Hacking the Hacker

27Profile: Benild Joseph

At 25 years old, Benild Joseph, from the Bangalore region of India, is one of the youngest people profiled in this book. But in his short career of only 8 years (as of our interview), he has built quite a track record for himself, and he diligently works to improve the computer security of his home country and region. He specializes in web application security and has discovered critical vulnerabilities in many popular web sites including Facebook, AT&T, Sony Music, BlackBerry, and Deutsche Telekom. Suffice it to say that he has distinguished himself. At present, he is the Chief Executive Officer for “Th3 art of h@ckin9,” part of the International IT Security Project (an initiative with support of the government of India) as well as acting as a board member of the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) of India. He is listed as a “Top 10 Ethical Hackers in India” by Microsoft Social Forum and was named as one of “India’s 8 Most Famous Ethical Hackers” by Silicon India magazine. He frequently writes and teaches.

India is a wonderful emerging country with many bright people, but at the same time it has only over the past ten or so years come strongly into the Internet age. Much of its population is very poor. With this in mind, I asked Joseph how he got into computer security. He said, “I was always interested in hacking, and initially I wasn’t interested in computer security at all. It wasn’t something really known or talked about in India at ...