I dedicated all my achievements to them

This Day Guru Purnima is celebrated to pay tributes to the spiritual gurus, their teachings and their lives. I don’t follow any such spiritual Gurus because I never needed one.

As John Lubbock said that every child should be taught, as that every child should be given the wish to learn. I am blessed with so many mentors, my late beloved Father, my Maa and Nani they introduced me to this odd world and taught me survival. My Guru Rohini Salian Chief Public prosecutor, Nandini Sardesai, late Shree Pramod Navalkar the one who introduced me to pen and paper. Mobin sir, who shaped my skills in journalism and introduced me to parallel journalism. There are many skilled journalists working for spread sheet but there is dearth in these niche sectors. Late Mr. Behram Contractor who fascinated me always and I have My Afternoon publication because of him. Today I am proud to say mine is the only parallel media house in India, whatever I am today is just because of them.

I entered in this hackers’ arena, with no focus, no direction and no knowledge. It was just an excitement to know the other side of hidden crust. As usual they all used to call me n00b, dumb techi, stupid cat.. They were right because I was ignorant about hackers and hacking. Provided cut paste data was an asset to me as a writer and journalist. It was great dilemma, wanted to be here and not known to this area. Laughing at ignorant, making fun of innocent is the trend we all practice. Very few understand your problem and help you learn. Gaurav Singh, (r45c4l) who mentored me and actually introduced to this world and installs me as one of them. This Cat techie can never forget his contribution to her life as a mentor.

It is a day to express respect and gratitude towards mentors and teachers. Celebrated in the memory of sage Vyasa, who is said to have compiled the four vedas, the 18 puranas , the Mahabharata, and the Bhagvat Gita, Guru Poornima is also known as ‘Vyasa Purnima’. Derived from the Sanskrit word ‘gu’ meaning ‘darkness’ and ‘ru’ meaning ‘remover’, ‘guru’ means the remover of darkness, ignorance and evil. According to the Shvetashvatara Upanishad, one must consider no difference between God and one’s guru.

Gurur Brahma, Gurur Vishnu, Gurur Devo. Maheshwara. Guru Sakshat Parabrahmah Tasmai Shree. Guru Veh Namah. Happy Gurupurnima to all my Mentors and Guru

Hacking that saved a Life of a Hacker, hackers ruined it again

Today something surprising happened to me...Thought I should share with you.

I am busy 24/7; I go to college in the morning, then reach NBC and from there running around pin to polls to reach dead line of news papers, till printing. Our day starts at 5am and ends at 1am.

Saturday is my favorite day because this is the only day my collage is closed and for Sunday newspaper edition we have different desk, I just need to monitor the content that’s it.

My building kids are my friends; I generally don’t mix with the elder crowd of society but love to be with kiddos and young friends. With them I feel energetic and innovative, with them the child in me becomes happy and my soul blesses me.

Today at 9am, somebody knocked at my door as if some storm has come, I was very much irritated.

When I opened the door my little friend Shrinivas,( who is in 5th standard and his parents are in IT sector) was at the door. I yelled at him, shree where you banging at door? Don’t you have patience?

He was upset; he just looked at me and asked, “Hey would you mind if I stay here for some time?

I asked him the reason for getting so much upset, he replied saying “I hate my dad, he always calls me RASCAL, that to when I am with my friends. Isn’t bad vidhi (my short name to vaidehi). I took a pause and said yes scolding you in front of friend is very bad, but you must have done something to irritate him. He said oh! It’s fine if he scolds me but why call RASCAL? (Since this name is very close to my heart, so something strike me)

I told him I have a friend who name is r45c4l, shree looked at me as if I am bullying him or probably teasing him. I again repeated my sentence; there was big question mark in his innocent small eyes.

I made him comfortable, and told him the story of r45c4l.

There was a small boy like you, whose name is Gaurav, his mom Calles him Bittu.

Immediately Shree bounced a question at me, “Oh! So his dad also used to call him Rascal? I said NO.

