Shunal Doke

Update: The hacker who defaced Ankit Fadia's website has contacted us. The hacker, who goes by the nicknames m0f0 and нα¢кєя, is Himanshu Sharma. We'll be bringing you more on this shortly.

Ankit Fadia is known as one of India’s first 'ethical hackers'. He has been recognised by a number of software companies, and has written many books about computer and internet security. Now, in a twist of fate, his website has been hacked and defaced yet again. The hackers have left a message for Fadia on his website.

This is the second time this year that Fadia's website got hacked

The message reads:

“PAWNED

#[!]Owned by m0f0 aka Hacker :p|| Dikies #Team

[!] Greetz:

[!] Shadow008!!||нα¢кєя||Ap3x ||th3.g4m3_0v3r||AbHi

[!] HACKED You Again, Fadia !.Seriously i think maybe you should change your profession to farming ?

[!] India's "so called" Number 1 Ethical Hacker Hacked? 😉

[!] you must be wondering how i bypassed your security ..?

[!]What security ? :D”

According to the hackers, they have done nothing illegal and have just responded to the challenge that Ankit Fadia had put forth. Fadia had earlier challenged anyone to hack his website. Fadia's challenge is in this video and is issued at the 1:91 mark.



This is not the first time that Ankit Fadia’s website has been hacked. In January this year, his official website got hit by a hacker group that identified itself as Team Grey Hat. The hackers seem to have got access to the files on his server. A pastebin dump had been setup that shows screenshots of the files.

The note by the hacker group rubbishes Ankit Fadia as a hacker and his courses in hacking. The pastebin dump also mentions the database details, including the username and password used. The Hacker News claims that the site was also hacked by Himanshu Sharma, a hacker well known in the hacking circles since he was 17.

Ankit Fadia has appeared on several TV shows as a host offering technology and security advice to his viewers. He has also authored books on Internet security and ethical hacking. He’s also known to offer talks and speak in seminars on security related topics. There have also been reports that books written by Ankit Fadia contain plagiarised content.

The current hackers have posted a link on Fadia’s defaced website that claim that the ethical hacker is a charlatan and has plagiarised content for his books. The link posted alleges, “Fadia has spent his entire career talking about hacking and security, but has not performed penetration testing, has not secured networks, and only offered pedestrian "hacking" training re-branded as a certification bearing his own name.”

Ankit Fadia got his first book published when he was fifteen years old, which made him the youngest author to have a book published by publishers MacMillan India. Fadia has also sponsored the Singapore Management University’s 'Ankit Fadia Study Award', which has a $1,000 cash prize, along with a certificate. The award is awarded annually to “an outstanding student” in the Information Security and Trust Course under the Bachelor of Science (Information System Management) degree.