://www.livemint.com/2012/01/24210113/The-digital-hacktivist.html

[Anyone want to place some bets on the number of sites hacked
based on techniques mentioned Ankit Fadia's 'How to Unblock Everything on the 
Internet'

http://tech2.in.com/news/general/popular-indian-hacker-ankit-fadias-site-hacked/273372
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/9325956616/infosecnews-20
http://securityerrata.org/errata/charlatan/ankit_fadia/  - WK]


By Gopal Sathe
livemint.com
Jan 24 2012

Q&A | Ankit Fadia

In an age where the government threatens to restrict access to the Internet, 
people need to arm themselves with the knowledge to work around any attempts at 
censorship, says author and “ethical hacker” Ankit Fadia. His new book, How to 
Unblock Everything on the Internet, offers 50 workarounds for most common 
blocks. Fadia says the book is for “non-technical users”, and many of the tips 
are indeed extremely simplistic - from suggestions such as using Google 
Translate and viewing Web pages as emails, to more complex systems such as 
setting up VPNs (virtual private networks) and information about proxies. The 
book offers little that is new or unique, but people who aren’t familiar or 
comfortable with technology will find it helpful.

Fadia is not respected among hackers, who accuse him of being inexperienced and 
lacking depth of knowledge, and of making a quick buck out of information that 
is freely available on the Internet. Despite this, Fadia remains one of the few 
well-known hackers in India, and even as he acknowledges the allegations 
against him, he is quick to point out that his goal is not to write for the 
technological elite, but for everyone. Edited excerpts from an interview:


What was your goal in writing this book? Who are the people that need to read 
this?

I think everyone should be reading this book today. In December, I heard (Union 
minister) Kapil Sibal talk about censoring social networking sites, and I 
started to think about government bans and blocks. If India starts to cover up 
sites like China does, then the people need to know how to work around this. 
Social media and Google are powerful tools, and blocking them is an 
undemocratic attack on freedom of speech. I started writing these tips for 
college-goers and office workers, whose internal company networks needlessly 
cut off large parts of the Internet, but today this kind of knowledge is 
something everyone should have.

[...]


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Received on Tue Jan 24 2012 - 23:53:50 PST

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