He was little neglected child, could never get chance to express his feelings, and explore what he wanted to do. His father was short tempered and mom used to be busy with her duties and his small sis. He hardly has any friends, he hardly used to speak to anyone, and all the time he used to alone and lost. The days passed, he came to his higher education, he wanted to do literatures but his father forced him for computer or engineering studies. He took admission and failed, because the subject was not of his choice. He failed again and again and returned home. His Dad was damn angry.

He left his studies for some time and stayed back at home. Just to kill his time he used to be online. Chat with friends. That time Face book and Orkut was not introduced. Yahoo messenger was the common and very famous mode of social networking. There used to be a guy from Pakistan, who used to mess with Indian boys, one day he messed with Gaurav and switched off his computer. Twice he did that to scare him.

Shree was amazed with a thought and asked “can we have access to any computer like this?” I said “yes, with permission there are ways to be in your friend’s computer, and without permission also you can be there, but that’s not good.” (I never wanted to condition his mind with ethical and unethical term, or tell him that the one who enters your pc is none other than a Hacker and Hacker is a bad guy)

He said but how? I told him the Hackers; they know how to get in because they are very intelligent to do that. You can operate your own computer but if someone else having control over your computer needs skills. Those skills are hacking skills. And the one who posses these skills are called Hackers.

He promptly questioned to me “bad guys inst it? I just blushed and said NO to him.

In reply I asked him, have you ever seen Krishna, he used to steal butter and curd, just for fun. But if you do the same what will your neighbor aunty do? I think he got the point, but again came back to Rascal.

I told him that Pakistani hacker challenged Gaurav, that’s how he got interest learning ABCD of computers..His parents were very happy when he told them about going back to studies. He perused his studies in computer applications and that’s how he started learning thing. He was book worm, reading literature and old village music is his passion, he also read many book on computer related. His life took U turn. He was far away from his mom and dad. He was living his independent life and gained some confidence. He got a good girl friend; with her he could share everything.

After some time his friend got married and went to her husband (I never wanted to use word like break off or any such disheartening thing, I know he was feeling the pain of being separated from a friend)

Then again Bittu got sad and lost interest in everything, he was missing her all the time. To overcome the pain he made some outside friends and with him he became bad boy, left his studies, he became arrogant and cranky. But later on he realized his mistake and tried becoming a good boy. He learned hacking and wanted to do something for our country. That’s how he changed completely. He started defeating his rival, he became more powerful, his rivals got irritated and pissed at him, and they said this guy is a RASCAL. That’s how Gaurav got another name RASCAL, and he uses to write it r45c4l. (He asked me why 4? I said that’s hacker’s language, he immediately asked me how to write shree? I told him shr33, if you want to make it more complicated then5#r33. He was amazed, because he learned new language. That’s how I told him the story of r45cal and how he became computer hero by defeating all his weaknesses.

(Yes the girl gave him heart and took away his life, he went in drugs and started injecting them in his body on his own, and this pain was less than what he was going through. He gave up home, he gave up his life, he lost confidence, parents were panic, by the time they realized about the injustice done to this kid, it was too late to rectify, and there was no option than repenting. Finally his mother got him home and said you do whatever we won’t stop you but do it here; at least I can see you. Those days he got back to computers with drugs’ and pin. Started learning hacking skills, and got in full time hacking. Through this passion he wanted to live life and asked his parents to admit him at rehab centre where he can come of it. He was put in under medication, his mothers concern for him and his online community members installed life in him. He recovered and came back home, that’s how his journey of HMG and ICW started.

This entire story I told Shree with using very simple words and which will not introduce him to the cruel world. Half of the time we are conditioned by others and stop experimenting or we adopt bad habits to overcome the weakness. While dealing with kids that to when you introduce them from known to unknown subject you need to be very mush attentive. Life of rascal of full of challenges, yet he was very humble and helpful person. After some time a girl came to his life, the meaning of her name was happiness but she left him for another man making his life miserable. Unfortunately she was none other than a sister of a Hacker, who wanted to get out of her marriage because she was in love with someone whom his family never liked, that’s how her brother the friend of r45c4l introduced him to her, and asked him to make her understand. During this period she fell in love with r45c4l, and without caring for her past he accepted her too. Convincing parents to settle life with this type of girls is difficult. But he managed to do so, she stayed at his house in Delhi, and one fine morning ran away with one builder, and caught by police in financial scam. Once again his life was at pain. Fighting all odds and even he got opportunities in life, and the passion for cyber world he never went in drugs that bad. But damaged himself again)

