Career
Writing career
Fadia's writing career began when he founded a website called hackingtruths.box.sk, where he posted hacking tutorials. [9] [2] [12] [13] At age 15, he authored An Unofficial Guide to Ethical Hacking, making him the youngest author published by Macmillan India. [8] [10] He later wrote more books on computer security, spoke at seminars in schools and colleges across India, [14] and launched a training programme: the "Ankit Fadia Certified Ethical Hacker" (AFCEH). [15]
Hacking and consulting claims
After the September 11 attacks, Fadia claimed that he was hired by a U.S. intelligence agency to decipher Al-Qaeda communications in November 2001. [16] Later, he also claimed to have consulted for India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on a cybercrime case. [16]
In 2002, he said he had defaced the website of the Indian edition of CHIP at age 17, and that the editor offered him a job. [2] [17] Fadia also stated in a 2002 interview that a year ago, he had thwarted an attempt by Kashmiri separatist hackers to deface an Indian website. [9] He claimed to have gathered information on the attackers, infiltrated their online chats, and sent the details to a US intelligence agency for which he was working. [18]
In 2003, Fadia claimed to have infiltrated a hacker group and alleged that Pakistani intelligence agencies were paying "westerners" to deface Indian websites. [19]
In 2009, Fadia stated that he was working as an internet security consultant for "prestigious companies" in New York. [20] He also endorsed the Flying Machine jeans brand of Arvind Mills. [21]
Television career
In 2008, Fadia began hosting the television show MTV What the Hack! on MTV India with José Covaco. In 2009, he launched a second show on MTV India, where he answered internet-related questions submitted by viewers. [22] [23]
In 2012, Fadia and Dell India created a video series on computer and mobile phone usage, which was distributed on the Dell India Facebook page. [24] [25] A year later, Fadia started the YouTube show Geek on the Loose in collaboration with PING networks. [26] The show was based on his book. [27]
Controversies
Plagiarism allegations
Fadia has faced accusations of plagiarism. [28] [19] In 2011, Jericho of attrition.org discovered that two of Ankit Fadia's books were plagiarized from other sources. [29] About half of Network Intrusion Alert and a third of The Unofficial Guide to Ethical Hacking were found to be copied from pre-existing works. [29]
Questioned expertise
Many in the computer security community have described Fadia as a self-proclaimed expert whose claims lack real substance. [28] He has rejected this criticism, saying, "If I had been fake, my growth would have stopped 10 years ago." [8] His claims of hacking have been discredited by professionals in the cybersecurity community and media. [30] [31]
Fadia's earlier claims about defacing the Indian edition of CHIP at age 17 and thwarting Kashmiri separatist hackers have been disputed. In 2012, Charles Assisi, then executive editor of Forbes India and former editor of CHIP India, denied that the defacement incident ever occurred, after consulting with both his predecessor and successor. [32] Following this, the Pakistani hacker group Anti-India Crew (AIC) publicly questioned Fadia's abilities by defacing the Indian government website epfindia.gov.in and dedicating the attack to him. [33] AIC also issued a challenge for him to prevent them from defacing the CBEC website within two days; Fadia was unable to prevent the defacement. [33]
Website security failures
Fadia's own website has been compromised at least nine times despite his claim of being a hacker. [28] [34] After a 2009 defacement, he attributed the breach to a vulnerability in his web host's servers. However, independent security experts contended that the issue was a loophole within his own website's code. His website was also hacked by an Indian hacker, Himanshu Sharma, after accepting a challenge from Fadia. [35] That same year, after Fadia issued a public challenge, a group known as "Team Grey Hat" compromised his personal website on January 7, 2012, and released data obtained from it. [36] [34] His site was also defaced twice by hackers who disputed his claims and accused him of misleading the public. [37]
Digital India appointment controversy
In September 2015, a certificate was posted on his Facebook page that claimed his appointment as a brand ambassador for the Indian Prime Minister’s Digital India initiative. [38] But government sources later denied any such appointment. [39]
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