he had to leave his government job and joined private firm in Bangalore, there he got very good roommates, that was his family away from family. I can say they gave new definition to his life. He became responsible earning member of family by supporting parents in whichever way it’s possible. The only thing he did wrong was he abused himself by neglecting his health, eating tobacco and heavy smoking. Those days I was doing research on inj3ct0s, and my search was on, I Google about him, the info was not sufficient enough to reach him, some told me he is in Japan, some said in Germany. One day I wrote something about inj3ct0rs on my blog, my flight was delayed for two hours I was online, one inj3ct0r came and ridiculed me, asked for my contact number, I gave him. After five minutes I got call from some unknown number, and the person said hello! Vaidehi this is r45c4l here! I was numbed couldn’t believe my ears. Then after we spoke for 2 hrs till I board in flight. He told me his reservations and I explained him my plight. During conversation he spoke just few sentences and all the time it’s me who was talking to him nonstop. That who my search ended there, I seek his appointment. He asked me to meet him Bangalore, finally we met. A guy with typical attitude, red brown teeth, dirty nails, and looking at him I was sure he has not taken bath from ages. Let me confess here, my research took back seat and the human in me was strongly indicated me that he needs help. He needs to be taken care or understood or else he will be ruined. With great difficulty I got to know his pain and regrets towards life. He was at the verge of waiting for his death; he was pulling his life with unsaid pain and lots of depression. I decide to save that r45c4l in him to save Gaurav singh.

I frequently traveled Bangalore, now I call him Nanu because he takes care of me like child, that time I was parenting him. He was like a lost kid with so many questions. So many tragedies and unsolved puzzles and only answer was, addictions. Anyways, I was in regular tough with him, he was my search engine of any cyber happenings. In that period I became his support system and he become my mentor in this new school of cyber space.

That’s how again he tried on his own to come out of all addictions, he started living clean, second time when I met he, he was groomed, clean and his way of looking at life changed. He is an intellect, his craving for learning more and becoming independent was forcing him to come out of job and do something of his own, I am a business woman too, his ideas match with me and I extended financial support to him, third time when I met him as the director of Kaizen, I couldn’t believe, he was confident, restored and gave up 90% of his weaknesses. A young man holding big dreams shifted to Mumbai and trying his level best to get his foot hold in this business. Look at the irony, life again showed the cruel face of his fellow hacker friends, they attacked his sanctity by hacking his server leaving question mark on his abilities. He was lost, probably never thought he will be ruined by his own community. Javed hacker, chota, doper, me now and now Micr0 we all stood by him and encouraged him saying, this is just a beginning, and attackers were not enemy. They are your peers; take it positive and strengthen your skills, doing job and taking salary at the month requires nothing, but slogging your ass off for 24/7 to create space for you, is challenge, the servers were frequently attacked, he was criticized, provoked, tampered by many forces. It’s sad to say hacking gave him one new life and his fellow hackers tried taking another new life. No matter you try your best to finish him, till the time we all there you won’t finish him that’s my promise, but just a request.if you can’t help some no issues at least don’t harm them. Its cruelty to Mother Nature)

Oh! let me come back to Shree, he was very much impressed, and the word “rascal” gave him new meaning, he asked me where is this Rascal? Can we see him? I promised him one day he will be mentored by Rascal. He just giggled and asked, hey Vidhi can I hack my dad’s lappi? I was shocked and surprised. Asked him why? He said noting mush he irritates me, I just want to cause him inconvenience. My heart started beating, OH MY GOD, look at the seed of hacker in his brain, just to cause inconvenience and show his disagreement he wants to hack his father.

I asked him, if you keep on causing damage to your father will he ever be able to love him? He himself said “No.

I asked him how about you learning to protect your dad’s lappi, your mom’s email and your face book account? I could see spark in his eye and he was convinced for construction and winning the heart, that disturbing and causing inconvenience, to his loved once.

He whispered, can I be like rascal?

In reply I said “you must, …… and ‘must be rascal”.

He wanted to extend the conversation about these cyber heroes. His existence on cyber space, his security, securing country and much more. ..

While leaving he asked me, can I share this story of a RASCAL with my friends, I nod my head saying yes..

He was very much excited, I am unable express but he was just a bundle of happiness..

To break the silence, I asked him shree, do you know bond? He said yes “James Bond”

I said Nah! Bond the cyber hero,

He asked me if there is Bond and he is cyber hero then why can’t I see him.

I just replied him, you can, but to see that bond you need to come on line.

He asked me he is also a savior, and hero like my bond?

I said yes he is Cyber hero and secures our country’s cyber space.

He left my house with so much to share with his friends, but for some time I was very much quite and ambience at my house was silent.

I said to myself,

Aah! When all the heroes are discussed to set moral parameters why this heroes are missed out?

Today I started introducing them,

One day they will be talked about, with same respect, regard and proud.

It’s you all need to care for the dignity of your fellow being.

Kaizen, me and my dream project

The very first question people ask us is “What is the meaning of Kaizen ?” .

Well when we were planning to start the organization, we had several issues in our mind. Kaizen is a upcoming Information Security Company, which we are going to start with like minded people who are dedicated and passionate and having a vast amount of experience in the Info-Sec domain, and who understands the importance and necessity of Info-Sec in the present world scenario.

Kaizen is actually a Japanese word, Kaizen is a philosophy or you can say its a practice that focus upon continuous improvement of processes in manufacturing, engineering, supporting business process, and management. It has been applied in a lot of fields from healthcare to physiotherapy, from life-coaching to banking and government and many other industries.

One of the most important reason behind starting Kaizen is that we are very disappointed by looking at the way most Info-Sec consulting companies are providing services and solutions to Corporate, government organizations and various other small - big organizations. Most of the time the people are not at all aware of the actual security threats and mind sets of cyber criminals who are dedicated to break in to your system and networks.

We have a very dedicated and highly experienced team and we have many ideas and proposals to offer which none of the security companies are offering. We are going to give the best solution and security practice.
Another most important reason behind starting up this company is providing every possible help to our government agencies and bureaus to fight against these cyber criminals and highly sophisticated cyber terrorists who are a big threat to the security of our country.

Kaizen and Hacker5 were a dream project and it was a ambitious project too with just one thing in the mind and it was “providing a platform to the fresher’s and young talent hackers who are doing extremely good in “Hacking (in its real sence) “ but they were getting misguided or not getting an opportunity to make a recognization for themselves in the industry. Infosec is a very rigid domain and moreover the concept is very new here in India, most of the people are not at all familiar with what actually it is all about. Another big problem is that when these young guys talk about making a career in infosec, parents and relatives don’t really understand what actually it is all about and because of the ignorance and the way term “hacking or hackers” is abused by media, people think that this is something illegal or something related to criminal activities.

We started Hacker5 with just one aim, to provide a global platform to all these young and very talented people to contribute and show there work so that it can reach to various organizations, companies, security professionals and all the places where there work can be recognized and appreciated. All this would not have been possible without the support and encouragements of all our friends and well-wishers and those who believed in our dreams. The most important names I would like to mention is Vaidehi Sachin and NBC pvt ltd. The concept of Hacker5 is the brain child of Vaidehi and she started Hacker5 with the same reason and purpose for which we are coming up with Kaizen. When she came to know about Kaizen, she immediately showed her willingness to carry on the Kaizen project and gave us every possible help and support. The entire NBC team supported us in every possible way. They very well understand the value and importance of securing the data and the valuable customer information from any unauthorized person.

We can create this awareness and make people understand the importance of infosec not just by providing good service to them but also by making the common people capable enough to secure there assets, and this can be achieved by giving proper training to them. With this aim the hacker5 and Kaizen team is going to provide seminars and workshops at the educational as well as corporate level with the help of a very dedicated and talented team. The aim is to create awareness as well as help those who want to make a career in infosec. We will be working as well as providing solutions to various government and other law enforcement agencies too.

For the hackers by the hacker